Ubisoft Posts Laundry List of Assassin's Creed Unity Issues

[Gatlank]

Don't sell the game until it's finished.

Ubisoft - But all that sweet, sweet money! All alone inside the walking wallets pockets.

 

[Rellik San]

Here's the thing, a 2 year dev cycle, smaller team, means people won't suffer AC burnout, would allow for better optimisation and an all round better player experience, rotate it with a different regular release game... it's not rocket science.

Especially as Ubisoft will be competing with itself with 2 action games... that doesn't make any sense from a market standpoint.

 

[Something Amyss]

Whelp... at least they seem to working on fixing this

I'm not sure that's a positive. They're doing what they at bare minimum should be required to.

In PC issues:

Can't launch ACU.exe - Working on it.

People literally can't play the game they've purchased... One would think that would be a massively high priority.

No, a massively high priority would be if Uplay didn't work. I'm pretty sure this is their ideal status: we give them money, end of sentence.

Here's the thing, a 2 year dev cycle, smaller team, means people won't suffer AC burnout, would allow for better optimisation and an all round better player experience, rotate it with a different regular release game... it's not rocket science.

Especially as Ubisoft will be competing with itself with 2 action games... that doesn't make any sense from a market standpoint.

Ummmm...These are already supposed to be multi-year cycle games with multiple teams.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Whelp... at least they seem to working on fixing this

I'm not sure that's a positive. They're doing what they at bare minimum should be required to.

In PC issues:

Can't launch ACU.exe - Working on it.

People literally can't play the game they've purchased... One would think that would be a massively high priority.

No, a massively high priority would be if Uplay didn't work. I'm pretty sure this is their ideal status: we give them money, end of sentence.

Here's the thing, a 2 year dev cycle, smaller team, means people won't suffer AC burnout, would allow for better optimisation and an all round better player experience, rotate it with a different regular release game... it's not rocket science.

Especially as Ubisoft will be competing with itself with 2 action games... that doesn't make any sense from a market standpoint.

Ummmm...These are already supposed to be multi-year cycle games with multiple teams.

For once, I have to agree with you, Amaranth. Praise for Ubi should be saved for when they do something exceptionally positive, not for doing the minimum requirements of their job - let alone doing it so very late. Adequacy is not praiseworthy, and Ubisoft's promises to fix their mess is adequacy at best.

I look forwards to the day when a 3-year dev cycle becomes the norm for companies like Ubisoft. As it is, these 1 and 2 year cycles are creating too many subpar and / or buggy experiences in the AAA market that's killing customer faith in several big-name publishers.

 

[cojo965]

Let's watch some of the things that need fixing all together now yay.


They have a lot of work ahead of them that they probably won't do.

That was funny, but fucking appalling.

 

[Strazdas]

while its nice for them to finally admit problems exist, in reality there are far more problems than they list and the ones they fixed seems to be "microtrasactions first" oriented. so they are just having a laugh.

Biggest problem is though that problems like that should not even allow the game to pass into Beta stage, let alone get into the launch. They literally launched a broken game. no amount of fixing now will revert that.

in the list:

Uplay is experiencing intermittent connection issues WORKING ON IT

yeah, you have been working on it for how many years now?

I can think of a pretty good work around:

Don't buy the game until it's finished.

So, then, one should never buy Ubisoft?

I'm getting worried because I'm getting FC4 tuesday, but afaik it's running on the same engine as the last one so there shouldn't be much of a problem. I don't give a toss about Uplay so I can play it offline if necessary. Not like I could platinum it anyway. THANKS...for the multiplayer trophies.

Uhm, if your offline you CANNOT play with Uplay. thats what Always-online-DRM mean - you have to always be online.

No, a massively high priority would be if Uplay didn't work. I'm pretty sure this is their ideal status: we give them money, end of sentence.

If you notice in the list there is alsoa Uplay servers not working correctly problem, also with "working on it" tag.

 

[Brian Tams]

If this is Unity's launch, just imagine how much of a trainwreck Far Cry 4 is going to be next week!

*pulls up chair, pops popcorn*

Dis gonna be good.

 

[SupahEwok]

Whelp... at least they seem to working on fixing this

But damn, someone's gotta be feeling the heat for letting that many bugs and crap slip out from beta to gold

Let me tell you something interesting.

See, in the world of retail, deals are made to have X units of product by Y date. Contracts are made with this in mind. Breaking that contract can have consequences.

Now, what time of the year is it? Mid-November. What's just around the corner? Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas. In these next two months retailers make around 50-60% of their profit FOR THE WHOLE YEAR.

Pushing back a release date in March? Not the biggest of deals. Mess around with dates in November/December, when retailers are lining up their sales and displays to maximize their profits? BIG FUCKING DEAL.

Although a lot of people on this site probably buy through digital means, digital distribution still has a big upspike in these months.

In short, Ubisoft CANNOT delay a game at this point in the year. If they did, there would be more than a little heat, heads would roll.

I'm not making up excuses for them though. Ubisoft insists on annual releases by implementing strict 2 year dev cycles(? Not sure, but that would be my guess) with multiple dev teams, all the while pushing for greater graphical fidelity and new game play systems. Out of those 3 options, you can only realistically pick 2 at any one time. Shooting for all 3 is simply asking for a mess of this sort.

To sum up, Ubisoft knew exactly what state the game was in when they chose to release it. They just had other priorities, and they let the consumer pay for their bad decisions. This is why gamers should not preorder in this day and age. We cannot trust AAA publishers.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I can think of a pretty good work around:

Don't buy the game until it's finished.

So don't buy from anyone but Nintendo for the first month or so of a game's life? Way ahead of ya.

If this is Unity's launch, just imagine how much of a trainwreck Far Cry 4 is going to be next week!

*pulls up chair, pops popcorn*

Dis gonna be good.

I wouldn't bet money either way, but usually a Far Cry is the only good, stable release, especially for an Ubi title on PC. Finish your popcorn you just made while watching this trainwreck continue. Then toss another bag in the microwave if they drop the ball again. I got an bag ready for next time, too, just in case.

To sum up, Ubisoft knew exactly what state the game was in when they chose to release it. They just had other priorities, and they let the consumer pay for their bad decisions. This is why gamers should not preorder in this day and age. We cannot trust AAA publishers.

People of the world, read this here piece of wisdom and follow it well, or forever be a pawn for puppet masters hidden behind their mountains of cash.

OT: I love how fixing the frame rate is single player might be solved by disconnecting from the network. In fact, I watched some videos online of guys that said it works, yesterday. Coding or fluke, Ubi's old always online crap from a few years seems to still be haunting them. How do you screw up that bad?

 

[Robert Kalmar]

In PC issues:

Can't launch ACU.exe - Working on it.

People literally can't play the game they've purchased... One would think that would be a massively high priority.

UbiSoft + PC = high priority? is this... some kind of a paradox? I don't think this will be fixed any time soon...

 

[BeerTent]

Let's watch some of the things that need fixing all together now yay.

[...]

They have a lot of work ahead of them that they probably won't do.

Falling through the ground seems to be really common. You'd think that this is something that playtesters would pi-

Oooh. I get it. That's how it was released in this state. There are none.

I can think of a pretty good work around:

Don't buy the game until it's finished.

So, then, one should never buy Ubisoft?

There's this weird thing, called sticking to your guns that nobody here seems to understand. Jim poked at it, Yahzee poked at it. The problem isn't the companies. Ubi's the instigator in this scenario, yes, the problem is the consumer for not giving a fuck, and continuing to buy and preorder and the like. I've stopped buying EA's games, and Ubi's games, I just haven't given a fuck about. They're boring to me. Every single one is the same fucking thing.

Right now is a perfect time. All AC players should be coming out, and saying, verbatim, the following to grab their attention.

"Assassin's Creed Unity was clearly not tested, and launched in a nearly unplayable state. We've seen a growing trend with your company, as well as numerous others. As a result, we do not know the state that Far Cry 4 will be launched, or any other games that UbiSoft is launching. Therefore, we will no longer purchase any games published by this company, until we have good faith that the game is in a playable state."

The problem, is that gamers just won't do that. We'll just roll over and groan and hand out their wallet. And until they turn around and actually take action, we're going to see this over and over. It's kind of fucking pathetic, and if you ask me, prettymuch strips people's right to complain.

 

[white_wolf]

AC3 was just as crazy, just another demonstration of why they need to stop yearly releases.

 

[Something Amyss]

If you notice in the list there is alsoa Uplay servers not working correctly problem, also with "working on it" tag.

Yes, which is not the same as uPlay itself not functioning, which kind of makes it irrelevant.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Let's watch some of the things that need fixing all together now yay.

[...]

They have a lot of work ahead of them that they probably won't do.

Falling through the ground seems to be really common. You'd think that this is something that playtesters would pi-

Oooh. I get it. That's how it was released in this state. There are none.

I can think of a pretty good work around:

Don't buy the game until it's finished.

So, then, one should never buy Ubisoft?

There's this weird thing, called sticking to your guns that nobody here seems to understand. Jim poked at it, Yahzee poked at it. The problem isn't the companies. Ubi's the instigator in this scenario, yes, the problem is the consumer for not giving a fuck, and continuing to buy and preorder and the like. I've stopped buying EA's games, and Ubi's games, I just haven't given a fuck about. They're boring to me. Every single one is the same fucking thing.

Right now is a perfect time. All AC players should be coming out, and saying, verbatim, the following to grab their attention.

"Assassin's Creed Unity was clearly not tested, and launched in a nearly unplayable state. We've seen a growing trend with your company, as well as numerous others. As a result, we do not know the state that Far Cry 4 will be launched, or any other games that UbiSoft is launching. Therefore, we will no longer purchase any games published by this company, until we have good faith that the game is in a playable state."

The problem, is that gamers just won't do that. We'll just roll over and groan and hand out their wallet. And until they turn around and actually take action, we're going to see this over and over. It's kind of fucking pathetic, and if you ask me, prettymuch strips people's right to complain.

This isn't on the testers and there had to be some because I shudder at what the game would be like if there weren't. No, this goes on the devs that ignore the testers and write them off as being picky (not a bad thing) and it goes on the corporate overlords who just want to see that bottom line so badly that they will force games out in broken states.

 

[Dragonbums]

Whelp... at least they seem to working on fixing this

But damn, someone's gotta be feeling the heat for letting that many bugs and crap slip out from beta to gold

What heat? They damn well knew this game wasn't ready. Half of that crap shouldn't even gone past 3 hours of playtesting. They just wanted them on shelves before holiday season.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Starting to see why most publishers are doing highly controlled environment demos and embargoing reviews until after launch. These games are being launched in unfinished, broken states.

No kidding, first we had Battlefield 4's battlelog of issues (which pretty much doubled before the bugs were (mostly) fixed)
And now Ubisoft have an official bug tracker list. I really hope this doesn't become a 'thing'. Hardline is pretty much doomed to fail because of the bug mess, I wonder how the next Assassins Creed will be affected?

 

[BeerTent]

[...]

This isn't on the testers and there had to be some because I shudder at what the game would be like if there weren't. No, this goes on the devs that ignore the testers and write them off as being picky (not a bad thing) and it goes on the corporate overlords who just want to see that bottom line so badly that they will force games out in broken states.

I see what you're saying, but here's the problem.

You're right, they will only do what makes them money. And in the state there is in the industry, it's likely they simply do not have the time to repair what the testers have stated. "We still have collision issues." - "Well, deadline's in a week, is it game-breaking?" - "Uuhhh~ I can still play the game?"

The issue is that first part. Publishers will do what makes them money. Plain and simple. That's why we have WoW Clones, billions of Halo and Half-Life rips. So many WW2 games because they were 'in.' It's why we have "dead" Genre's as well. But the thing is that they listen to us, but they listen to sales more.

We've taught them that it's alright to release a buggy game. We've taught them that a press release will soothe our wounds, and we've pretty much said, "Hey, this isn't so bad. I'll still buy your game if it's a stale bug-ridden trainwreck. Fuck, I'll just continue to buy more of your products."

That, right there, is the cause of our problem. You need to realize that you have a choice. You can NOT buy that game until you know it's in a better state. That is an option for you, you know. You can reach out to these publishers, and say, "Hey, I'm not buying your stale bug-ridden trainwreck. Your stale bug-ridden trainwreck has ruined my trust and any chance of me buying your content." This is an option, if we can get enough to do it.

But people are gonna keep buyin' it. And eatin' it up. Because. "pplz b-dum"

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

What heat? They damn well knew this game wasn't ready. Half of that crap shouldn't even gone past 3 hours of playtesting. They just wanted them on shelves before holiday season.

That's another obsession that needs to stop: this constant insistence on cramming everything into the holiday rush. It's kind of fascinating how gaming companies have turned their own franchises into disposable products; something you buy, play once, and then sell it because you'll never play it again. And of course, the kinks in the armor are starting to show

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

What I don't get is why they didn't just release Rogue as this year's Assassin's Creed and release Unity next year. I don't mean delaying Unity, either, I mean actually just developing it with a 2015 release in mind.

Did we really need two titles in one year? Rogue is likely to sell really poorly now, too.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Half of the problem is that publishers, by and large, have embraced the "hype formula": Increase game budget, increase advertising, increase sales. Quality and even basic playability be damned; they'll buy it if the screenshots look pretty enough.

The other half of the problem is that gamers have also embraced the "hype formula".