Decline meh Ubisoft (Ubi fuckery general thread)

[fantadomat]

Plus a "Preload" button.

Let's see whether they got inventive with their offerings.

Yeah giving away a game one day before you can play it seems kind of silly but hey free is free.

Assrape is free to.

 

[Don Peste]

 

[Astral Rag]

Ubisoft unveils Sam, a personal gaming assistant

Ubisoft has announced a new addition to Ubisoft Club, its somewhat nebulous layer of cross-game friction. The new addition is called Sam, and it's a personal gaming assistant.

Sam has two elements, by the looks of it. It provides personalised tips for you based on your profile - on loading up a game it might point you towards things you haven't yet tried in it - and it also exists as a chatbot, accessed via your smartphone.

The video below shows someone using the bot to find out how much time they've put into a game, and then spy on their friend. Their friend is playing Steep, so they're my kind of people, frankly.

The video also reveals that Sam can push you trailers to Ubisoft games and alert you to discounts you have earned. The video makes it look like it might be rather intrusive, but that could just be the video.

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[Gerrard]

So apparently they are making The Division 2. Can't wait to see how many millions of idiots cannot learn from their mistakes.

 

[fantadomat]

Ivan,get the bigger flamethrower!

 

[vonAchdorf]

Ubisoft managed to fend off Vivendi for good (or maybe traded Vivendi's influence for Tencent's influence).

Today, Ubisoft announced that it has signed an agreement with Vivendi for its full exit from Ubisoft’s share capital, with the sale of all Vivendi’s 30,489,300 shares. The transaction includes an investment by two new long-term investors, the Relationship Investing arm of Ontario Teachers’ Public Equities division, and Tencent, a share buy-back by Ubisoft, an acquisition of shares by Guillemot Brothers SE and an Accelerated Bookbuilding with institutional investors. Following the implementation of the transaction, Vivendi will no longer hold any shares in Ubisoft, and has committed not to acquire any shares in Ubisoft for 5 years.
As part of the transaction, Ubisoft and Tencent have also announced today a strategic partnership that will significantly accelerate the reach of Ubisoft franchises in China in the coming years.
---
Investment from new long-term shareholders in Ubisoft
Ontario Teachers’ has committed to acquire 3,787,878 Ubisoft shares (3.4% of capital), equivalent to approximately €250 million and Tencent has committed to acquire 5,591,469 Ubisoft shares (5.0% of capital). These investments are made at a price of €66 per share and do not grant any representation on Ubisoft’s board of directors. Tencent has also undertaken not to transfer its shares nor to increase its shareownership and votings rights in Ubisoft.

Guillemot Brothers SE acquisition of shares
As part of the transaction, Guillemot Brothers SE agreed to acquire 3,030,303 shares (2.7% of capital) at a price of €66 per share, bringing Guillemot Brothers SE’s ownership to 17,406,414 shares representing 19.4% of voting rights and 15.6% of share capital and the Guillemot concert to 20,636,193 shares, representing 24.6% of voting rights and 18.5% of share capital.

 

[Gerrard]

Do they even own the rights to anything anymore?

 

[fantadomat]

Buahahaha,China is the newest boss in video games industry. EA could get fucked next.

 

[kalganoat]

Tencent has shown to have no interest in meddling because they make more than Activision, EA, Ubi and Take two combined.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Soon Tencent will be an investor in most Western and Asian game studios: Activision, Ubisoft, Paradox, Riot, ...
And with most other companies, like Take-Two, they at least have partnerships for the Chinese market.

 

[Spectacle]

First they take our video game companies, next our women!
When will this Chinese menace end?

 

[vonAchdorf]

When Chinks notice that F2P games aren't games but Skinner boxes.

 

[fantadomat]

When Chinks notice that F2P games aren't games but Skinner boxes.

They know it and they make more money that the rest of the publishers combined.

 

[vonAchdorf]

When Chinks notice that F2P games aren't games but Skinner boxes.

They know it and they make more money that the rest of the publishers combined.

Tencent knows it, but the rest of the Chinese population either doesn't or doesn't care.

 

[fantadomat]

When Chinks notice that F2P games aren't games but Skinner boxes.

They know it and they make more money that the rest of the publishers combined.

Tencent knows it, but the rest of the Chinese population either doesn't or doesn't care.

They know it and don't care about it. If they get fun out of it,they don't care.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

 

[Astral Rag]

AAA gamers still enjoy being milked dry.

Ubisoft's PC sales continue to grow
By Andy Chalk 15 hours ago

Ubisoft said in its full-year financial report that PC accounted for 21 percent of its total sales by platform.

Ubisoft released its 2017-18 full year sales and earnings report today, and it looks to be good news all around: "Very solid performance for the fourth quarter and continued excellent execution across the board," as the document says. Far Cry 5 was Ubisoft's second-biggest release ever, Assassin's Creed: Origins delivered a record fourth-quarter performance, Rainbow Six Siege viewership continues to climb, and sales for the year—€1.732 billion ($2.043 billion)—exceeded expectations.

Of particular note around these parts is Ubisoft's continued, and growing, success on PC. The PlayStation 4 still dominates Ubisoft's sales by platform, but PC accounted for 21 percent of total sales for the fourth quarter—just two points behind the Xbox One, and three percentage points higher than the third quarter. For the full fiscal year, 18 percent of Ubisoft's sales by platform went to PC.



"In the short and medium term, Ubisoft has many growth opportunities to tap and expects further profitability increases," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement. "Our digital transformation is progressing at a faster pace than we anticipated. Our potential in the PC and mobile market is massive, notably in China. Finally, we are continuing to develop and structure our esports offering, which represents a significant opportunity."

That "esports offering" would be Rainbow Six Siege, which has been a real sleep success for Ubisoft. The game is multiplatform but the Pro League is PC-only: An Xbox One division existed for the league's first year, but was cut at the start of Year 2 in favor of a focus on PC. And it appears to be paying off. There are now more than 30 million registered players, and Ubisoft said that viewership for the Six Invitational finals in February 2018 were up 300 percent over the 2017 event.

Ubisoft Makes A Lot Of Money From Microtransactions, And It Wants More
Revenue from microtransactions is growing at Ubisoft
by Eddie Makuch


Microtransactions are big business at Ubisoft. The publisher today reported earnings for the latest period, and one slide from the company's presentation mentioned that add-on content was a "major booster to profitability" during the quarter.

Specifically, Ubisoft made €318.5 million from what it calls Player Recurring Investment during the last nine months. This figure is up 87.4 percent from the same period last year. Revenue from PRI made up 26.7 percent of total sales during the period, which is up from 20.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

This content is high-margin, Ubisoft said, given that it requires lower levels of marketing and research & development expenses. As an example, Ubisoft pointed out that it sells a flaming horse in Assassin's Creed: Origins for 1,500 worth of in-game currency, which comes out to €15.

Player Recurring Investment at Ubisoft includes things like in-game items and DLC packs, along with revenue from subscriptions and advertising. Another slide shows how Ubisoft revenue from PRI compares to similar figures from companies like EA and Activision Blizzard. As you can see in the image below, Ubisoft is trailing those companies on a percentage basis, though Ubisoft is intent on "clos[ing] the gap" with them as it relates to microtransaction revenue. This is to say, you can likely expect microtransaction systems in Ubisoft games to continue and expand in the future.

Ubisoft went on to say that the progress the company has made in the area of "player investment" should pay dividends when it comes to microtransaction revenue. For Rainbow Six Siege, the game reached a new monthly active user record in December, which is impressive considering the game launched two years ago in December 2015. Given that players are sticking around with Ubisoft games for a long time, that gives Ubisoft the opportunity to continue to sell them new content for a long time. The Division is also going strong, with The Division 2 now on the way.

Also during the presentation, Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez was asked for his reaction to the controversy and discussion around loot boxes in gaming today. He said Ubisoft thinks about loot boxes as "a question of quality and choice; it's as simple as that."

For the transaction to feel fair, the content that Ubisoft offers has to be the "right quality." He added that the items for sale should not feel necessary, but only optional. Players should feel free to not buy the content and still have a good time with any game.

Finally, Martinez acknowledged the discussion and debate happening right now across the world in regards to whether or not loot boxes should be considered gambling. Martinez said this controversy might be overblown, adding that the discussion he is seeing now is "much calmer" than before. He added that Ubisoft does not feel there is any major regulatory issue regarding loot boxes.

Ubisoft is not the only company making a lot of money from microtransactions. Activision Blizzard announced last week that it made $4 billion from microtransactions in 2017, while Take-Two's microtransactions business is booming too, thanks in part to GTA Online. EA, meanwhile, made $787 million from microtransactions during its latest quarter.

 

[anus_pounder]

Pre-ordered The Crew 2, guys. This is gonna be a good one, I can feel it in my bones.

 

[Gerrard]

Pre-ordered The Crew 2, guys. This is gonna be a good one, I can feel it in my bones.

Did you complete all of the unlocks from 1?

 

[anus_pounder]

Woah! I recant my statement! Immediately asked for a refund. Just discovered, despite vaugely remembering an interview saying there would be an offline mode, this is some Online-only BS.

Yeah no. I love you Ubi, but you aren't getting me to pay full price for an online-only game.

Maybe for Obsidian. Not for you, Ubi.

 

[Mikeal]

Friendly reminder that Arkane wanted sell "DMOMM" with modding tools, but those cock eating assholes from Ubisoft forbid them. Just think about it, if tools were available from the start, right now we would have shitloads of fan missions and campaigns just like in Thief series.

 

[Gerrard]

Woah! I recant my statement! Immediately asked for a refund. Just discovered, despite vaugely remembering an interview saying there would be an offline mode, this is some Online-only BS.

Yeah no. I love you Ubi, but you aren't getting me to pay full price for an online-only game.

Maybe for Obsidian. Not for you, Ubi.

Pretty sure the first one was online only as well, I didn't hear anything about this one being different.

You can unlock up to 19 vehicles in 2 by completing certain achievements in 1.

 

[Gerrard]

When you have more ESLs in your studio than people who can speak proper English.


E: closed beta working great

Can't even finish the tutorial.

 

[Astral Rag]

The launch was disastrous as well:

The Crew 2, Ubisoft's massively ambitious and absolutely massive open world racing game, has just launched today - although players who've bought the game on Steam are currently locked out.