In other gaming news... Ubisoft stock takes a dive..

[Bearcat]

Ubisoft stock gets crushed after abysmal Assassin's Creed Unity launch.

 

Interesting article on one segment of the industry...

[Mysticpuma]

Wow....and us simmers think we have bugs!

[Finkeren]

Too bad. I really enjoyed the first few installments of the AC franchise. I regard AC2 as one of the best story driven sandbox games.

 

I have no love for Ubisoft as a company though.

Edited November 13, 2014 by Finkeren

[Matt]

I was actually considering buying it, because i like Black Flag a lot (best AC since AC2 imho), but after reading those bug and performance reports, i'm not gonna buy it anytime soon. Basically no port of Ubisoft has been bug free, so that was to be expected. But running with lowest possible settings and with around 30 FPS or less is not really something i look forward too.

 

I hope they do better with Far Cry 4.

[39bn_pavig]

We just have to get used to the fact that games are never finished on release these days. It is just how the industry works, and refinements and content continue to be added during the lifetime of the title. In the case of Ubisoft though, they have a long history of not getting their priorities straight, and releasing titles with a focus on gee-wizz features without giving the developers time to refine what they already have, as well as badly thought out and hastily patched in DRM etc. 

 

It is nice to be playing an early release game which is "finished" in so much as it is playable, even though development continues. Not every feature is how we may like it, but apart from the occasional CTD, braindead AI decision or underdeveloped area (such as the campaign) it all hangs together. Despite faults I enjoy playing BoS, but some Ubisoft published games can make me ragequit on the loading screen.  

[-NW-ChiefRedCloud]

Crying shame. I usually wait a year for these titles (I've played all the AC) but had considered this for myself for this Christmas. But now I will wait and hope they correct all this. Thanks for bringing this up and saving me some money and grief. 

 

Chief

[unreasonable]

I have finally learned my lesson as well. Do something else, let the early buyers discover all the bugs and poor design features, check out whether the game design is something you really want, see if the patches improve the thing. Then buy in 6 months when the steam sales start.

 

Actually it was Rome 2 that did it for me, aaargh.

 

These days I prefer small, focused games from indie designers who do something well, rather than the AAA franchises.

[SYN_Mike77]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-PkzIGSyjLQ We got nothing on this!

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I started losing my faith in Ubisoft when they started losing their way with the Tom Clancy titles, particularly the Rainbow Six titles.

[kestrel79]

Good. Their mistake is churning out one of these games every year ala CoD. Not to mention the few games on newer hardware that come out every year always have their issues.

[TheBlackPenguin]

Ubisoft went on my "never buy from again" after they destroyed the Subsim genre.

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

Posting a fall in stock price is pretty meaningless without knowing how many shares exist and what kind of earnings per share they accrue.

[MACADEMIC]

Good for software developers but not so much for consumers is the fact that software products are generally excluded from product warranty in most countries. Software does not have to work as advertised.

 

MAC

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I wonder how this compares with X: Rebirth's release about this time last year.

 

Obviously, you can't make everyone happy all the time, but it couldn't hurt if game companies put "don't alienate the core customers" somewhere on the goals chart.

[Vaxxtx]

The scary/sad fact is, it will still sell many copies and be sucessful.

[johncage]

The scary/sad fact is, it will still sell many copies and be sucessful.

scary? average human behavior, not scary or surprising really. sad? yeah...

 

in other sad news, a bunch of morons are talking about giving a moron 300 million dollars to hit a ball around.

 

god forbid that money should go into science, medicine or education and actually contribute something of value to society.

[unreasonable]

Posting a fall in stock price is pretty meaningless without knowing how many shares exist and what kind of earnings per share they accrue.

Wrong. That is the beauty of share prices. A 10% fall in the share price is a 10% fall in the market's estimate of the value of the firm's equity irrespective of EPS ( a backward looking accounting measure) or the number of shares (an arbitrary division).

[Bando]

Ubisoft went on my "never buy from again" after they destroyed the Subsim genre.

 

Here too. Never again will I purchase from them.

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 Assasin's Creed - Bugity..

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

Wrong. That is the beauty of share prices. A 10% fall in the share price is a 10% fall in the market's estimate of the value of the firm's equity irrespective of EPS ( a backward looking accounting measure) or the number of shares (an arbitrary division).

Which is only a reflection of the value of the stock to traders, which peaks and valleys even without flop releases. So yes. Meaningless. The stock'll rebound like it always does.

[Mysticpuma]

Seems they wanted the video deleted...can't think why? No worries, someone else uploaded the compilation

 

http://youtu.be/LuX7-jOZcL4

[unreasonable]

Which is only a reflection of the value of the stock to traders, which peaks and valleys even without flop releases. So yes. Meaningless. The stock'll rebound like it always does.

Sure, I bow to your superior knowledge, I suppose 15 years in the stock analysis and fund management industry must have led me astray, even though they allowed me to retire at 40.

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

Sure, I bow to your superior knowledge, I suppose 15 years in the stock analysis and fund management industry must have led me astray, even though they allowed me to retire at 40.

Yes, because there's an industry full of individuals that know exactly what they're doing. Oh wait. No need to get so defensive at anyrate.

Edited November 14, 2014 by MiG21bisFishbedL

[unreasonable]

Yes, because there's an industry full of individuals that know exactly what they're doing. Oh wait. No need to get so defensive at anyrate.

 

Fair comment, must have got out of bed on the wrong side, please accept my apologies.

 

What I should have said was:

 

1) While there is noise in stock prices there is also a signal. Determining how much of one and how much of the other is non trivial, but in this case it is a pretty clear indicator of the market's estimate of the value of sales lost through a bad launch. 10% is a nasty hit, but it leaves ample scope for recovery.

 

2) What goes down does not always go up again. Companies do go bust and disappear altogether, and big product launches that fail are often a major contributor, especially if they are repeated.

 

Hope this gets over my point in a more measured tone.

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

Fair comment, must have got out of bed on the wrong side, please accept my apologies.

 

What I should have said was:

 

1) While there is noise in stock prices there is also a signal. Determining how much of one and how much of the other is non trivial, but in this case it is a pretty clear indicator of the market's estimate of the value of sales lost through a bad launch. 10% is a nasty hit, but it leaves ample scope for recovery.

 

2) What goes down does not always go up again. Companies do go bust and disappear altogether, and big product launches that fail are often a major contributor, especially if they are repeated.

 

Hope this gets over my point in a more measured tone.

I apologize for retorting nastily as well, since you've taken your time to explain your point. Thanks for actually sparing the time to do so.

 

I understand what you mean a lot more clearly, now. However, wouldn't a single stock price still be largely meaningless, out of context, and worthless to an investor if it were just hurled at them? It's essentially a snapshot in time. However, that certainly would not apply to watching the price actively change for the worse. In the case with Ubisoft, no matter how you feel about their products as an individual customer, their value will rebound if it hasn't however. Now, if you found a steady downward trend, that'd render my statement meaningless in such case as you have a large sampling size of prices that indicate trouble.

 

Hope that makes sense, I won't pretend to be the expert here I just fly for a living.

[unreasonable]

@MiG21bisFishbedL

 

No that makes perfect sense, a single stock price is only a snapshot, it is the change over time that contains the signal.

 

A big move like the reaction to a bad new product launch just represents the market's initial reaction, based on what investors know now.  Faced with a bad launch, Ubisoft will try to solve the short term problem of the current title, and also takes steps to make sure the next launch is better handled.

 

If, in the short term, Ubi fixes glitches quickly and does some good marketing, we could expect much of the initial drop to reverse. If it struggles to fix the game before other titles come along and shut the "full price window", there may be no reversal or even a deterioration in share price.  I do not know enough about Ubisoft to say which would be more appropriate. This information will trickle out over time, so we should see the large intitial move followed by a trend up or down. Of course this could all be obscured by the effects of other company or global news.

 

Longer term, the question is whether whatever went wrong in the project's management will be fixed.  As of now, the market will be 90% assuming that it will, but if the next big launch is a dud, the market's reaction will be much more severe.  Even stockbrokers understand that everyone makes mistakes, that is forgivable as long as you come clean and fix the problem.

What leads to total loss of confidence is unwillingness or inability of management to make the necessary changes.

 

Private companies obviously do not get these clear price signals!

 

Wish I could have flown for a living - lousy eyesight and worse reactions put paid to that.

[Matt]

Installed Far Cry 4 today and the game just wouldn't launch. It got stuck and only showed a black/dark grey screen. Had to google for a solution, which was that you need to deactivate all HID which you don't need (or alternatively, just unplug all controllers which you don't need). That worked and the game booted using a resolution of 1840x1150. I wasn't even aware that such a resolution existed and it for sure wasn't my desktop resolution (and of course it didn't ask which resolution i would like to choose before it booted).

 

Not even in the mood to actually play it now.

 

But i guess it will be worth it in the end.

[Matt]

My fear was unjustified. I played FC4 for three hours, no bugs (only one tiny graphic issue, because it rendered a building too late at one point), looks absolutely fantastic, great performance on my system (i'm running on very high preset, did not bother with settings yet, but it's 100% customizable), great voice actors and it's just as enjoyable as FC3. Same "resistance vs. evil maniac" storyline. Also similar crafting and skill system and the same camp capturing and climbing radio towers stuff.

 

So apart from the starting issue, Ubisoft did a good job. It's basically a copy of FC3 in a different setting, but that was obvious since the first previews and trailers showed up.

[SeriousFox]

UBIsoft and other big publishers deserves it. They literally selling slightly upgraded version of AAA titles with $60 price tag with the bunch of DLCs.

 

Game content is getting worse and worse, it's the same game with different story or grahpics.

 

The game is full of bugs, performance issues. Feels like PC port is made by bunch of amateur developers(according to UBIsoft CEO, PC port is made by small branch studio and he doesn't care about PC version's quality or user experience.) and even console version has lots of issues these days.

Edited November 19, 2014 by SeriousFox

[-NW-ChiefRedCloud]

Installed Far Cry 4 today and the game just wouldn't launch. It got stuck and only showed a black/dark grey screen. Had to google for a solution, which was that you need to deactivate all HID which you don't need (or alternatively, just unplug all controllers which you don't need). That worked and the game booted using a resolution of 1840x1150. I wasn't even aware that such a resolution existed and it for sure wasn't my desktop resolution (and of course it didn't ask which resolution i would like to choose before it booted).

 

Not even in the mood to actually play it now.

 

But i guess it will be worth it in the end.

 

Yea I noticed in AC3 I did not have to unplug all my flight sim stuff, but in AC4 it acted totally odd, i.e. none controllable character, till I unplugged ALL my Flight sim stuff. Kind of stupid but perhaps there is a reason for it.

 

Chief

[DD_Crash]

To be honest Frontier Developments have joined in with the offline fiasco of Elite: Dangerous

[=LD=Hethwill]

We all saw Microprose, Activision, LucasFilms, and other big names in long gone years. They came really down at a point and some recovered ( thanks to independent developers that helped them mostly ). So it is natural evolution.

 

Right now we are the ONLINE age and there is no way around it. The hype with the new possibilities of the net code is as important as the first "real" 3D started to show up.

 

Some big companies just can't cope with the new tech. They can't redesign their production flow and adapt. Ubi is going through that, and mind you Ubisoft is a Producer not a Developer nor even a join venture.

 

What we see nowadays is a democratization of game industry, same as music 20 years ago with the boom of IRC sharing and Napster. Now is all about Indie developers, great games, absolutely great but with no chance because they lack the Producer, the big flashy marketeer.

 

Good news for us is - the Indie games have to be 10 times better than a similar AAA game for it to be noticed and completely blow the charts off. Meaning we really get a great game for Indie bucks ( usually $20 ).

 

Companies that won't improve their code for full online experience are doomed in the short run.

[SOLIDKREATE]

Assasins Creed fails as a game on so many levels. I HATE the pre determined animations and the linear gameplay.

[Yakdriver]

Ubisoft went on my "never buy from again" after they destroyed the Subsim genre.

+1 here

[-NW-ChiefRedCloud]

Assasins Creed fails as a game on so many levels. I HATE the pre determined animations and the linear gameplay.

 

Considering that "pre determined animation" is used extensively in many games, do you hate them also?

 

Chief

[MarcoRossolini]

Chief I think I can explain Spektre's point, my (frankly limited) experience of Assassin's creed has led me to dislike it because of how all you have to do is click a single button and your character does this impressive martial arts move... It doesn't feel much like you're genuinely doing it for yourself as part of the game, it's as if your hand is being held by the game and all you do is left click or something...

 

 

Maybe with later games its changed...

[johncage]

ubisoft is like ea. everyone bitches about them, but come game release time. oh look, suddenly everyone wants to buy it again. it's funny, because it's not even the sim community, ea hatred is universal and ubisoft hatred is becoming universal. but for some reason their games sell like hotcakes.

 

it's odd.

[Matt]

Meanwhile, AC Unity Season pass or Gold Edition owners can get one of the following games for free:

 

The Crew, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Rayman Legends, Just Dance 2015

 

Now i really wish i would've bought the Season Pass, would've saved me the 59 EUR for Far Cry 4 and i guess by the time i'm done with Far Cry 4, Unity might be in a playable state.

 

http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-GB/community/liveupdates/live_updates_details.aspx?c=tcm:154-186650-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32

[3instein]

Chief I think I can explain Spektre's point, my (frankly limited) experience of Assassin's creed has led me to dislike it because of how all you have to do is click a single button and your character does this impressive martial arts move... It doesn't feel much like you're genuinely doing it for yourself as part of the game, it's as if your hand is being held by the game and all you do is left click or something...

 

 

Maybe with later games its changed...

It has actually got a lot worse with AC Unity, you just need to hold the "E" button now and you can just run up and down buildings like some kind of spiderman, I mean you can't fall off them any more. It feels really horrible when, you wan't to climb down the side of a building you just run towards the edge and instantly you will sort of parkour down at speed with no effort on your part at all.

 

Another instance of the dumbing down of games for the masses, sad but true.

 

Mick.

[=LD=Hethwill]

http://newsletter.ubisoft.com/en-gb/2014/11/25_ACUP3/25_ACUP3.html

 

an apology note. Worth for what is worth.

Edited November 28, 2014 by =LD=Hethwill_Khan