You are hired to be the CEO of Ubisoft. What's your plan to get them back on their feet?

[ZedClampet]

IPs release every other year? For instance, one year it's AC and Far Cry, and the next year it's Watch Dogs and Ghost Recon. Or maybe some of these need to go away? What about The Division and The Crew, put them on the every other year schedule? Anno?

What about old IPs that they aren't doing anything with, like Might and Magic and The Settlers?

Where do new IPs come into play and what type of games should these be? Should they take big chances and make something completely out of the AAA wheelhouse?

What else needs to be done? General development philosophy?

And what do they do about @Pifanjr ? Dude's a problem.

 

[Colif]

Make games that people want to play. Ask them, don't assume you know what they want. Expand the range of people you ask beyond those who always tell you its going fine. Toxic positivity can be a trap.

Don't release a new The Crew every 2 years and then force players to swap, by making the server offline for the previous one. Maybe some of the players like the old game more... or their PC can't run the new one and you force them to stop. I had a friend in this situation...

Why treat your IP so badly, treat them better... they what got you here. Instead of a new game, how about expansions... I guess those only exist in MMO now - Instead we sell everyone every item individually. Slow down release process and make the games memorable. Expand the in game world instead of making a new one. Spend more time making game great and less time trying to make people use the in game shop to get ahead.

Games should last about 5 years before the next. Support one instead of making 5 in the same time that are all mid tier. Be like Rockstar and release a new game in series every 10 years ago, instead of games that use the same mechanics every 3 years. It gets tiring and doesn't attract players to come back again. You don't want reviewers saying they don't need to play your new game after 5 hours as they played the game before... Need change. Formulas get stale.

Could be they have too many IP and should sell some to allow others to make them. Would sure help their 2.61billion euro debt they have now.

 

[Pifanjr]

And what do they do about @Pifanjr ? Dude's a problem.

Apparently they hire me as their CEO.

I'd just sell the entire thing, get a nice golden handshake and hire all of the developers that want to leave for my own game studio, then make some nice new IPs.

 

[Colif]

Apparently they hire me as their CEO.

I'd just sell the entire thing, get a nice golden handshake and hire all of the developers that want to leave for my own game studio, then make some nice new IPs.

Need to find someone who wants to buy it... They already trying to do that now. Hardly a new idea. Sure, the guys running it think they can sell it and keep running it... They had 20 years to get it right, looking at stock prices, their prime days were in the past. Time to let new people have a go. And by that I don't mean "fill production team up with new people who have never made a game before".

So maybe you could get a buyer if you wanted nothing to do with it after. Current owners probably would have too.

 

[ZedClampet]

Make games that people want to play. Ask them, don't assume you know what they want. Expand the range of people you ask beyond those who always tell you its going fine. Toxic positivity can be a trap.

Don't release a new The Crew every 2 years and then force players to swap, by making the server offline for the previous one. Maybe some of the players like the old game more... or their PC can't run the new one and you force them to stop. I had a friend in this situation...

Why treat your IP so badly, treat them better... they what got you here. Instead of a new game, how about expansions... I guess those only exist in MMO now - Instead we sell everyone every item individually. Slow down release process and make the games memorable. Expand the in game world instead of making a new one. Spend more time making game great and less time trying to make people use the in game shop to get ahead.

Games should last about 5 years before the next. Support one instead of making 5 in the same time that are all mid tier. Be like Rockstar and release a new game in series every 10 years ago, instead of games that use the same mechanics every 3 years. It gets tiring and doesn't attract players to come back again. You don't want reviewers saying they don't need to play your new game after 5 hours as they played the game before... Need change. Formulas get stale.

Could be they have too many IP and should sell some to allow others to make them. Would sure help their 2.61billion euro debt they have now.

The only slight hitch to your idea is that you are going to have to lay off at least 10,000 workers because they are set up with enough workers that they can spend 5 years developing a game and still release them every year. They have a massive amount of developers, although they've let a few go recently. They are still at around 20k. They can work on a lot of games at the same time. Unfortunately, they have been very inefficient lately.

Apparently they hire me as their CEO.

I'd just sell the entire thing, get a nice golden handshake and hire all of the developers that want to leave for my own game studio, then make some nice new IPs.

That would work for you. Not sure anyone would follow Yves to a new studio. He'd probably have to hire all new people.

 

[ZedClampet]

So maybe you could get a buyer if you wanted nothing to do with it after. Current owners probably would have too.

Well he's the new CEO, not the one that got them in the mess they are in. Yves, the old CEO, could have already sold the company to Tencent if he weren't demanding to stay in charge, but it would be different if they had just gotten rid of him and hired a brilliant up-and-comer like @Pifanjr

 

[February's Ghost]

If they hired me they obviously don't want to get back on their feet. I'm pretty sure I would be the scapegoat that ultimately takes the fall for some egregious business scandal that failed miserably.

Anyway, if wishes were ponies I'd

immediately fire the people who are specifically in charge of maximizing profits. This would include the penny pinchers looking to lower costs by removing employee comforts and the like. The people who research the value of adding popular gaming trends or maximizing MTX. Nothing gets added to the game just because it would make more money. I wouldn't cancel MTX altogether, but it would have to change.

I would hire one extremely talented person to convince current investors of this strategy and/or find new investors who share the goals of good games over profits.

I'd immediately make a proper Sands of Time remake followed up by a new entry in the Prince of Persia series. Maybe remakes of Warrior Within and Two Thrones if Sands of Time does well. I would do more spin-offs of Ubi greats. Blood Dragon and Far Cry Primal type stuff. I'd take The Division 2 engine and make a horror shooter. Hopefully a new multi-game IP.

I'm pretty sure the board would have fired me the moment I went in a non-profit motivated direction, but if I made it past that I'd probably be fired because I really have no clue about running a business and game development. I should have never even applied for the position and they REALLY shouldn't have hired me in the first place.

C'mon man, wishes aren't ponies.

 

[DXCHASE]

Limit their game's pricing to 50 bucks and no more (def. not 70+) . Reduce the price of ubisoft+ by at least 5 dollars or a dollar or 2 less than xboxs gamepass. Completely restructure the organization (hire all new managers/leads/developers/qa etc.) And all the other stuff people are listing about listening to fans, making games they want etc. etc.

Idk what else but Ubisoft needs to get its IPs in order too. Id like to see more Splinter Cells or at least remasters of them and just give us good entries in Ghost Recon and The Division or sell them off idk, somethin because The Division 2 got boring quick and Breakpoint was bad (to me anyways)

If they hired me they obviously don't want to get back on their feet. I'm pretty sure I would be the scapegoat that ultimately takes the fall for some egregious business scandal that failed miserably.

I feel this lol.

 

[BeardyHat]

Focus on renewing Might & Magic as a series.

New Might & Magic games in a retro style, but with modern sensibilities and a new Heroes of Might & Magic (scrap the renaming Might & Magic Heroes).

Reimagine Tom Clancy games as closely to how they were initially conceived, making them into more tactical military stuff with more real world style scenarios.

Under my leadership, within a year we're sure to completely fail by year end, appealing only to older PC Gamers like myself. It's foolproof.

 

[February's Ghost]

Reimagine Tom Clancy games as closely to how they were initially conceived, making them into more tactical military stuff with more real world style scenarios.

Dammit, how did I forget a new Splinter Cell game?

Under my leadership, within a year we're sure to completely fail by year end, appealing only to older PC Gamers like myself. It's foolproof.

Don't knock the power of old school. Considering the number of old school style indie games there's a market for it. They're just making the games they want to play so there's a great chance they'll buy the games that are similar.

 

[ZedClampet]

Focus on renewing Might & Magic as a series.

You're hired!

Don't knock the power of old school. Considering the number of old school style indie games there's a market for it. They're just making the games they want to play so there's a great chance they'll buy the games that are similar.

Agreed. Some of these old school cRPGs are selling really well. Imagine if they had Ubisoft behind them.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm not sure AC Shadows is doing as badly as people think. On Steam it already has more reviews than AC Mirage, and it's been hanging in at over 50k concurrent for awhile now. That's not great, I guess, but I wonder what other AC games had as top concurrent counts.

 

[BeardyHat]

I'm not sure AC Shadows is doing as badly as people think. On Steam it already has more reviews than AC Mirage, and it's been hanging in at over 50k concurrent for awhile now. That's not great, I guess, but I wonder what other AC games had as top concurrent counts.

I wouldn't be shocked if it was just fine. The internet likes to latch on to certain narratives and then propagate them as truth.

Case in point: Reflecting on my recent boredom with RDR2 and Cyberpunk, I realized the open world I'd had the most fun with in the last two years or so had been Starfield. Could have sworn it was deemed terrible...

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm not sure AC Shadows is doing as badly as people think. On Steam it already has more reviews than AC Mirage, and it's been hanging in at over 50k concurrent for awhile now. That's not great, I guess, but I wonder what other AC games had as top concurrent counts.

It's not doing badly at all. This article pointed out it was doing pretty well and since it was written it has almost surpassed the peak concurrent players of Odyssey as well.

After Ubi came crawlin' back to Steam, Assassin's Creed Shadows blasts past a million players in under 24 hours and has already smashed Valhalla's player record

Hana wa sakuragi, hito wa bushi.

www.pcgamer.com

It's currently the number 2 top seller on Steam and has a 81% positive rating, with a lot of the negative reviews seemingly complaining about Ubisoft Connect messing up, performance issues and the existence of microtransactions. It seems that if you can get the game to run well and you can ignore the microtransactions it's pretty good even if the story is disappointing.

 

[Colif]

See what figures it has by tomorrow

https://steamdb.info/app/3159330/charts/

Console players could be about double that. Figures not easy to get.

1. it is going up each day since Release. Tomorrow will show how many are playing on Steam 1st weekend.
2. Guesstimated sales on PC and Console is about 700k copies so far. Ubisoft advertised 1 million players but how many got it for free or on subscription.

Ubisoft don't want users ignoring the shop as its likely to be biggest source of revenue out of game.

I realized the open world I'd had the most fun with in the last two years or so had been Starfield. Could have sworn it was deemed terrible...

We all enjoy different things. I rarely listen to what other people think about the things I like to play/listen to/spend money on. I don't go with the crowd.,.. more likely running other way

 

[ZedClampet]

Ubisoft has announced they now have 2 million players of Shadows. I refuse to believe that a significant portion of those are on Ubi Plus. That's the worst subscription service out there. I'm assuming that it's doing very well on console.

 

[Frindis]

The first thing I would do is making a Far Cry game with a Wild West setting.

Pitch: The main character would be a cattle drive worker that stumbles into some trouble witnessing a murder and getting accused for it by a corrupt sheriff with family ties to the state governor.

Your only choice is to escape, change your name and looks and you soon find yourself working at cattle ranch while trying to stay away from trouble. Obviously trouble has a way to find you...

Bada bing bada boom, the game will be a smashing hit and I'll use that money to fund a new Splinter Cell game.

 

[Colif]

Ubisoft has announced they now have 2 million players of Shadows. I refuse to believe that a significant portion of those are on Ubi Plus. That's the worst subscription service out there. I'm assuming that it's doing very well on console.

Considering its been reported that Ubisoft are trying to stop Steam showing concurrent user numbers, have to wonder why that is. If game is so popular, why are you hiding figures?

Why are you talking about players and not copies bought? What are you trying to hide

How many got it for free or payed less on subscription services and since you can subscribe to Ubisoft for one month, how much are they making? How much cooking of the books to make shareholders happy?

Copies sold is the metric used to show success. Not how many people played it once. Next they pre load it on peoples consoles and show how many downloaded the files. Reminds me of the free U2 album everyone on Apple music got whether they want it or not.

 

[ZedClampet]

Considering its been reported that Ubisoft are trying to stop Steam showing concurrent user numbers, have to wonder why that is. If game is so popular, why are you hiding figures?

Why are you talking about players and not copies bought? What are you trying to hide

How many got it for free or payed less on subscription services and since you can subscribe to Ubisoft for one month, how much are they making? How much cooking of the books to make shareholders happy?

Copies sold is the metric used to show success. Not how many people played it once. Next they pre load it on peoples consoles and show how many downloaded the files. Reminds me of the free U2 album everyone on Apple music got whether they want it or not.

It has not been reported that Ubisoft are trying to stop concurrents showing. That's a reddit rumor that just spread around. Ubisoft has gone so far as to quote those numbers to show how good they are doing. They are getting better concurrent numbers than they've had in almost 10 years. So it may not be impressing some people, but they are good numbers.

As for subscription services, it is only available on Uplus, which is the least used sub service by far. Maybe a bunch of people signed up for one month (two months since they likely won't finish before April), but I doubt the number is very significant, and in any event they can be considered copies sold on discount if these people weren't members before.

The ugly truth for sadists who relish in the misery of others is that Shadows is a success.

 

[Colif]

The ugly truth for sadists who relish in the misery of others is that Shadows is a success.

its too early to tell, give it a few weeks

It doesn't really bother me one way or the other.

 

[Pifanjr]

As for subscription services, it is only available on Uplus, which is the least used sub service by far. Maybe a bunch of people signed up for one month (two months since they likely won't finish before April), but I doubt the number is very significant, and in any event they can be considered copies sold on discount if these people weren't members before.

If they manage to keep new subscriptions for three months they actually make a profit off of it, as Steam takes a 30% cut off of the $70 it costs there.