Ubisoft has done a fantastic job of convincing me to never buy a Ubisoft game ever again.
Not sure that's how a company is supposed to work, but they sure seem to think so.
Here's a neat tip:
You can go to most publisher or developer pages on Steam and "ignore" them to prevent Steam from ever showing you their slop again.
Example:
- Go to: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Ubisoft
- Click the "Settings" cog.
- "Ignore this creator"
You can do the same with EA, 2K, etc. Don't even give these parasites microseconds of your time when they release their next slop title.
I purchased Rayman Legends on a big Steam sale because it is a great game and I wanted to play it again. I installed it. I hit play. It tried to install the Ubisoft launcher. I uninstalled it and refunded.
Fuck off, Ubisoft.
There's a great initiative going on right now trying to hold Ubisoft and other game publishers accountable for shitty practices like this by trying to petition governments from a few different nations to create legal protections for people to continue to have access to their games they purchased after the publisher decides to abandon a game. If you live in an EU country especially, you might be able to help sign a petition still: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/
Fully agree with it, but they're still extremely popular, and people will gladly keep handing over their money.
For me, I say "Ok" to them wanting us to get used to not owning our content - followed with "Then I'll pay rental prices. Which means I'm not buying at $60+ dollars, if all I get to do is rent it then I'll pay <$15 going forward."
It’s sad how consumers have zero rights when it comes to digital content. Companies can retroactively make changes, removing content legitimately bought by consumers with no repercussions. I get “not owning” but for a company to collect money for services provided and not actually provide those services will never not astound me.
And lots of gamers praise Microsoft for GamePass, because it’s cheap. When Microsoft’s goal with GamePass is the same as Ubisoft’s. Ms would love that you rent your games from them indefinitely. Wouldn’t surprise me that in 10-15 years you can’t buy the games made by Microsoft anymore only rent through GamePass and the subscription fee would be five times higher than now
Meanwhile someone somewhere is having issues with steam taking too much profit. Do note that even if a game is DELISTED from steam, you still can download the game on steam. Of course it is a different story with license revocation and that is a whole different can of worms. I don't even know if steam allows the publisher to revoke a license for a game that the player already paid for just because the game is not supported anymore (a different case with breaking ToS/EULA).
They're sure giving EA a run for their
moneyuniversally despised revulsion...Any company that tells you to 'get used' to something has massively overstepped the mark.
People you buy things from are not your boss.
Unless you are addicted to them, in which case they are.
Man I was so sad when Ubisoft bought Blue Byte. I always held out hope that they'd switch publishers eventually but they never did and then they got bought. Now I know I'll always have to put up with Ubisoft bullshit to play Anno, one of my all time favourite franchises.
Right now? Brother, they've been on my shit list for over a decade.
They know people are making a private server so revoked everyone's license so that even when they finish it, everyone will have to pirate their own game to play it.
I wonder how long it'd take until they take down STEEP. I suppose it's even less popular than The Crew, but I liked it that much I'd pay once more if someone would keep it alive after Ubi does the Ubi thing. Extreme sports are rarely portrayed in games, and for me it would be a huge loss even though I feel like I enjoyed every penny I spent at least thrice.
This is probably a big reason I don't buy/play newer multiplayer games, especially ones that are mp only, and a big reason why I buy everything on steam and avoid other platforms.
I've heard of games being dropped by steam, but those that already own it, still own it and can access it on steam as normal. In the situations I'm aware of, those games eventually returned to steam later, but still.
I prefer games that are either peer to peer mp, or you can self host a server for mp. I'm not saying that I'll always self host, but if the option is there, then I'll never lose the ability to play the game with friends, since I only need to set up a server to play on. Since I have a homelab, setting something like that up is trivial for me, and I can shut down and delete the server afterwards when it's no longer wanted or needed.
Everyone going crazy for the latest version of whatever battle Royale type game, laying down premium money to play on day one, and spending a lot to get buffs and cosmetics.... It just seems stupid to me. No thanks.
Free to play multiplayer with the option to buy cosmetics is less bad, but still not great. You can play, enjoy some time with friends while playing the game and if it goes offline tomorrow, who cares? You didn't pay anything for it and I'm certain there's other options in the same vein. As long as you're having fun, enjoy.
If I'm paying for a game, it's probably because of the single player experience. Anything multiplayer is icing on the cake, but not motivation to buy it.
The third item, while it fits the narrative, was a quote directed more towards the option of subscription services. It wasn’t really directed to gamers, but to shareholders to explain low Ubisoft+ numbers, basically saying people may need time to warm up to the idea.
Considering how many interesting indies I’ve played on Game Pass (and, ever since Tango was murdered, PS+) I think there’s merit to that (just not on Ubisoft’s platform). There’s probably dozens of old PS1 classics we never would have tried out if our local Blockbuster hadn’t had them available for rent. I mean heck, $60 was a LOT back then for those polygons.
Always has been
