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Tom Henderson - Ubisoft's Board is Launching an Investigation Into The Company

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Lmao, even Ubisoft stock is getting the "Ubisoft discounts"
About 8 years ago (I took a guess there but it was definitely the PS4/One era), Costco Canada would dump off Ass Creed discs after the new year for I think $25 CDN. lol Happened 3 years in a row from what I remember. Probably happened more times but didnt catch it. lol

Give UBI credit. They are discount friendly.

The investors shorting or doing put options making a killing.
 
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FunkMiller

Member
Do fuck off Yves. You’ve let a bunch of rapey cunts stay in their jobs, while simultaneously pushing agendas that are meant to be ‘inclusive’.

The sooner your shitty fucking company goes to the wall, the better.
 

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Do fuck off Yves.
I don't think Ubisoft should/needs to no longer exist, but Yves needs to go.

A big part of Ubisoft's problem is they tried to force creativity into a dumb process where a handful of people got to decide what all their games would look/play/feel like. I think they changed that structure a number of years ago, but we're still feeling the ramifications of those. It's why all their open world games play the same.

Remember that year when Child of Light and Valiant Hearts came out?

Side note, I applied for a job to be a designer on the team building an asset management software for them years ago. Them describing their vision for it, and the disorganized nature of the teams I spoke with is something I'll never forget.
 

FunkMiller

Member
Took a peep over at the asylum and I saw someone commented that it was us "Gamergaters" that caused the poor sales of Outlaws

lT2Y6py.jpeg

Resetera: ‘JK Rowling says men can’t become women! Burn her at the stake! Boycott the Hogwarts game!!!’

Also ResetEra: ‘Staff at Ubisoft guilty of sexual offences against women. Ah… that’s fine, when is the next inclusive game out?’
 

GudOlRub

Member
I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience
This is the quote that baffles me, they could've made Shadows a preorder sales success quite safely by having both protagonists be Japanese, hell they could even have absolutely zero white people in the game and then include Yasuke as a side character as per every other AC game with real people. No one would bat an eye or scream wOkEnEsS except the batshit lunatics from the extreme sides of the spectrum.
But instead they do this and still claim they're trying to create games for the "broadest possible audience", as if going in this direction would not cause a shitshow and split the discourse around this game between legitimate criticism and a full blown culture war between crazy people :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Well done Ubisoft.


I like the improvements they've commited to with their future games, but I'd like to suggest one more. Please shoot the person who came up with the idea of bloating their singleplayer games to then introduce paid XP savers. Do it Yves. K thx bye.
 
Time will fix this. This companies, don't mater how big they are, can't lose money forever. If they do, they will go broke and others will replace them.
Money will always talk louder. As long as most people don't support this agendas, those companies will fail sooner or later.
And as we can see, most people don't support this.
While true, in the meantime they are tainting much beloved IPs/franchises, which maybe was the goal all along.
How many of them have suffered from this taint. Just off the top of my head: Disney, Star Wars, Marvel and DC (including comics, movies, TV shows), Indiana Jones, James Bond (possibly), Gears of War, etc
 

Pejo

Gold Member
Back to Steam on day 1 eh you filthy animals?
iu


Anyways, I wonder if anything will actually change, or if this is (most likely) just investor lip service since they're in the hot seat right now. From the previews I saw, the gameplay in Shadows looked kinda bad, the parkour was super floaty and weird looking, and it didn't instill me with any sense of joy, but I think they've outright poisoned the well with the game by now. No amount of polish and bug fixing is going to make people excited for the game that wouldn't have already bought it in its current state. I don't see the point.

If they want to prove anything to me, they will release a new 2D Rayman. *cough cough*.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Yep. My wife refused to let our daughters watch Buzz Lightyear because she heard about the controversy. She isn’t even political. Just hates woke shit as much as the next person.
That scene was so obviously crammed in there just for the sake of virtue signaling, it was ridiculous.

But the whole movie just fucking sucked. We took our kids along with our neighbors and their kids. I don’t think a single kid or adult in that theater gave a flying fuck about the movie. Slightly too complicated for the kids, too stupid for the adults, and totally dull with zero charm or humor. The lesbian kiss was honestly the only thing I even remember about it. That was the last Disney movie we saw in the theater until Inside Out 2.

Anyway I think it relates to what Ubisoft is experiencing. Even kids and normies can tell the difference between a soulless entertainment product filled with overt moralizing and The Message vs a compelling story based on timeless and universal themes. People are getting really good at detecting the “modern audiences” stink and are avoiding it at all costs.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Let's see some points to consider how fucked Ubisoft is

- Black Flag can be considered the first big lie, having a crossgen that just has a better resolution on the, at the time, next gen consoles
- Watch Dogs graphics fiasco of E3 compared to the final product, and by choice since it was found in the PC files and it can be turned on
- Far Cry Primal having the same map as previous game
- Beyond Good and Evil 2 having a teaser for the sake of marketing
- A whole lot of games not having quality control whatsoever
- a Star Wars game, buggy and with a open world very limited, having a real life beautiful as hell model turned into square faced character
- choosing a black guy as a primary character on a feudal Japan setting

That's just out my head
 
This is the quote that baffles me, they could've made Shadows a preorder sales success quite safely by having both protagonists be Japanese, hell they could even have absolutely zero white people in the game and then include Yasuke as a side character as per every other AC game with real people. No one would bat an eye or scream wOkEnEsS except the batshit lunatics from the extreme sides of the spectrum.
But instead they do this and still claim they're trying to create games for the "broadest possible audience", as if going in this direction would not cause a shitshow and split the discourse around this game between legitimate criticism and a full blown culture war between crazy people :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Well done Ubisoft.


I like the improvements they've commited to with their future games, but I'd like to suggest one more. Please shoot the person who came up with the idea of bloating their singleplayer games to then introduce paid XP savers. Do it Yves. K thx bye.
Don't kid yourself, the people pushing the agenda wanted this. They wanted this reaction, they deliberately provoked it, just so they can get this reaction, which allows them to turn around and call gamers racist. Which is their ultimate goal, to "prove" how racist everyone is.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Real talk, the one two punch of Concord's historic failure happening at the same time of Wukong's crazy heights has created ripples. At the end of the day, these fucks just want to make money. One is a cautionary tale, one is a path forward.
This is the most important thing, and one that gamers should never lose sight of.

These public companies are interested in only money. And we can force them change directions by consistently voting with our wallets. They will abandon all agendas and strategies if their bottom line is affected.

Just like what's happening with Ubisoft right now. This is the only language corporations understand.
 

Kotaro

Member
I think several high profile DEI projects failing badly recently is an eye-opening for gaming executives.

THE WOKES ARE LOSING BADLY!

Now even corporate PRs openly claim that they are neutral, not pushing any agenda. Though talks are cheap, your products reflect your true intention, and that's what we monitor. AC: Shadows is WOKE thru and thru, so that will get a boycott
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Ubisoft is getting so cheap. Only 1B market cap or so.....could probably be bought for 1.5B....or half of Bungie. I'm shocked nobody is scooping them up but they have a lot of problems, but I also think their brand IP is still probably worth their current stock price.

It's a DEEP FUCKING VALUE stock right now for sure. Cheap for a reason, but long-term....probably a good play.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
Ubisoft is getting so cheap. Only 1B market cap or so.....could probably be bought for 1.5B....or half of Bungie. I'm shocked nobody is scooping them up but they have a lot of problems, but I also think their brand IP is still probably worth their current stock price.

It's a DEEP FUCKING VALUE stock right now for sure. Cheap for a reason, but long-term....probably a good play.
Agree that getting that IP catalog for 1.5B would be worth it, if the buyer has the means to actually create something with it. I don't think it's valuable in the way that Mario or Pokemon is that they can just sit on the IPs and rake in cash, though.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Agree that getting that IP catalog for 1.5B would be worth it, if the buyer has the means to actually create something with it. I don't think it's valuable in the way that Mario or Pokemon is that they can just sit on the IPs and rake in cash, though.

True.

It's a turnaround project. But there's no reason they can't make Ass Creed great and into a cash cow. Their standards are shit, focusing on the wrong things. They just need to make it GREAT again and not some cookie cutter bloated shit that it's turned into
 

delishcaek

Member
Investors/the board shouldn't just launch an investigation, they should sue their asses. Yves clearly lied during the last investor call where he said that sentiment surrounding Star Wars and AC Shadows was positive. The fact that Yves is again spouting all this shit in his internal memo is infuriating to watch. They're all sticking their heads into sand at this point.

Ubisoft is getting so cheap. Only 1B market cap or so.....could probably be bought for 1.5B....or half of Bungie. I'm shocked nobody is scooping them up but they have a lot of problems, but I also think their brand IP is still probably worth their current stock price.

It's a DEEP FUCKING VALUE stock right now for sure. Cheap for a reason, but long-term....probably a good play.
It's because they have over 20000 employees, tons of studios and buildings. To put that number into perspective ABK and EA have 13-14k employees, SIE, Embracer and Take2 have around 12k.

You can buy them for cheap, but you'd have at least $1b per year of extra cost attached to it unless you just fire all of them. lol
 
Assassins Creed in competent hands would be something incredible. I think that IP alone is worth +1B.

The problem is that the current Ubi is full of liabilities. You are buying a crumbling house with at least 10K illegal occupants you need to kick out. It's a huge cost plus a PR nightmare. None in his right mind would pull the trigger.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Investors/the board shouldn't just launch an investigation, they should sue their asses. Yves clearly lied during the last investor call where he said that sentiment surrounding Star Wars and AC Shadows was positive.
This is probably the crux of this, investors do not give a damn about woke or alphabet mafia. However when you are a stock company you need to be VERY careful what is exactly that you are saying. Could also be someone got caught inside trading lol.
 

DJTaurus

Member
I think several high profile DEI projects failing badly recently is an eye-opening for gaming executives.

THE WOKES ARE LOSING BADLY!

Now even corporate PRs openly claim that they are neutral, not pushing any agenda. Though talks are cheap, your products reflect your true intention, and that's what we monitor. AC: Shadows is WOKE thru and thru, so that will get a boycott
They are becoming a thing of the past.



Even zucherberg is becoming more based. Imagine how beneficial a few ji jitsu lessons are :p
 

Lord Panda

The Sea is Always Right
Ubisoft is getting so cheap. Only 1B market cap or so.....could probably be bought for 1.5B....or half of Bungie. I'm shocked nobody is scooping them up but they have a lot of problems, but I also think their brand IP is still probably worth their current stock price.

It's a DEEP FUCKING VALUE stock right now for sure. Cheap for a reason, but long-term....probably a good play.

At this point, the only thing that might boost the share price is another takeover attempt because there's nothing else going for Ubisoft right now.
 

Roufianos

Member
How to fix Ubisoft:

- Get rid of their creatively bankrupt, trend chasing chump of a CEO
- Trim the workforce by 75%
- Make smaller games, linear Tom Clancy ones and 30 hour open worlds
- Hire some actual talented story tellers and open world designers
- Differentiate the portfolio instead of having every game feel the same
 
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Kacho

Gold Member
Ashraf Ismail, the director of AC Black Flag and AC Origins, easily some of their best games, was forced to resign after being scandalized for allegedly cheating on his wife. As if that's any of the company's business.
I wonder if that’s the reason for the drop in quality from Origins to Valhalla.

Bayek is is one of the best characters with great motivations, while Eivor is the most dull, IMO.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
I wonder if that’s the reason for the drop in quality from Origins to Valhalla.

Bayek is is one of the best characters with great motivations, while Eivor is the most dull, IMO.
TBH already in Odyssey you could see the bloat, it's only because even if they started to correct course it would have been too late for Valhalla (Odyssey - October 2018 ; Valhalla - November 2020), but then they did change it with Mirage and (it looks like) Shadows.
 

hinch7

Member
And they did ? How ? Because for me they still are doubling down on their woke stances
Rumor going around is that after the success of Deadpool & Wolverine; they are cleaning house everywhere, but Lucasfilm.

Which would make sense because they are prepping for the next Avengers movie.
 
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Bernardougf

Member
Rumor going around is that after the success of Deadpool & Wolverine; they are cleaning house everywhere, but Lucasfilm.

Which would make sense because they are prepping for the next Avengers movie.
I heard that too .. but given the size and history of woke support... if they were axing people left and right and changing discourse the main stream would already pick that up ... but even if its only marvel thars already something.
 

Kurotri

Member
Ashraf Ismail, the director of AC Black Flag and AC Origins, easily some of their best games, was forced to resign after being scandalized for allegedly cheating on his wife. As if that's any of the company's business.
It's because he apparently used his position to, you know, get some. Flirting with fans and trying to use his position as the director of AC.

All's well that ends well though he found work at Tencent lol.

Unfortunately a lot of talented people at Ubi were just people that weren't really clean or conducting themselves properly.

I wonder if that’s the reason for the drop in quality from Origins to Valhalla.

Bayek is is one of the best characters with great motivations, while Eivor is the most dull, IMO.
Probably not. Valhalla was made by the same team, same lead writers and directors that made Origins, including that specific director.
 

GudOlRub

Member
I wonder if that’s the reason for the drop in quality from Origins to Valhalla.

Bayek is is one of the best characters with great motivations, while Eivor is the most dull, IMO.
I would argue it's because of the change to dual protagonists, some games managed to pull it off well like Mass Effect and Cyberpunk 2077, but the protagonists in AC games really took a turn for the worse as soon as they began giving players this choice. Even Connor has more charisma than Kassandra/Alexios and Eivor...
I don't know how well a director that used to make single protag ACs would adapt to this change.

AC games were always at their strongest when they focused on a single character and their strengths, but then Ubisoft tried to have their cake and eat it too and it backfired. Male and Female characters do not and should never feel the same imo, each one needs to have their own little quirks and personalities, ubi tried to make them a blank slate, completely equal to one another only with different appearances and voices and this is what we got.

Like, playing as male V in CP2077 absolutely does not feel the same as female V and that's great imo, both are fun but also give you a different vibe depending on whom you're playing as. Same for Mass Effect.
 

hinch7

Member
I heard that too .. but given the size and history of woke support... if they were axing people left and right and changing discourse the main stream would already pick that up ... but even if its only marvel thars already something.
Easy to start to getting rid of, or not hire known activist producers and directors and go from there. Screen writers too. Might not affect projects releasing soon, but over the next few years we'll probably start to see a lot less pandering.
 
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Bernardougf

Member
Easy to start to getting rid of, or not hiring known activist producers and directors and go from there. Screen writers too. Might not affect projects releasing soon but over the next few years we'll probably start to see a lot less pandering.
But you can also change just the leadership ... if the leadership is leaning one way the woketards will peace out and the ones not so retards will just stfu and do their job. With normal good leadership things can auto correct
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
I would argue it's because of the change to dual protagonists, some games managed to pull it off well like Mass Effect and Cyberpunk 2077, but the protagonists in AC games really took a turn for the worse as soon as they began giving players this choice. Even Connor has more charisma than Kassandra/Alexios and Eivor...
I don't know how well a director that used to make single protag ACs would adapt to this change.

AC games were always at their strongest when they focused on a single character and their strengths, but then Ubisoft tried to have their cake and eat it too and it backfired. Male and Female characters do not and should never feel the same imo, each one needs to have their own little quirks and personalities, ubi tried to make them a blank slate, completely equal to one another only with different appearances and voices and this is what we got.

Like, playing as male V in CP2077 absolutely does not feel the same as female V and that's great imo, both are fun but also give you a different vibe depending on whom you're playing as. Same for Mass Effect.
Not to mention double protagonist adds to the cost and time to produce a game - new animations, double the audio recordings, new item art, etc. I think Ubi doesn't really know how to run a lean operation, they are probably one of the largest companies making games headcount-wise.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Ashraf Ismail, the director of AC Black Flag and AC Origins, easily some of their best games, was forced to resign after being scandalized for allegedly cheating on his wife. As if that's any of the company's business.
At my old company, there was a love triangle and everyone knew it. One guy dumped one of them and married the other. lol. I just missed it all as I joined when one person was just leaving.

Not surprisingly, they had to split them all apart across the floor.

But they didnt fire anyone. From what I saw from the two people who remained when I was there, they seemed to do fine work and never saw any hissyfits between them. They just stayed out each others way and the didnt work on the same team. They had roles which would never interact with each other too.

And then another biggie that happened when long left the company. Two different people married with kids, broke off from their spouses and hooked up. Exec level too. The company rotated the lower role person to a different job so they dont interact with each other. Both still there like nothing happened. lol
 
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hinch7

Member
But you can also change just the leadership ... if the leadership is leaning one way the woketards will peace out and the ones not so retards will just stfu and do their job. With normal good leadership things can auto correct
The word is on the grapevine is that Bob Iger is looking for a replacement. So likely shareholders aren't happy. Kathleen Kennedy ain't budging so she must have some shit on him, and/or some or the other higher ups at Disney.

Its so fustrating because all fans want is good movies and entertainment back. I personally couldn't care less about management of a company unless they fuck up to such a degree. Its like current PlayStation. Utter shambles.
 
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