Ubisoft

I have/had two other topics in the works that I intended to write and release before this one. Unfortunately, Ubisoft wanted to do a dumb and now, much like EA, I have to talk about it and make a point why Ubisoft is a bad gaming company on the same vein as EA. Only difference is EA is really big and really stupid and everyone knows it. Ubisoft, on the other hand, is stupid, but it doesn’t come off as obvious until you’re on the end of a deal where they leave you high and dry. This is only happening more frequently recently with the release of Assassin’s Creed IV.

Let me start out by saying I used to think Ubisoft was alright. The Prince of Persia games, especially the Sands of Time trilogy, are some of the most fun games ever. They’re also the publishers behind Trials and Trials Evolution. I’ll buy more of THOSE games in the future if done right because those have all been positive experiences for me in one way or another. No leaving a console I like in the dust. No bullshit DLC. No yearly release and not changing a damn thing. No forced online content… for one of them anyway, but the other at least makes sense. These are games that Ubisoft has done right and I wish they’d take a step back and look at these games.

Recently, Ubisoft released ZombiU on the WiiU (a year ago) and it was one of the best launch games I’ve ever seen for a platform to date. It was a true survival horror game with some unique ideas behind it. Unfortunately, the rumors of a possible sequel or follow-up of any kind were axed by Ubisoft entirely. They kept insisting they would support the WiiU and Nintendo. But that was a lie as well.

Ubisoft was going to release Rayman: Legends to the WiiU as an exclusive to help give the WiiU some titles to hold it through its first year. That would have been great… and then they delayed the game. The reason? To make versions for the other consoles as well. The WiiU version was finished. It could have been released while the other two were released later in the year. Instead, they delayed it for no reason and made it multi-platform, screwing out the gamers on the WiiU of a unique game they could enjoy MONTHS ago.

Now Ubisoft is releasing Assassin’s Creed IV on all platforms, which isn’t the problem. The problem is that they are NOT releasing any of the DLC for the game on the WiiU either. At least that was the first announcement we heard a week ago. There’s no reason why the WiiU shouldn’t be able to get it, but it isn’t. I don’t like DLC (thanks to Saints Row IV) but I know plenty of people find it worthwhile and there are plenty of gamers on the WiiU that fall into that group. But, not only that, the DLC won’t be coming to either Xbox console either. The DLC will only be a Playstation exclusive. I’ve never seen that before. Exclusive DLC for a console.

Clearly, Sony cut Ubisoft a deal that was worth it to make this happen, but I have to ask why they felt cutting two-thirds of the gaming population out sounded like a good idea when this went down. WiiU, I can sort of understand since every developer/publisher finds the small amount of people who have bought it to not be worth it (even though it is and they can shove a rusty pipe up their bum). But I’m surprised they were willing to give up the very large Xbox audience on this deal. That is EA levels of stupid risk that I’ll never understand.

But why would Sony want a deal like this? You might ask. Because Sony only has a couple of “worthwhile” exclusives that people give a shit about. They don’t have Nintendo’s massive back catalog of exclusive characters. They don’t have a Halo, Gears of War, or Rare. They cut off so many ties to their older and better exclusives like Spyro, Crash, Silent Hill, and Metal Gear and are just stuck with Uncharted, inFamous, and God Of War (all of which are kind of played out anymore). So it seems to me that Sony is just desperate for more exclusives to help push more consoles, even though most unanimously agree it is the better of the two upcoming consoles to get. I don’t see how this really “benefits” Sony in any way. I know it doesn’t benefit Ubisoft in the end at all.

So, in the end, I’ve decided to just give up on Ubisoft for the most part. If a new Prince of Persia comes out that isn’t tied to a fucking movie, I might give that a shot because that might be worth it. If a new Trials game comes out, then I’m up for more insane dirt biking action. But that’s it at this point because they’ve managed to fuck up just about everything else. And if they do release a new IP that looks promising, it’s going to be a WiiU purchase or nothing. But they should count themselves lucky, I’m just not buying EA period, which is definitely a step up for them.