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[Deleted member 80556]

Kicking and screaming.

I for one think this might be good for Ubi.

No thanks. It would be horrible just for a CEO change in Vivendi that hates games and just trashes Ubisoft.

Even if you think this irony for what happened to Patrice, even if you think their games suck, there are thousands of people working in Ubisoft, many of which do not work in AAA games that might as well lose their jobs because the Vivendi CEO might not be interested in low to mid-tier games.

 

[CertifiedFP]

Kicking and screaming.

I for one think this might be good for Ubi.

Uh, did you completely miss Activision's decade of nothing but WoW and CoD?

Vivendi would completely kill any Ubi attempts at smaller games and new IPs.

 

[legacyzero]

No thanks. It would be horrible just for a CEO change in Vivendi that hates games and just trashes Ubisoft.

Even if you think this irony for what happened to Patrice, even if you think their games suck, there are thousands of people working in Ubisoft, many of which do not work in AAA games that might as well lose their jobs because the Vivendi CEO might not be interested in low to mid-tier games.

Uh, did you completely miss Activision's decade of nothing but WoW and CoD?

Vivendi would completely kill any Ubi attempts at smaller games and new IPs.

I'm empathetic to that. I really am.

I'm more-so aiming at the overall problems that Ubisoft has, and their unwillingness to change them. *Disclosure: I have a personal anger against ubi for various reasons too.

Which is all unfortunate, because every now and again, they do something fantastic. I'm currently enjoying the living hell out of RB6 Siege.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

I'm empathetic to that. I really am.

I'm more-so aiming at the overall problems that Ubisoft has, and their unwillingness to change them. *Disclosure: I have a personal anger against ubi for various reasons too.

Which is all unfortunate, because every now and again, they do something fantastic. I'm currently enjoying the living hell out of RB6 Siege.

I understand, legacy, but I don't see how this would help those problems.

 

[xRaizen]

I'm empathetic to that. I really am.

I'm more-so aiming at the overall problems that Ubisoft has, and their unwillingness to change them. *Disclosure: I have a personal anger against ubi for various reasons too.

Which is all unfortunate, because every now and again, they do something fantastic. I'm currently enjoying the living hell out of RB6 Siege.

Vivendi would call RB6 a dead game and you probably will not see another game for a decade. They'd run AC, WD, and Division to the ground just like they did with Guitar Hero, CoD, and WoW.

Ubi as it is now may not be amazing but it would just be 100% horrible with a Vivendi take over. I for one would miss the Trackmania games.

 

[JaseC]

The message to Vincent Bollore and Vivendi SA: Back off or the talent will leave and you’ll end up buying an empty shell.

An almost insultingly transparent bluff. "Back off, company, or we'll leave stable employment!", said no developer ever. One could also make a joke about how Ubisoft has its game design to such a science that it has no need for core creative talent.

 

[oti]

I feel like Guillemot would be legit heartbroken if this came to be.

 

[Setsuna]

Assassins Creed is the epitome of stagnant game design. Mario games are more creatively diverse than their big releases.

uhh . . . No. You are wrong

You can say you don't like Assassins creed because of the base gameplay of utilizing blades is the same, but the game design itself is not stagnant

 

[dex3108]

Ubisoft has issues but people who are denying their creativity and diversity are in my opinion drive by hate mostly.

Ubisoft is currently only big AAA publisher (if i remember correctly) who is doing VR title. They were first to support Wii U. They tried risky things with AAA games like Far Cry Primal (franchise known as Skyrim with guns), they are working on titles like South Park and For Honor and who knows on what else. They allow personal projects like Grow Home and AC# and FC4 creative director is working on smaller personal project too. When most MP shooters are casual these days they went and made Rainbow Six Siege where there is no re-spawn and there are one shoot kills.

Yes they reuse mechanics across their IPs but they also do some cool things. Just remember when EA released new IP.

 

[Harmen]

To be fair, I do think Ubisoft is creative and they do quite some bold moves at some times. The quality and focus can be lacking and they do have basic formulas in terms of open world design, but many of their games have very unique elements to them. I think the focus/execution is often wrong, but Ubisoft does have a lot of great ideas (ACIII, for example, tried so many new things in one game that it failed at almost every single element; AC Unity also did not have a lack of ambition).

Ubisoft has issues but people who are denying their creativity and diversity are in my opinion drive by hate mostly.

Ubisoft is currently only big AAA publisher (if i remember correctly) who is doing VR title. They were first to support Wii U. They tried risky things with AAA games like Far Cry Primal (franchise known as Skyrim with guns), they are working on titles like South Park and For Honor and who knows on what else. They allow personal projects like Grow Home and AC# and FC4 creative director is working on smaller personal project too. When most MP shooters are casual these days they went and made Rainbow Six Siege where there is no re-spawn and there are one shoot kills.

Yes they reuse mechanics across their IPs but they also do some cool things. Just remember when EA released new IP.

I agree. I guess it is cool to hate Ubi. I mean, by all means give them shit for releasing messy titles or criticise their need to pour our entries of AC and FC every year. But a lack of creativity and ambition is not a problem Ubi has at all.

 

[Ogodei]

Where would the talent go in Europe, though? There are no publishers on that level, unless SE is building up old Eidos capacity. Sony and Microsoft have been ramping down their UK operations too.

Would this be more than an empty threat if the rubber hit the road and people did have to face the choice of walking or working for Vivendi?

 

[Crossing Eden]

Kicking and screaming.

I for one think this might be good for Ubi.

This would be the complete opposite of good for this company. Especially knowing what they have in store for the near future. Get over your childish vendetta and think for a second about the reality of the situation and the actual implications of what would happen if Vivendi would take over.

 

[aadiboy]

So they're going to fire all the good employees just to avoid getting bought? Why not just get bought? This literally sounds like one of the stupidest ideas ever, unless I'm missing something.

 

[Dragonborn]

So they're going to fire all the good employees just to avoid getting bought? Why not just get bought? This literally sounds like one of the stupidest ideas ever, unless I'm missing something.

It's more of a threat. It's up to Vivendi to call the bluff I Guess

 

[Crossing Eden]

So they're going to fire all the good employees just to avoid getting bought? Why not just get bought? This literally sounds like one of the stupidest ideas ever, unless I'm missing something.

Vivendi would be one of the worst companies to get bought by.

 

[JaseC]

Ubisoft has issues but people who are denying their creativity and diversity are in my opinion drive by hate mostly.

Ubisoft is currently only big AAA publisher (if i remember correctly) who is doing VR title. They were first to support Wii U. They tried risky things with AAA games like Far Cry Primal (franchise known as Skyrim with guns), they are working on titles like South Park and For Honor and who knows on what else. They allow personal projects like Grow Home and AC# and FC4 creative director is working on smaller personal project too. When most MP shooters are casual these days they went and made Rainbow Six Siege where there is no re-spawn and there are one shoot kills.

Yes they reuse mechanics across their IPs but they also do some cool things. Just remember when EA released new IP.

Something PC gamers may also appreciate is the fact that Ubi lets its third-party development partners choose whether or not they want to use Uplay. (Even Ubisoft employees are given the option for lower-budget projects.) That other publisher does not.

 

[Taker34]

Where would the talent go in Europe, though? There are no publishers on that level, unless SE is building up old Eidos capacity. Sony and Microsoft have been ramping down their UK operations too.

Would this be more than an empty threat if the rubber hit the road and people did have to face the choice of walking or working for Vivendi?

There are enough good European studios left: SIEE (Guerilla Games and Cambridge, Media Molecule), Quanitic Dream, Rockstar North, DICE, CD Projekt Red, Remedy etc.

Personally I think, we could see Ubisoft destroying themselves before being bought and destroyed by Viacom. Never underestimate the French.

 

[VariantX]

So they're going to fire all the good employees just to avoid getting bought? Why not just get bought? This literally sounds like one of the stupidest ideas ever, unless I'm missing something.

The IP that UBI owns have value, but its nothing compared to the value of the talent that makes those IP successful in the first place. There's a reason that Activision made damn sure everyone and their mother knew that Bungie, the creators of Halo were behind the creation of Destiny.

 

[JaseC]

The IP that UBI owns have value, but its nothing compared to the value of the talent that makes those IP successful in the first place. There's a reason that Activision made damn sure everyone and their mother knew that Bungie, the creators of Halo were behind the creation of Destiny.

I disagree. As opposed to say, films, when it comes to games, the reputation of the IP tends to precede that of the developer itself. You'd get a lot more responses to the affirmative if the question were "Are you familiar with Halo?" as opposed to "Are you familiar with Bungie?".

 

[Exploratory]

Well, it's an outside perspective. Most of the stuff I read about Ubisoft is how boring their open-world games are. Or broken.

That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about detailed NYC is in The Division or the cities of Assassins Creed.

 

[Harmen]

There are enough good European studios left: SIEE (Guerilla Games and Cambridge, Media Molecule), Quanitic Dream, Rockstar North, DICE, CD Projekt Red, Remedy etc.

Personally I think, we could see Ubisoft destroying themselves before being bought and destroyed by Viacom. Never underestimate the French.

I wonder, how viable would a new start up be? As in, mostly the same studios going under a different banner than Ubisoft.

I disagree. As opposed to say, films, when it comes to games, the reputation of the IP tends to precede that of the developer itself. You'd get a lot more responses to the affirmative if the question were "Are you familiar with Halo?" as opposed to "Are you familiar with Bungie?".

Yet Bungie has Destiny as a huge new thing and MS has apparent declining Halo sales and general X-box interest. On short term currently hot ip's are very effective, but in the end it is the talent that drives and maintains the interest.

 

[Raist]

I'm gonna guess that Vivendi doesn't care about the "talent".

 

[Mass_Pincup]

I wonder, how viable would a new start up be? As in, mostly the same studios going under a different banner than Ubisoft.

They would have to have enormous amount of funding while not having any IPs to their name.

I don't think that's possible unless you're talking about just one studio in Europe or one studio in Montréal.

I need to stop reading ubisoft related threads on GAF, because the sheer amount of hate the company gets here is irrational.

It really is a lost cause, the amount of systemic shitposting in arguably every thread is really detrimental to having a good discussion about anything Ubisoft related.

 

[sjay1994]

I need to stop reading ubisoft related threads on GAF, because the sheer amount of hate the company gets here is irrational.

 

[Dubz]

They should just go private. If you're a public company, some times these things happen.

 

[Anarky]

As much as I find Ubisodt's big blockbuster games stale and repetitive, I very much like their smaller mid tier games so yeah Vivendi buying them is not a good thing.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Is there seriously nothing Ubi can do to block or object such a takeover? :/

 

[sjay1994]

I'm empathetic to that. I really am.

I'm more-so aiming at the overall problems that Ubisoft has, and their unwillingness to change them. *Disclosure: I have a personal anger against ubi for various reasons too.

Which is all unfortunate, because every now and again, they do something fantastic. I'm currently enjoying the living hell out of RB6 Siege.

Do you really think Vivendi, a company known for extreme amounts of creative stagnation, a company Activision wanted to distance themselves from is going to improve ubisoft?

Your Far Cry Map editor will be deader than it is now.

 

[Shizuka]

Where is my Child of Light 2?

 

[dex3108]

Where is my Child of Light 2?

Somewhere in there new internal division called Fun House.

 

[iNvid02]

vivendi must have one hell of a poker face

yves: let's put our cards on the table are you trying to take us over or not?
vivendi: no
yves: what are you doing
vivendi: nothing
yves: show me your phone, you're buying more shares as we speak aren't you
vivendi: yes *runs away with shares falling out of pockets*

 

[sjay1994]

To be fair, I do think Ubisoft is creative and they do quite some bold moves at some times. The quality and focus can be lacking and they do have basic formulas in terms of open world design, but many of their games have very unique elements to them. I think the focus/execution is often wrong, but Ubisoft does have a lot of great ideas (ACIII, for example, tried so many new things in one game that it failed at almost every single element; AC Unity also did not have a lack of ambition).



I agree. I guess it is cool to hate Ubi. I mean, by all means give them shit for releasing messy titles or criticise their need to pour our entries of AC and FC every year. But a lack of creativity and ambition is not a problem Ubi has at all.

The meme that drives me fucking nuts is "cookie cutter gameplay" and "hur dur, how many towers". Wow, so 3 games in their catalog have similar mechanics, so we should crucify them for it? Why don't we attack other companies and developers for doing the same? Why is it always Activision, Ubisoft and EA who get this ire? FromSoft released 3 games with a similar formula, but thats ok for some reason. Assassins Creed, Farcry and Watch Dogs have similar game loops? These fucking creatively bankrupt fucks!

Maybe... just maybe, they have a formula that works for them and people might enjoy, but because you don't enjoy it its just "I DONT LIKE THING, IT SHOULDN'T EXIST!"

Seeing shitposts like that in threads drives me nuts because its not true, they have a ton of games in their catalog that don't follow this game design and practically all studios have a formula they repeat because they are good at it/have an audience that enjoys it.

 

[Deleted member 471617]

Damn Vivendi, trying to screw up my favorite publisher and developer. Go away Vivendi, no one wants you in the gaming industry.

On a related note - to also combat this, couldn't Yves buy more stock from stockholders so he can increase the current 9% he owns to more than what Vivendi owns?

 

[Spring Drive]

Damn Vivendi, trying to screw up my favorite publisher and developer. Go away Vivendi, no one wants you in the gaming industry.

On a related note - to also combat this, couldn't Yves buy more stock from stockholders so he can increase the current 9% he owns to more than what Vivendi owns?

Vivendi has over €6 billion in cash and I don't think Guillemot is rich enough to buy back 50% of Ubisoft

Is there seriously nothing Ubi can do to block or object such a takeover? :/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_knight_(business)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_rights_plan (aka "poison pill")

 

[yagal]

It's not like Bolloré cares about talent exodus or loss in quality or popularity. Canal+ was a good exemple of that.

R.I.P Canal +

 

[Spring Drive]

Why is Vivendi interested in ubisoft? They let Activision-Blizzard go, and I just don't get why they'd want back in and with ubisoft...

Vincent Bolloré wants to build synergies between Canal Plus (TV and film production/distribution), Dailymotion (online video) and Ubisoft (video games) to build a huge, French entertainment group. Ubisoft are already working with big Hollywood studios so they're not interested in smaller, French ones

http://www.challenges.fr/blogs/game...dans-le-capital-d-ubisoft-et-de-gameloft.html

 

[ryseing]

I need to stop reading ubisoft related threads on GAF, because the sheer amount of hate the company gets here is irrational.

And everyone seems to ignore the fact that those big, "copy paste" games allow Ubi to take the risks they do.

The industry is better for having an independent Ubisoft. They're my favorite of the third party AAA pubs and Vivendi needs to stay the fuck away.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Assassins Creed is the epitome of stagnant game design. Mario games are more creatively diverse than their big releases.

That's patently false and I can back it up.

They're the most creative in terms of size of game, genre of game, artstyle. They have franchise which caters to console gamers, franchise which caters to PC gamers, franchise which caters to both. No other big publishers are working simultaneously on games as diverse as Ubisoft right now.

The fact that you only talk about Assassin's Creed games (which drastically changes its gameplay several times across the games) makes you look ignorant.

Yves seems to be the master of irony. Ubisoft is the essence of emptiness. Their widespread talent is forced to work in soulless annual franchises. Vivendi is trying to FREE the talent.

Has he even played Ubisoft games? They suck your life out through rectum and projectile vomit it back onto the screen and that's basically the game.

Another shitpost that does nothing to the discussion.

I'm out.

 

[Faenix1]

EDIT: answered above, I'm stupid

 

[AmaterasuOni]

Yves seems to be the master of irony. Ubisoft is the essence of emptiness. Their widespread talent is forced to work in soulless annual franchises. Vivendi is trying to FREE the talent.

Has he even played Ubisoft games? They suck your life out through rectum and projectile vomit it back onto the screen and that's basically the game.

 

[The Bookerman]

This makes sense.

After all, no one knows about killing creativity more than Yves Guillemot.

It's not Yves guillemot who says what goes in his games. He has other people who do that.

You should target them.

 

[sjay1994]

Yves seems to be the master of irony. Ubisoft is the essence of emptiness. Their widespread talent is forced to work in soulless annual franchises. Vivendi is trying to FREE the talent.

Has he even played Ubisoft games? They suck your life out through rectum and projectile vomit it back onto the screen and that's basically the game.

Please sir. Enlighten us on what it means to have soul.

Oh right, its a buzzword that means jack shit. If you don't like ubisoft games fine. But if you are gullible enough to believe Vivendi will improve things I dunno what to say.

 

[Hip Hop]

Please sir. Enlighten us on what it means to have soul.

Oh right, its a buzzword that means jack shit. If you don't like ubisoft games fine. But if you are gullible enough to believe Vivendi will improve things I dunno what to say.

The bandwagon hate is annoying as fuck.

Ubisoft being one of my favorite companies, I hope they pull through this. I don't want to see them change into something else.

 

[kpaadet]

No matter how you feel about Ubisoft, I doubt anyone would like them more if they were owned by Vivendi. That is unless you want them only to pump out AssCreed, Watch Dogs and The Division from here on out until they go the way of Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk and Vivendi starts looking to sell them off.

 

[Walpurgis]

I like Ubi. Unlike other publishers their size, they support new platforms with exclusives and they make new IPs. They have some shady practices like post release day review embargo and Assassin's Creed: Unity. And I wish they made meaningful side content in their games instead of the copy paste formula but they are still good, IMO. They make indie games, Rayman games and AC games. Not many publishers have such a diverse portfolio. If they don't want to be bought then I don't want them to be bought. Like it or not but no Ubi would be very bad for this industry.

 

[AmaterasuOni]

Please sir. Enlighten us on what it means to have soul.

Oh right, its a buzzword that means jack shit. If you don't like ubisoft games fine. But if you are gullible enough to believe Vivendi will improve things I dunno what to say.

Vivendi might do some good if they wreck the annual franchises and the talent would move to create some unique IPs. I actually like their artistic stuff a lot.

Definition of soul

6. Strong, deeply felt emotion conveyed by a speaker, performer, or artist: a performance that had a lot of soul.

Ubisoft games are the opposite of deep emotions.

 

[D i Z]

I hope they have something more substantial than the threat of talent leaving to defend themselves with. That's sign of desperation that isn't a repellent to a take over, it's a sign of progress and an easy to solve problem.

 

[KJRS_1993]

Ubisoft games are the opposite of deep emotions.

The opposite of deep emotions? What nonsense is that, seriously.

I'm sorry, but it's just painful to see how far people stretch to complain that they don't like Ubisoft. "The opposite of deep emotions". Wtf.

 

[sjay1994]

Vivendi might do some good if they wreck the annual franchises and the talent would move to create some unique IPs. I actually like their artistic stuff a lot.

Definition of soul


Ubisoft games are the opposite of deep emotions.

Yeah, like how they made activision output nothing but COD,WOW expansions and Hero games because they make money?

That will really help ubisoft make creative new IPs.

Activision is now doing some neat stuff with platinum, and ubisoft is doing some neat things with games like For Honor, Trials, Grow Home, etc. Those things will never happen with Vivendi. Their artistic stuff dies in favor for big money makers until the husk is dry and the IP is dead.

Even current ubisoft doesn't output the same games as much as people on GAF like to overstate. Farcry games are not yearly, nor is watch dogs. Assassins Creed and Just Dance were there only yearly things, and there is no assassins creed game this year because they realize they misteped with unity, and they couldn't act fast enough since syndicate was already too far down the pipeline.

And don't give me this snarky dictionary definition of soul bullshit.

How every person feels when they interact with a game is different. Different aspects of games like music, gameplay, story, graphics all create a different feeling within different people. Some work with some people, and some don't.

So going around spewing nonsense about "no soul" is absolute drivel from a person who realizes that their argument is simply "they don't like something" and in order to try to sound more believable use "soulless".

 

[Griss]

Put me in the 'Ubisoft makes incredibly detailed, well researched open worlds and no one can take that away from them' camp.

Whatever you might think of the gameplay, or the content within, their worlds are always brilliant.