today we talk about the fall of Ubisoft look I don't like to hold my tongue I like to speak my mind and from my perspective when I see a company that has failed to deliver quality to their customers that have completely ignored any criticism whether that's from the industry itself from critics or their fans they get what they deserve and in the case of Ubisoft this is a victory for consumers this is exactly what we want to see because if you're not working for us you're working against us and that's what they've been doing for
years so when you're a company that's as recognized as Ubisoft one of the most recognizable names in all of gaming they're a Cornerstone of AAA you're going to have some ups and downs but over the last few years they've had a lot of downs they've been digging a grave that I don't think that they can escape lack in quality repetitive games lack in player interest controversy now their own investors are calling for their leadership to be ousted and for the company to be sold how do you get yourself to that point that's what I want
to answer today there's a lot of other companies that are traveling this road to ruin and I want this to be a lesson to all so let's talk about the rise and fall of Ubisoft as of recording this video Ubisoft stock just hit a low that they haven't seen in over a decade their stock prices fell almost 84% over the past few years and with recent releases like Skull and Bones Assassin's Creed Mirage ex defiant Prince of Persia the Lost Crown Star Wars Outlaws and the upcoming Assassin's Creed black Shadows nothing seems to be able
to pull them out of this death spiral no matter how many games they release in quick success session when a company releases six games over the course of a couple years that's usually the sign of success but in the case of Ubisoft each release seems to be taking them one step closer towards the brink of collapse so how did this happen why did this happen how does a Cornerstone of the AAA industry fall this far from Grace well to answer that we need to go back and look to where Ubisoft came from where it peaked
and where it fell Ubisoft like many developers cut their teeth on PC games in the late 80s a game company and ially started by the five gilmont brothers who still own and operate the company today initially focused on games distribution as they slowly moved into games development titles like zombie Prince of Persia and a few others helped them to gain a foothold but it wasn't until 1995 that the company would make a name for itself Rayman exploded onto the scene a game using interactive and creative puzzle and platforming mechanics that we hadn't even seen before
that sold over 400,000 units by the end of the year becoming the most popular game in Europe and cementing itself in gaming history following their success came rapid expansion by the year 2000 Ubisoft saw exponential growth on their publishing side with major victories on the Dreamcast with titles like grandia 2 my favorite jrpg of all time Tokyo Extreme racer F1 racing championship and taxi 2 however it was on the PlayStation 2 that Ubisoft would find its identity while they were still publishing great games like from soft's armored Core 2 and eternal ring and Snowblind Studio
Studios champions of norath it was during this time that Ubisoft acquired the license to use Tom Clancy stories and name in a series of games with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and later Splinter Cell taking the stage after this Ubisoft went on a blitz with original titles quickly rolling out sequel after sequel Splinter Cell kicked it off in 2003 with Pandora tomorrow in 2004 chaos theory in 2005 double agent in 2006 Ghost Recon launched in 2002 it had a sequel 2004 a next version of it with advanced war fighter in 2006 advanced war Fighter 2 in
2007 Prince of Persia the sands of time came out in 2003 and yep just like the others it sought rapid follow-ups with Warrior within in 2004 and two Thrones in 2005 around the mid-2000s Ubisoft must have realized that this rapid Pace was not sustainable and it started to affect the quality of their games later releases took longer the next Prince of Persia game didn't appear until until 2008 and it took four years to develop the next Far Cry game from the original that came out in 2004 despite this intense schedule Ubisoft was holding its own
against rivals in Activision with its military Shooters and competing against konami's Metal Gear Solid through Splinter Cell regardless of their success in publishing developing licensed IPS and Military Shooters it was the release of Assassin's Creed in 2007 that sent Ubisoft into orbit and it bridged a gap with a title that appealed to audiences worldwide there was nothing like it in the Market at the time this game was an enigma it was Far and Away the best looking game on consoles it's fluid movement parkour and combat felt alien its setting of reliving our ancestors memories while
we Chase A Relic to try to stop the shadow government Templars was fresh and original Assassin's Creed defined modern gaming at the time and it made Ubisoft a household name Ubisoft was everywhere at this time you'd be hardpressed not to turn on your console or turn on your PC and see that logo pop up and it wasn't just the games that they were making it was the games that they were publishing they had such a good eye for talent such a good eye for great games and as a result they made a ton of money
I mean they published Maro wind I didn't even know that I was going through some of the history of all the different games that they had published over the years and I was sitting back going like man these guys are raking in cash at the time but it wasn't just those games as well it was also the successes that they were seeing with the games that they were making they had such a fresh and high quality outlook on all the gam that they were creating they were really leaning into presentation more than anything else they
wanted to make sure that their games just looked the best hands down Bar None no competition and they pulled it off advanced war fighter 1 and two were some of my favorite Shooters of all time even kind of more than some of the Call of Duty games at the time they're likely the games that ended up inspiring Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1 and two you look at Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid they leaned really hard into the stealth aspects the Spy aspects of those kind of games and as as a result they found
their own following and gave a really unique experience that you weren't getting from the Metal Gear Solid games while the narrative wasn't nearly as strong it was still pretty good but the gameplay was completely different then you bring out Assassin's Creed and that just took their quality to a completely different level at this point with Ubisoft if you're buying one of their games nine times out of 10 you were going to have your socks knocked off they were incredible experiences and Ubisoft knew that they capitalized on it and they profited following the release of Assassin's
Creed in 2007 Ubisoft entered into a golden era that solidified their place as one of the leaders in the triaa industry the success of Assassin's Creed was not just a one-off hit it became a flagship franchise that grew in scope and ambition with each installment Assassin's Creed 2 in 2009 expanded upon the originals foundations with deeper gameplay mechanics a more engaging narrative and a charismatic protagonist in Etso auditor still the best protagonist in all of a Assassin's Creed the game was a commercial and critical success selling over 9 million copies and becoming one of the
most celebrated entries in the entire series the success continued with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood in 2010 and Assassin's Creed Revelations in 2011 in combination with this Ubisoft was experiencing major successes with their Far Cry series Far Cry 3 in 2012 was a groundbreaking title that redefined open world gaming it introduced vast explorable Islands filled with diverse environments and a gripping story and one of the most memorable protagonists in all of gaming history and I think that character shows just how far Ubisoft today has fallen from where they came from no shot Ubisoft ever makes a villain
like this again I'm sorry what did you say what did you say do you want me to slice you open like I did your friend shut the [ __ ] up okay I'm the one with a [ __ ] dick look at me look me in your [ __ ] ey hey you [ __ ] look me in the eye you're my [ __ ] I rulle this [ __ ] Kingdom Far Cry 3 sold over 10 million copies and was laed as one of the best games of the generation setting a new Benchmark for
open world Shooters the series continued to thrive with Far Cry 4 in 2014 and Far Cry 5 and 2018 each expanding on the franchise's formula with new mechanics and narratives by 2018 Far Cry 5 became the fastest selling title in ubisoft's history moving over 5 million copies within the first week solidifying the franchises place in history in parallel with the success that they had going on with the Far Cry series Tom Clan's Rainbow Six Siege initially launched to a modest reception but through consistent updates and Community engagement it is now grown into one of the
most popular and enduring multiplayer Shooters even still today by 2018 Rainbow Six Siege had amassed over 30 million players Tom Clans the division in 2016 was another major hit offering a compelling blend of third person shooting and RPG mechanics set in a post-apocalyptic New York it was ubisoft's fastest selling new IP at launch earning $330 million in sales within the first week it showcased ubisoft's ability to successfully launch a new IP while still being able to maintain their existing franchises if we take a snapshot of the successes from 2000 to 2018 we see a Ubisoft
that was consistently delivering on high quality experiences while innovating within existing franchises creating new franchises doing all kinds of things but at the exact same time we also see a for boing Trend the minute that they see a game becomes successful they Hammer that nail again and again and again sometimes within such quick succession that we're seeing sequels with games within year to year to year to year back to back to back to back and then they stop and that's going to take a toll not only on the developers but also on the audiences but
by 2018 Ubisoft was worth $24 a share was the highest price it's still the highest price that they've ever been worth and in that that's the perfect reflection whether you care about share prices or not it's the perfect reflection of what the company was worth at the time 10 times the value that they were before they released Assassin's Creed they were swimming in cash they were so successful they were massive but when you reach those Peaks there tends to be a trend that follows and they've been following that Trend straight into into the ground as
Ubisoft entered into 2018 the cracks in its previously successful formula began to show while the company had relied on its major franchisees to drive growth and maintain its position within the industry the strategy began to falter the initial decline of this period can largely be attributed to ubisoft's overreliance on its established franchises a pattern that we've seen with many major Publishers the once groundbreaking mechanics and narratives that defined ubisoft's titles were beginning to feel repetitive leading to players feeling bored and fatigued with ubisoft's design I'll be honest by the third Assassin's Creed I had already
tapped out because I felt like I saw the writing on the wall every time I watched any of their reveals or trailers I said yeah I've done all this before this overreliance on existing franchises resulted in a slew of releases that while still commercially viable lacked the Innovative spark that wants to find the company Assassin's Creed Odyssey in 2018 was a prime example of this issue despite it being a commercial success and receiving positive reviews it didn't quite reach the heights of previous entries in the series while it expanded upon RPG elements that were introduced
in Assassin's Creed Origins players and critics alike felt that the formula was becoming stale with the vast majority of the open world and numerous side activities feeling more like a checklist rather than an engaging experience this propagated a shared perception between players and critics of more of the same Ubisoft games were becoming predictable drawn out and boring Far Cry New Dawn in 2019 suffered from the exact same issues as a direct sequel to Far Cry 5 it attempted to build on the narrative and setting but was seen as more of an expansion than a full-fledged
new installment the game was a commercial success to a degree but it didn't match the sales or the impact of Far Cry 3 or Far Cry 4 The Narrative was considered weaker the post-apocalyptic setting while a new direction for the series didn't really resonate strongly with the player base this underwhelming reception was indicative of a larger issue the lack of fresh ideas and a growing formulaic approach to game design another notable release during this period was the division 2 in 2019 now this game was well received it had refined mechanics over the first game the
endgame content was really engaging and it was twice the size is not larger than the first game however despite its reception it didn't meet ubisoft's High sales expectations the live service model that they had injected into the game arbitrarily while successful in Rainbow Six Siege did not effectively translate into the division 2 this is partly due to Market saturation as other players are more invested in other live service games but from my perspective as a fan from division 2 the life service model just didn't work here it felt generic in a game where you're finding
Loot and that's the gameplay Loop the last thing that you want to do is buy things to wear you want to stand out for your achievements in the game not how much you spent on loot boxes this pattern of diminishing returns poorly implemented monetization and loss of connection with the players is a common issue for companies that heavily rely on their existing franchises while sequels and spin-offs can capitalize on established fan bases they also run the risk of alienating players by offering experiences that feel all too familiar or injecting things into those experiences that make
them well just something the players don't want to engage with whatsoever ubisoft's Reliance on its core franchises like Assassin's Creed Far Cry and the Tom Clancy games led to a perception that the company was simply reusing the same template with minor tweaks and adding monetization this lack of innovation and growing similarities between their titles resulted in players being less excited about their new games and they began to see Ubisoft games as formulaic in design with sprawling open worlds filled with repetitive tasks rather than unique and engaging experiences and I think that's the most troubling thing
when it comes to Ubisoft it's their aversion to criticism get that away from me and they're they're not alone in that okay there's plenty of other Studios and journalists that are out there that feel the same way don't listen to The Gamers those angry Gamers they don't know anything and look I get it while nine times out of 10 players don't know how to voice their criticisms effectively often times they're just being mean when they say things they're still telling you that something's wrong with your games and you need to fix it but year after
year Ubisoft has completely failed to listen to any criticism whether that's coming from professional critics or the players people have been saying for years how formic their design is how predict how scary predictable their games are I know that if I log into into an open world Ubisoft game it's just going to be a checklist simulator everybody still remembers when their developers took to Twitter to criticize Elden ring of all games for its open world design its Quest design and its UI how the [ __ ] do you do that that's the best game that
we've had one of the best games that we've had in the last decade why would you look at a game like that look at the success that it sees and say we need to internalize some of the things that this game did well why players liked it and then reflect that in our games going forward that's how you make better products you learn from your competition learn from the games that do well instead of looking at it wanting to criticize it and trying to make excuses why you think that your games are better don't play
Assassin's Creed instead [ __ ] that look Ubisoft had a bit of a Resurgence in 2018 to 2019 and it looked like they were getting back on the horse it looked like they were listening to player feedback they were implementing in their games it was better games as a result they're making a lot of money but that only lasted for so long after a period of declining interest and fatigue Ubisoft managed to Stage a bit of a Resurgence in 2019 and 2020 by revisiting some of their core franchises with a renewed focus and experimenting with
some fresh ideas now who thought something like that could actually have a positive impact on your sales one of the most significant releases during this time was Assassin's Creed Valhalla in 2020 this game was a commercial hit selling more copies during its launch week than any other previous Assassin's Creed title it received praise for its engaging narrative improved combat mechanics and Rich historical setting Valhalla revitalized interest in the series it showed that Ubisoft could make changes however that isn't to say that players complaints didn't remain the same many reviewers and players lamented over the length
of the game and while Valhalla introduced some Innovative elements territory arcs as well as the narrative just dragged on for far too long the game's average completion time was over 60 hours and 100% completion was nearing over 200 hours no matter what you do elements that were praised at the beginning of the game are going to start to feel repetitive and it's just yet again going to feel like a checklist of tasks in the same year they released Watchdog Legions which attempted to innovate with its play as anyone mechanic allowing the player to recruit and
control virtually any character in the entire game World while the game received mixed reception due to some technical issues and a less than compelling story than we've seen from its predecessors it sold relatively well and it showed that the company was willing to take some risk and explore some new Concepts with existing franchises Immortals Phoenix rising in 2020 was another one of those key releases that showed Ubisoft had a willingness to experiment and even come out with some new IPS the game offered a vibrant and humorous take on Greek mythology combined with open world exploration
and puzzle solving and action combat there were a lot of folks that liked this game and in some cases people like even more than breath of the wild at the time though it didn't reach the commercial Heights of Assassin's Creed or Far Cry it showed that Ubisoft could still deliver a fresh and enjoyable experience outside of their established franchises however I think the most important thing to keep in mind during this period of time and this surge of growth at Ubisoft and the biggest Boon to Ubisoft at the time as well as many other developers
as well is that well there was a pandemic and lockdown that was driving an increase in game sales and player engagement with people spending more time at home than man for games surged Ubisoft benefited from this greatly as their established franchises and live service games offered an extensive amount of content for players to explore Rainbow Six Siege saw massive growth during this period with the player base growing to over 70 million players by the end of 2021 continued support through regular updates new operators and seasonal events helped keep that Community engaged and invested even today
any game Studio that had a game that came out or was ready to release right around the time of lockdowns saw massive growth and massive profits go figure but as we've learned that growth is inorganic and unsustainable and none of them had been able to maintain it so with that said yeah of course Ubisoft was going to see a little bit of growth there and they definitely evolved a little bit past some of their game design issues but the vast majority of those issues still remained those same criticisms were still there regardless of the years
that had gone by and one of the other problems that Ubisoft has is the minute that they see something work they will hammer it until the wheels fall off they will exhaust you as fast as they possibly can because they just want to try to make as much money as fast as they possibly can rather than paying attention to what the longevity of that game would look like how much more money you could make if the game lived longer but they just love killing games when you have an entire industry that is criticizing your games
where in a lot of cases you can take some of these reviews for some of their games layer them on top of each other and it looks like they're reviewing the exact same game when you have your players that are compling about your monetization practices and your prices you don't then go and just make all those things worse you don't just keep doing the exact same thing you don't inject you don't inject how do you put XP boost in a single player game what are you doing why what is this it completely defeats the purpose
of playing games like this in the first place we know that all you're doing is just expanding the content as far as you possibly can to make it unrealistic for casual players to play without spending money it's transparent that's the worst part about them they are transparent greed manifest you can see everything they do and they think that they're being sneaky about it what are you talking about get comfortable with uh not buying your games yeah I know what you mean by that I know the implications of what you're talking about because that means that
you're going to try to make it where we can't buy games that'll make us a little bit more comfortable with it in the future right well don't worry about it we're all pretty comfortable with not buying your games which brings us to the rapid decline of Ubisoft over the past few years with release after release failing to deliver on expectations while doing nothing to compete with recent shifts in the market to me Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon breakpoint in 2019 encapsulates everything that's wrong with modern Ubisoft it was buggy the writing was awful it was repetitive
and generic over-bloated and over monetized they monetized XP gains they put vehicles and skins that had no business being in the game into the game and destroyed any sense of immersion in a largely single player experience like every other open world game from Ubisoft even still today they haphazardly put in RPG mechanics like varied loot skill trees and more mechanics that are only there to extend the players time in the game putting these elements in there as a means to gatekeep players from progressing the story or taking on certain enemies I think skillup said it
best when he was reviewing breakpoints saying why the [ __ ] is this in the game why is it so poorly implemented and why is it in every game in their portfolio this sort of design philosophy has proliferated through just about every single game that they make and what makes matters worse for Ubisoft and I think this is the one thing that the vast majority of people are overlooking here it's what's killing their sales it's the increase in competition from other Publishers with new successful IPS games like Elden ring and genin impact have captured player
interest Elden Rings open world design and exploration set a new Benchmark for the genre while genin impact offers a free-to-play model in an open world game with high production values and it's shaking up players expectations games like these Force players to compare similarities and when you contrast Ubisoft games with the experiences that players have had access to over the past few years it's no wonder why people aren't playing their games and this goes back to what we were discussing previously ubisoft's core issue is their inability to change and recognize Trends their loss in quality and
generic monetization look at their first AAA sorry quadruple a game ever made Skull and Bones a $70 live service title in development for 11 years costing over $200 million only to release a more boring version of Assassin's Creed Black Flag with less than 700 concurrent players on Steam they set out to make a more consumable version of Assassin's Creed with Mirage charging $50 for a less than 15-hour game that did nothing to evolve the franchise they finally returned to Prince of Persia with the Lost Crown they made an awesome game it was really Innovative I
actually enjoyed it but they charged $40 for a Metroid Vania game in a market where those games cost a fourth of The Price Star Wars Outlaws a game for all intents and purposes should have been an easy home run but ultimately showcases how dire the situation is at Ubisoft not only does the game suffer from quality issues unattractive character designs bugs repetitiveness and inconsistencies but in an attempt to remove some of their open world bloat you come to realize just how those elements once they're removed the game is really just held together by duct tape
Euro gamer in their review said something really interesting saying that the problem with Star Wars Outlaws however isn't that it adheres too closely to the development approach akin to hoarding but that it does the opposite stripping away years of accumulated video game clutter admirably Outlaws does this quite aggressively kessle saach aside but in doing so it reveals an integral issue Ubisoft open world games are not only fun because of their formula they are their formula to strip away isn't to peel off some old wallpaper to reveal the original brick work it's lifting up the carpet
to find a whacking great hole in the ground meaning that their games are Hollow and I think that that's a fitting description from my perspective as a player Ubisoft has become synonymous with generic games that are overpriced over monetized and overly repetitive outside of the division 1 and two I've had no interest whatsoever in playing any of their games because I've already played them years ago and playing the next game isn't going to be any different it's the same games pushed out the door for profit that lack any creativity or originality now we look at
their next release Assassin's Creed Shadows a game criticized well before its release because other than Legacy Media everyone else can see the elephant in the room an Assassin's Creed game finally set in Japan a setting that is so great for a game with this kind of theme only to include a tokenized representation of a character with vague best historical relevance backed by a hip-hop soundtrack in combat why is it that representation to these people means hip-hop soundtracks or a character wearing Jordans whose power is that they run fast I'll be honest I think that a
lot of the dialogue surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows are issues that players would largely ignore if they knew that Assassin's Creed that this game was going to be incredible but over the years players have come to expect less and less from Ubisoft games why are investors so concerned Why are they jumping ship before one of the largest releases of Ubisoft in recent memory well why don't you tell me why anyone would want to play Assassin's Creed Shadows when they have far better Eastern themed Alternatives that without a doubt have better combat better environments higher quality and
better storytelling without the need to be able to make a statement or press their morals against an audience why would I play Assassin's Creed Shadows when I could play Blackmouth mukong ghost of sushima or rise of ronin why would I play something that I have already played when I could play something entirely fresh ubisoft's issues are the same issues that plague the vast majority of the largest Publishers and developers in the industry and it's that over the years while they've continued to grow and Chase profits they've lost a unified vision of what their game should
represent in the pursuit for profits and expanding their market share and maximizing Revenue through aggressive monetization strategies they've strayed from the creative foundations that once made them an industry leader this fragmented approach has led to a loss of identity resting ing in games that feel more like products that are turned out to meet quarterly targets rather than passionate well-crafted experiences look at the speed of ubisoft's game releases they struck the iron while the iron was hot barely spacing any of their game releases rarely making new IPS or changing their perspective on how to deliver existing
franchises this lack of cohesive vision and the inability to change has not only diluted the quality and the uniqueness of their franchises but also eroded the trust and enthusiasm of the player bases they're exhausted without a clear sense of purpose and a commitment to Innovation and quality Ubisoft like many others in the industry has found itself trapped in a cycle of diminishing returns and waning relevance and I'll be honest it's not going to stop from my perspective this is likely the end of Ubisoft the ship is too big to be able to turn on a
dime and the kind of overhaul that they need is likely a decade away we can't save Ubisoft and honestly we don't want to let this be a start warning to the rest of the industry a cautionary tale when you churn out games that nobody wants to buy when you nickel and dime your players at every turn when you strip your games of their soul you don't just lose a sale you lose your place in the industry play stupid games Win stupid prizes and Ubisoft has played them all I tried to do my best to be
able to showcase the highs and lows of the company and all the games that they made but I found the more that I researched the more that I wrote I just kept talking about the same games over and over again for damn near 20 years Assassin's Creed Rainbow 6 Far Cry Assassin's Creed Rainbow 6 Far Cry Assassin's Creed Rainbow 6 Far Cry well you want to make sure that you're doing what you can to support the titles that players love the most the reason why they know your name to begin with at the same time
when you're absurdly aggressive like Ubisoft where you just keep pumping out the same titles over and over again and at the exact same time you just continue to crank up the monetization and the pricing and how many things are locked behind different versions of your game for $100 $130 good Lord what do you expect what do you think is going to happen when you keep making the same thing over and over again regardless of how many times people criticize your design and you just keep increasing the prices and there's better and more interesting and more
unique experiences that are out there that we've been seeing over the last few years so many of these independent double a single a and Indie Studios just popping off selling more copies of games than you do now you don't see a problem with that you know I was sitting back and I was watching people play Star Wars Outlaws and I sat there thinking to myself this is literally just Star Wars Assassin's Creed minus a few mechanics it just it looks so boring some of the aspects were cool I think part of the narrative was somewhat
interesting I like the view of the environments but outside of that the actual mechanical gameplay just looks so boring God it looks so bad it just goes to show just how creatively robbed the studio are the only the only thing that I ask for is that if this company goes down please somebody make sure they take care of massive I like massive I like the division they've done a really good job please make a division three or something else if you can't use that title because I want to see more of those games in the
future I hate that we're in this weird place in time right now where genuine criticism voiced well or not doesn't really matter is just pushed to the side because both Legacy Media and Publishers and developers just don't want to hear don't listen to The Angry Gamers these games aren't made for you who are they made for I'm sure ubisoft's investors would like to know I don't necessarily like to see companies fail Ubisoft has made a lot of games that I've Loved over the years but at the exact same time this is from my perspective a
victory for consumers because this shows the rest of the industry if you do what Ubisoft has done you will fail there's a couple of companies that are out there that have been trying to follow that same line and while it's continued to work for now well as you can see it doesn't work forever anyway I hope you guys enjoyed the video If you guys did enjoy the video make sure you like And subscribe share the video with your friends follow me on Twitch if you guys would like to see me talk about gaming news and
play video games live outside of that I'm going to go and play some video games what am I playing today Deadlock maybe I don't know something stay cool stay righteous stay safe my friends and I'll see you next time peace family family family family
