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[CHC]

Honestly it probably won't. They still make superhero movies and Hollywood crap all the time in the film industry. Just treat these games like the blockbusters they are... you don't have to play ALL of them.

For example, I hadn't played AC since the first one and honestly really enjoyed Black Flag. I don't think that would have been true if I had played every annual Assassin's Creed game. Just enjoy these kind of games for what they are every now and then, and don't take them too seriously as some kind of affront to the games you do love.

Also trying to get all the collectibles or whatever, well, that's just asking to make yourself hate the game.

 

[Neuromancer]

Also trying to get all the collectibles or whatever, well, that's just asking to make yourself hate the game.

For some, I am pretty sure I got all the collectibles in Black Flag. Or 99% of them anyway. And had fun doing it.

 

[IKizzLE]

Won't implode anytime soon.
Because when it comes down to it, their mechanics are fun to play as and they have worked in the past. Don't change what isn't broken.

As long as everything around the mechanics differ wildly (fps vs a racer, assassin vs a hacker) people will continue to buy each and every one of their games.

I can already see The Division being a combination of Destiny and the mechanics of taking outposts from far cry, and that has me excited.

 

[Meffer]

It will bite them in the ass sooner or later.

 

[CHC]

For some, I am pretty sure I got all the collectibles in Black Flag. Or 99% of them anyway. And had fun doing it.

That's good, I'm glad you had fun. I think some people feel pressured to "do everything" thinking that it will offer variety and somehow enhance their enjoyment, but then it just becomes a chore.

If you like it then by all means go for it, but I think feeling pressured to collect everything is that makes some people resentful towards Ubisoft's "formula".

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I think only a couple years actually; homogenisation is a big problem of course but coupled with the rate these games are coming out?!

Remember this year alone we'll have had:
Assassins Creed Unity
Assassins Creed Rogue
Assassins Creed Liberation HD
Watch Dogs
Far Cry 4
The Crew

Plus early next year this new AC Chronicles game, which ironically enough might be different cosit's a 2D side scroller.

 

[Grief.exe]

With Raymond gone, I'm really scared about the next one lol.

At least i can always replay chaos theory and blacklist :X

You mean the same Raymond who thought Splinter Cell was too complex to achieve mainstream success?

"One of the things that held it back is despite all of the changes that have happened over the years, it's still one of the more complex and difficult games to play," Raymond told Eurogamer.

"Even though we do have core fans who are like, 'Oh, I want to have more of this experience,' when you play any other game that has stealth elements, they're all a lot more forgiving than Splinter Cell.

"The first thing you have to do when you start in a map, even in Conviction, which did go quite a bit more action-oriented than the past, is the planning phase," Raymond said, explaining her point.

"So before entering a room you've got to spend some time thinking, right, so where are the guys positioned? How will I get through here? Where's cover? How do I hide? Okay, I'm going to shoot out those lights. 'This is my strategy' is an important first phase.

"By default there aren't many games where that's the phase. Most games you can walk in and you start shooting right away, or you just walk in and you improvise as you go along.

 

[Neuromancer]

That's good, I'm glad you had fun. I think some people feel pressured to "do everything" thinking that it will offer variety and somehow enhance their enjoyment, but then it just becomes a chore.

If you like it then by all means go for it, but I think feeling pressured to collect everything is that makes some people resentful towards Ubisoft's "formula".

Fair enough. I'd say that goes for all open world games for that matter. Even GTAV has some pretty insane collectible systems.

 

[Manu]

When people stop buying their games. So, not anytime soon.

 

[ebullientprism]

Hopefully sooner rather than later. Their model of development is as soulless as you can get. Their games feel like nothing more than products to be sold, rather than something a bunch of creative people who put everything they had into their game.

Seems unnecessarily spiteful. Going by sales there are millions of people who like these games. Ubisoft is one of the biggest employers in the industry. And they put out new IPs with some regularity. Plus they often greenlit sequels to games that dont do well (Rayman is a good example).

Its not like they are toxic for the industry.

 

[ryseing]

Ubisoft games scratch an itch that I get once or twice a year. They're the gaming equivalent of comfort food.

That being said, AC is going to burn out pretty soon, especially if Ubi is serious about making the Chronicles game a separate series. W_D and FC will be fine, and I expect a serious return of Splinter Cell and PoP.

 

[Head.spawn]

If high quality assets can be shared amongst development, that is absolutely a smart move for a developer. Development costs are high already for a AAA production, but if a developer can trim costs off by reusing already made assets and lower the overall cost of a game and as a byproduct lowering the amount of sales they need to remain profitable.. it makes AAA gaming doable.

It's unrealistic for a developer to trash all assets and start anew for every game. More of your favorite developers from yesteryear would still be around if they did as much.

For what it's worth, FC3 was easily one of my favorite FPS games last gen. Reusing assets had nothing to do with whether a game is good or bad; that is still the stick you should use to measure their worth, not whether they share a gun model or not. Honestly I didn't notice until you pointed this out, but it makes sense from a business POV.

 

[Kotetsu534]

It won't implode. At worst (or best, depending on your point of view) it'll become gradually less popular and sales of its regular "AAA" titles will slowly depreciate, but Ubisoft will be able to offset much of the reduction with more efficient production cycles.

 

[Kouriozan]

Don't worry, Watch Dogs Wii U will bomb.

 

[hellmonkey]

Does CoD change all that much from year to year? I dont play it, so I dont know. That game still sells shit tons.

 

[Zabant]

UbiBloat™

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

If it aint broke don't fix it. I actually like this aspect of their open world games. If Ubisoft continue to make open world games of this quality then they'll continue to be one of my favourite game companies.

 

[witness]

Yeah I recently got burnt out on Ubisoft games. I fucking loved AC4 and put a lot of hours in it, but I just recently rented watch dogs and while some stuff is cool and different (the ways you can fuck with the world) I have no interest after the first couple of hours. It feels like a modern AC game with a twist, but with the exact same game structure. I just can't do it anymore. I also feel the same about Unity in that I'm highly skeptical of the game, and have little interest. Hopefully Ubisoft begins to change soon, otherwise I won't be doing my annual play through of the new AC.

 

[silvermember]

Does CoD change all that much from year to year? I dont play it, so I dont know. That game still sells shit tons.

The whole purpose of this thread is to hear how long others think Ubisoft AAA strategy will last.

As for COD so far the pre order numbers are not looking too great, but we wont know.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Seems unnecessarily spiteful. Going by sales there are millions of people who like these games. Ubisoft is one of the biggest employers in the industry. And they put out new IPs with some regularity. Plus they often greenlit sequels to games that dont do well (Rayman is a good example).

Its not like they are toxic for the industry.

You mean like Watch Dogs, which follows the same structure and design sensibilities as their other AAA games? A lot of people are fooled by new IP's into thinking they are getting something truly new, when most of the time they aren't. And I was only speaking to the thread topic, which concerned their AAA strategy. I like that they do some unique things like Child of Light, and I appreciate the creativity of the Rayman games for example. They also made one of my favorite games of last generation, Red Steel 2. They aren't all bad, only mostly .

 

[Aiustis]

They probably got ten more years. The only game of theirs I've been excited for since ever is the new Rainbow Six.

 

[Ludist210]

If it aint broke don't fix it. I actually like this aspect of their open world games. If Ubisoft continue to make open world games of this quality then they'll continue to be one of my favourite game companies.

Open world games like what, Watch_Dogs? Because that felt pretty linear despite being open world.

 

[WarMacheen]

Marketing Wizards.

Ubisoft is the best in business in that aspect.

Apple holds that crown

Especially after I saw a prime time news feature on "Apple Pay", the entirely new way to pay for goods.

 

[Dicer]

Don't worry, Watch Dogs Wii U will bomb.

What does this have to do with the topic at all?

OT: It's already begun, AC is becoming stale, their attempt at a new IP "Watch Dogs" was met with mediocre results. Splinter Cell is done, Far Cry still has potential, but otherwise we will see how any new IP fares at this point.

I really think they need some smaller stuff to carry the load, but that doesn't seem to be the focus anymore.

 

[akidnamededdy]

Soon I hope. So much money spent every year creating the same fucking game over and over. Rockstar makes way better open worlds by far anyway.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

If high quality assets can be shared amongst development, that is absolutely a smart move for a developer. Development costs are high already for a AAA production, but if a developer can trim costs off by reusing already made assets and lower the overall cost of a game and as a byproduct lowering the amount of sales they need to remain profitable.. it makes AAA gaming doable.

It's unrealistic for a developer to trash all assets and start anew for every game. More of your favorite developers from yesteryear would still be around if they did as much.

For what it's worth, FC3 was easily one of my favorite FPS games last gen. Reusing assets had nothing to do with whether a game is good or bad; that is still the stick you should use to measure their worth, not whether they share a gun model or not. Honestly I didn't notice until you pointed this out, but it makes sense from a business POV.

I don't think most people have a problem when assets are being reused in sequels. That is expected. But when they are using the same assets across all of their already similar AAA franchises, they should be called out. It is lazy and cheap, and homogenizes their games even further.

 

[OG Loc]

Not as soon as you hope. Ubisoft knows what they're doing and as long as the sales are there they will be too.

 

[Logash]

Soon I hope. So much money spent every year creating the same fucking game over and over. Rockstar makes way better open worlds by far anyway.

Why does it offend you that they do this? You don't have to buy them. I'm sure Rockstar is fine with Ubisoft so you should be too

 

[Percy]

If AC Unity is as boring as it is looking at present, I have a feeling it could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for the AC franchise.

 

[meanspartan]

Ubisoft is like an efficient high yield factory of games that get an 80 on metacritic.

Two Ass Creeds in one day is dumb, even if they are on different platforms. And I cant bring myself to care about The Division, no way it ends up looking half as pretty as they are showing or as open ended in its gameplay.

 

[Tuck]

Cant stand Ubisort's cut and paste game design. But it seems popular, and it may be smart from a business perspective.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I guess you can say they have a solid foundation for building their open world games, and they're sticking with it. Also, given the ever rising costs of game development, am I really offended we're seeing assets being reused, when publishers have been doing this for decades?

 

[Hycran]

Until people realize the power voting with your dollar has, it will probably never happen. Continuing to buy the games shows implicit support for their business and design practices.

 

[kabel]

Are Ubi games doing good in Japan?

 

[kick51]

Can't say I wish they go totally bust and put a bunch of people out of work, but I haven't really enjoyed anything they've done after that BG+E, PoP:Sands of Time, and XIII triple punch in the PS2/Xbox/GC gen. I guess they published Lumines, which is neat. The rayman games seem good. Their open world games have never felt right to me and I feel like I should be getting a paycheck for the amount of busy work those games have in them.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

I used to like Ubisoft but they've fallen in to a comfortable place of copy/paste games. Unity will be exactly the same as the other games. FarCry 4 will be the same as 2 and 3.

 

[Sectorseven]

well, hollywood blockbusters keep repeating the same formulas, too and they seem to do fine so i think ubisoft games will remain popular for the foreseeable future aswell.

Hollywood has a lot of tactics that I'm not sure console games can really take advantage of: inflated ticket prices, a burgeoning international market, crafty accounting practices and merchandising opportunities galore.

 

[Corgi]

You mean the same Raymond who thought Splinter Cell was too complex to achieve mainstream success?

was this before or after blacklist?

felt like that game had a decent balance of accessibility and options for hardcore folks.

 

[Gaz_RB]

OP have you even seen any footage of Rainbow 6 Siege? It looks fantastic, by far the most impressive thing I have seen so far this gen. *It is also not an open world game with some skinny jeans wearing enemy. As long as Ubisoft can put out games at that high a level they will be fine.

My thoughts exactly. People give Ubisoft tons of shit because they don't like their games, and subsequently assume everyone else is getting tired of Ubisoft games too.

Ubi will be fine. They are a business, and when their games aren't selling as well, they'll switch gears. Until then, get it while the getting is good.

 

[omonimo]

Cant stand Ubisort's cut and paste game design. But it seems popular, and it may be smart from a business perspective.

The cut & paste it's not started time ago. It's maybe 2 years. With far cry 3 & watchdog. People are not that stupid to spend money in the same game. Matter of time and the sales will start to implode. I see some signal in the last release.

 

[Shalashaska161]

Probably not for a long while. Watch Dogs was a hit, Assassin's Creed will likely continue to make bank, and Far Cry will probably do well as well. The only game of theirs coming up that might not do super well is The Crew.

It's funny to me though how everyone seems to hate Ubisoft now. 5 years ago it was Activision, 2 years ago it was EA and now its Ubisoft. I wonder how long it will take for it to cycle back to Activision.

 

[Riposte]

The worst parts of the "formula" tend to be rather easy to ignore and they still differentiate themselves in how they play (and new additions to the formula). I also don't go out and play every open-world Ubisoft game, which would be crazy to do if you are getting tired of them.

 

[Nabbis]

Until people realize the power voting with your dollar has, it will probably never happen. Continuing to buy the games shows implicit support for their business and design practices.

I suspect that this will not work. You are assuming that companies are competent to enact change in a direction where they start treating a game as more than just a checkbox product. The only game in my recent memory that was actually improved instead of outright scrapped(Or butchered for wider-appeal) when people voted with their wallets is DA:Inquisition. And it's not exactly a high achievement when you consider the turd that DA II was.

 

[Glass Rebel]

Asset recycling isn't a bad thing, especially when games are reaching nine figure budgets. That's just smart development for a company focused on AAA games. Recycling the same formula for every game however will eventually come back to bite them in the ass unless they plan for it.

 

[lordxar]

AC4 reminded me a lot of FC3 and because of that its pretty much causing me to skip FC4 now. If everything from them is basically a rubber stamp I will hold out for a Ghost Recon and just enjoy that copy and skip the rest.

 

[doniewhalberg]

Good question from the OP. I wonder this to myself, as a huge fan of their franchises in concept, and until recently in reality, but often now finding some of them a bit wearing. I don't find some of the copy and paste side objectives too offensive but more the re-using of core gameplay over and over, within and across the various series. I think just a little less game by committee and a little more vision from the devs themselves and it would be enough for me. As I said, I do really like their franchises, I think their devs have talent but lately it seems there are very visible thumb prints from upper management in regards to release schedule, re-use of assets to very high degree and other things that just make it seem the game was made from a blueprint that was very rigid. For example also, you might not only say that assassin's creed has lost its identity a bit in terms of gameplay but also the main story thread has kind of vanished from importance. I wouldn't lie and say this applies to everything they are putting out though, I definitely consider the last Splinter Cell installment and recent rayman games to be fantastic and really dialled in creatively.

 

[grosvenor_92]

It seems to be working so I don't see them switching things up anytime soon. However I've gotten a little tired of how similar Ubi games have become and plan on skipking Far Cry 4 and both AC's

 

[AwakenedCloud]

I used to like Ubisoft but they've fallen in to a comfortable place of copy/paste games. Unity will be exactly the same as the other games. FarCry 4 will be the same as 2 and 3.

FarCry 2 and FarCry 3 are radically different from one another.

 

[ozprime]

With all the cross pollination of systems and design choices, I'm convinced that they are slowly building up for their magnum opus:

UBISOFT: The Game.

(coming in 2016 for Xbox One and PS4, and the Ubisoft Definitive Edition coming in 2018 for PS5 and Xbox Again.)

 

[Teletraan1]

You mean the same Raymond who thought Splinter Cell was too complex to achieve mainstream success?

She is not wrong. The mainstream is a bunch of goons that just want to shoot stuff. AAA ain't gonna take the risk.

I noticed a lot of what the OP had to say almost right away. It has boiled over to other games too. I find those recent batman games and Mordor follow a formula for a type of game a little too close for my liking. I can still enjoy them, but my interest is waining.