You probably already know what’s happening with Ubisoft, so I don’t want to get too into the weeds here. Essentially, Ubisoft divebombed its own stocks recently by canceling a bunch of games and reorganizing their company into different creative houses to focus on the series that people are aggressively tired of. My guess is one house will make open world games with busy UIs, another house will also make open world games with busy UIs, and a third house will just make games that never come out.
Okay, to be honest, I’m not mad at the creative house that’s responsible for games like Uno. They’re the lucky ones. But as a long time video game fan and a person who wants other people to keep their jobs, it’s hard to watch Ubisoft self-immolating again and again over the years. On the other hand, it’s almost stunning to know that Ubisoft makes more mistakes than I do in my personal life.
Ubisoft’s List Of Mistakes Are Endless
Now, it’s probably unfair to compare my own personal failings to the trials and tribulations of an international video game conglomerate. But it’s also unfair to cancel the remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which is easily one of the best games of its generation. Why did they do that? They basically said it just wasn’t coming together that well. Which I believe because the most recent crop of Ubisoft’s releases seemed to also operate under the foundational premise of being games that don’t come together that well.
It’s Unbelievable That Assassin’s Creed Cancelled Its Coolest Concept Ever
Leave it to Ubisoft to refuse to take a moral stand.
I once interviewed for a job on a popular show and I blankly responded, “You know, stuff” to the question, “What have you been watching lately?” I didn’t get the job, yet somehow that mistake pales in comparison to a company that can’t keep money in its pocket or genitals in its pants.
Ubisoft, baby, what are you doing? I mean, I get it. I’ve made bad career moves, too. I’ve ignored job offers that would’ve benefitted my career and I’ve certainly slept through major calls that could’ve changed my life. The fact that my life sucks now is largely contributable to my own anxiety-driven laziness and fear-propelled avoidance. And yet even I have never made the mistake of thinking I should eject a half dozen projects while claiming that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still coming. It’s not. We can stop pretending now. It’s alright. The window has passed.
Show of hands – who remembers anything about Beyond Good & Evil other than the lady on the cover and the giant pig? I see two, maybe three hands out there. Great. The equivalent would be me quitting every gig I currently have while telling everyone I was turning my full attention to writing a trilogy of steampunk novels. Even if I wasn’t pretty much lying to myself, I’m not sure it’s the best use of my time at this point.
Ubisoft Made So Many Changes To Keep Making The Same Mistakes
Seriously, I once took a job and moved to a different state to get out of a bad relationship rather than confronting the actual problem. That was really messy. But not nearly as messy as firing a bunch of staff, crashing your stock, and also tossing that “most beloved French video game company” trophy over to Sandfall Interactive. All it took was one earnest roleplaying game that didn’t fill its entire screen with notifications and demands that I pay more money upfront to eventually, possibly get the complete experience.
Hell, I only applied to two colleges because most college applications wanted an SAT 2 or ACT score and I didn’t feel like taking those. Smart decision? Not at all! Better than a company dumping its legacy titles and putting even more emphasis on games as a service? Yes. Yes it was. Because I made good money off my college education but the more Ubisoft focuses on pew pew bang bang extraction shooters, the less well it seems to do?
As someone who’s made phenomenally bad decisions, even I’m baffled by this company. I once asked out a girl in school with a four page vampire poem. The guidance counselor told me it was creepy. And that’s still not embarrassing as Ubisoft doing a complete company reset and seemingly ending up in the same position as before. I was in a catastrophic marriage for literally one year and that still turned out better for everyone involved. At least my marriage didn’t end with me moving deck chairs around the Titanic in hopes of solving the underlying iceberg issue.
I know I’m being negative here. And I wish the situation wasn’t so bad! I love a lot of Ubisoft’s games, especially the aforementioned Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Beyond Good & Evil. Hell, I’ve bought and enjoyed Far Cry games, so sometimes Ubisoft and I are making those bad decisions together – both likely due to too much wine and hubris.
And I also know that everyday development teams aren’t making these business mistakes nor should they be the ones getting a pink slip for their bosses’ bad decisions. At the same time, Ubisoft needs to get it together, man. I’ve been there. I’ve fallen apart. I’ve had personal failures that make me want to change everything, even if the result is me changing absolutely nothing. Yeah, I’m really quitting drinking this time – but let’s do one last party to make sure it sticks.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Take it from me. You don’t need to drive away friends. You don’t need to tell everyone you’re getting your act together as an excuse to never get your act together. You don’t need to cut your own hair and give yourself bangs. That last metaphor doesn’t really apply to me because my head looks like a giant idiot egg, but still. I just want to see that Ubisoft magic again. I want there to be one news story about the company that doesn’t involve the collapsing triple-A game business. Give me anything other than bad news and bad press. If I can try to pull myself out of that hole, you can too. That said, I have yet to pull myself out of that hole so who am I to talk.
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