Ubisoft Cancels Six Games, Slashes Guidance in Restructuring (msn.com) 23
Ubisoft is canceling game projects, shutting down studios and cutting its guidance as the Assassin's Creed maker restructures its business into five units. From a report: The French gaming firm expects earnings before interest and tax to be a loss of $1.2 billion the fiscal year 2025-2026 as a result of the restructuring, driven by a one-off writedown of about $761 million, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Ubisoft also expects net bookings of around $1.76 billion for the year, with a $386 million gross margin reduction compared to previous guidance, it said. Six games, including a remake of Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, have been discontinued and seven other unidentified games are delayed, the company said. The measures are part of a broader plan to streamline operations, including closing studios in Stockholm and Halifax, Canada. Ubisoft said it will have cut at least $117 million in fixed costs compared to the latest financial year by March, a year ahead of target, and has set a goal to slash an additional $234 million over the next two years.
Ubisoft also expects net bookings of around $1.76 billion for the year, with a $386 million gross margin reduction compared to previous guidance, it said. Six games, including a remake of Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, have been discontinued and seven other unidentified games are delayed, the company said. The measures are part of a broader plan to streamline operations, including closing studios in Stockholm and Halifax, Canada. Ubisoft said it will have cut at least $117 million in fixed costs compared to the latest financial year by March, a year ahead of target, and has set a goal to slash an additional $234 million over the next two years.
So this means no Rocksmith 4? (Score:2)
Good.
Rocksmith 2014 is the only game they've published that didn't suck, and it still stank like Ubisoft. At least it doesn't require uPlay nonsense.
Re: So this means no Rocksmith 4? (Score:2)
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That's "Rocksmith +" which is a different product.
They still sell the old RS2014, but it doesn't come with any songs, as they only had licenses to sell songs for 10 years.
They still sell some of the newer DLC. The last DLC (Opeth, fuck yeah!) was released in 2020, so that will likely be available until May 2030. Of course, there is little reason to bother with official DLC for RS2014, as there is a mountain of unofficial goodies over on Customsforge [customsforge.com].
Really, the only good thing about Rocksmith+ is that it
Medical Release Simulator GOTY Edition (Score:3, Funny)
I tried playing Assassin's Creed one time. I think my character spent like two of the first three hours on his back in a sensory deprivation tank.
I knew this would happen once we started giving video game characters names that aren't just compounds of the thing they're doing, like "Jumpman".
still remember (Score:1)
Bloat (Score:4, Interesting)
I usually roll my eyes when people say the economy relies on infinite growth, but the AAA games industries are really a microcosm of that philosophy. Bigger and bigger bloat and a focus on monetization instead of innovation until the bubble bursts... they are chasing whales instead of general audiences.
Here is a video on steam and video game price trends. [youtube.com]
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I mean you're probably right but also their games just suck. Other "AAA" studios actually make good games sometimes.
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Really? Name one.
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I'll grant you that there are a lot of crappy AAA games out there, more crappy ones than great ones for sure, but most of the crappy ones are still better than Ubisoft's crap. Also there are some good ones like GTA 5, Fallout 4, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Cyberpunk 2077 (with the dlc)
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Baldur's Gate 3 was a nice surprise, but it was made by a Belgian independent game developer. Kind of the exception that proves the rule here. "AAA" game developers may be a distinction without meaning at this point.
Re: Bloat (Score:2)
I guess we're not going as far back as Beyond Good & Evil, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, XIII, and Rayman.
For me it's EA where I can't remember when they last made a game I didn't think was a complete waste of time. Must have been the early 00s.
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The younger generation of rich tend to want money now rather than yet more tomorrow. Thus, they'll often milk the cow dry, get their money now, and accept the risk the cow may not survive an industry slump. Maybe they want to get laid by top whores before their wanker no longer works.
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I usually roll my eyes when people say the economy relies on infinite growth, but the AAA games industries are really a microcosm of that philosophy. Bigger and bigger bloat and a focus on monetization instead of innovation until the bubble bursts... they are chasing whales instead of general audiences.
Here is a video on steam and video game price trends. [youtube.com]
I think games (software, not the hardware) is one of the areas where there is room for growth, especially during a recession as people want circuses with their bread.
This isn't an industry issue, plenty of people doing well in it, it's a Ubisoft issue and to a lesser extent an issue shared by all legacy publishers.
Ubisoft are dependent on a few titles to have huge budgets (most of which goes on advertising) and these games are frankly, getting stale. I haven't even played the latest FarCry and that's
Re: Bloat (Score:2)
I started gaming in the 90s. Many today have no idea how eye-wateringly expensive games used to be.
I think this is one of the problems with the industry economics. How are GBP 60 going to recoup investment in a game that 500 people worked on for 2 years, especially when a majority thinks even that is still too expensive and won't get it until it's at least 50% o
I took a look at the list (Score:1)
They cancelled anything that isn't Assassin's Creed. So reading between the lines, the company is going to focus on churning out sequels to their very long running franchises?
New name (Score:2, Funny)
UBLosingCustomers
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Ubisucks: Get used to not owning games! /s
Gamers: Get used to not having customers!
For me, they're a no no on PC (Score:4, Interesting)
They require a stupid launcher nobody wants that logs into Ubisoft Connect, and they use Denuvo for all their games, never removing it even cheap indie games released more than a decade ago (like Scott Pilgrim).
It's a pity they have some good games (like Prince of Persia The Lost Crown) I'll never play because of this abuse on the PC platform.
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DRM in games actually doesn't bother me much at this point.
It may be a rootkit, but Windows itself is malware now. I don't install anything but games on it.
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DRM in games actually doesn't bother me much at this point.
It may be a rootkit, but Windows itself is malware now. I don't install anything but games on it.
It might bother you in a few years when you go back to play one of your favourites and they've shut down the activation server.
Also the CPU cycles it eats up. I downloaded a pirate copy of JWE2 to compare with how it ran with the legit copy and the difference was night and day. Performance wasn't affected as I've a decent gaming rig (albeit a few years old now) but the CPU usage of the pirate copy without the DRM running was significantly lower.
I think twice about buying any game that has Denuvo... I