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Assassin's Creed Origins' lootboxes are only buyable w/ ingame currency (but has MTs)
- Thread starter benzopil
- Start date
My thought exactly.
Duchess O'Death
Member
Good to know.
MrTroubleMaker
Member
I would be very surprised if they didn't do that.
Good to know that I should not update the game.
Props to Ubisoft Montreal for making this game as the last of its kind, AAA, single player, no MT RPG.
Ubisoft has pretty low sales expectations for this one so I'm curious to see how they're changing the series for the future.
LordOcidax
Member
You already know what is going to happen... Lootboxes.. Coming soon> Now you can buy in-game currency with real money.
This is a really odd game. It's quite obvious Assassin's Creed is not Ubisoft's key franchise anymore. And yet I find it really hard to believe it won't feature microtransactions. It doesn't make much sense otherwise.
OttoSporteman
Member
On previous AC games, in-game currency was purchasable with real money, so I guess this should be the same, right?
It will add an extra step, but with intent it will be the same...
Of course, not having the advertisement in-game to buy the loot box "for only .99 today only" will be good enought, for today's standards.
It will add an extra step, but with intent it will be the same...
Of course, not having the advertisement in-game to buy the loot box "for only .99 today only" will be good enought, for today's standards.
KonradLaw
Member
Really? That sounds interesting. Could you tell me more?
Salty Rice
Member
Its just a preview build. Of course they dont put it in a preview build.
Bigger question if it stays that way.
Bigger question if it stays that way.
KingdomHeartsFan
Member
Lol wonder how long it'll take before they change that.
almostjuliuscaesar
Member
On their fiscal call they announced that they expect it to sell above Syndicate, but below Unity: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1407774
I believe that would make it the second or third lowest selling game in the series (including stuff like Revelations/Brotherhood which both moved 7+ million, but excluding stuff like the platformers and handheld games) depending on how much Rogue sold.
It's also notably Ubisoft's only major game that isn't an online title outside of South Park, which is a very a special situation.
chrisPjelly
Member
GOOD.
Interesting. What are their key franchises now (Im assuming Rainbow Six and the Division?)
Big_Boss_Snake_
Member
great news im getting the game day one 
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
This article does confirm that once again the game will have time-saver pack MTs like the past 4 games.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yeah, sorry not sorry for not buying it Ubisoft. I wouldn't be surprised if a patch 'magically' allows the ability to purchase them with real life currency shortly after the reviews come out.
AmuroChan
Member
I agree. That's most likely what's going to happen. Most gaming sites do not update their reviews post-launch.
dragonflys545
Member
That shit is disgusting...
Even if it gets patched in the future to allow you to dump $$ into the game, this does make me happy to know that Origins won't be going down the same path (or at least right away at launch). Hopefully the game itself will be able to stand on its own merit to where the lootboxes will feel like they weren't needed in the first place.
Hopefully they'll be rewarded. If good enough this can easily do Witcher numbers.
Might even be the first AC with legs.
They really should start updating reviews. Nothing wrong with fluid reporting.
arts&crafts
Member
This surprises me a lot for a few reasons. 1. The first AC in a few years, 2. overhaul of the series and looks to improve on a lot of things and adds game play aspects that will surely win over some fans. 3. HUGE marketing push, E3 was all about Origins and I am seeing tons of commercials and ads for it. Maybe this is just a "all video game sales are down" situation.
They're lowballing it because
- One year might not be long enough to offset franchise fatigue.
- There's always the possibility the changes don't rest well with fans and actually make the game more niche.
- It's a single player game who, apparently, are dead or something.
Expecting this. Also, why have lootboxes at all then? Myabe just design your game in a more interesting way than "idk here's a box of shit."
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
You wouldn't be surprised if a patch made them function in the exact same way after reviews?
Guerilla should've done the same thing.
Those would be the two they are redesigning the company around, yes.
Ghost Recon is now a third pillar of that though. That's where you sell a traditional Ubisoft game, but you make it 100% playable in co-op. This formula has resulted in fantastic sales for Ghost Recon Wildlands, Dying Light, and Divinity: Original Sin.
I think they're worried that the lack of multiplayer will hit it a lot. Their singleplayer or mostly singleplayer games have been notably underperforming while their multiplayer games are all way above expectations.
adversarial
Member
because people like that shit. it's a successful implementation of a feature most non-whales whine about. good on them. hoping this game does every well.
edit:
Cannot wait for #2. I was looking forward to another Dead Island but I suppose that's never happening
Ehm, Horizon? Nier? Ni-Oh?
Crash? FFXV?
The whole single player games are dead is a bunch of crap. They sell what they've always have. It's just that some online phenomenons overperform.
arts&crafts
Member
Ah yea, the stupid multiplayer situation. It is true, but it also sucks because I generally prefer single player only games. As for Origins, it is the first AC I am buying day 1 and the 1st one I am going to play since Black Flag so I am hoping for the best.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Exploratory
Banned
I honestly feel people just hate Ubi more than the average publisher on GAF. It feels undeserved. Am I wrong? Seems like people just want a reason to throw this game under the bus...
Assassin's Creed used to sell 10-12+ million copies an entry.
The series went roughly:
- Assassin's Creed: 9 million
- Assassin's Creed 2: 10 million
- Brotherhood: 7 million
- Revelations: 7 million
- Assassin's Creed 3: 12 million
- Assassin's Creed 4: 11 million
- Unity + Rogue combined: 10 million, but it was implied Rogue was around 3-4 million IIRC
- Syndicate: Way down, so far they never gave numbers.
The games you listed have sold:
- Horizon: 4-5 maybe? Last number we got was 3.4 million.
- Nier: 2 million
- Ni-Oh: 1 million
- Crash: 4 million, and was a $40 game
- Final Fantasy XV: 6.5 million
You can imagine why a company like Ubisoft would not be happy with selling like the games you listed.
It's a case of priorities. Yes, those online heavy games will sell more, but abandoning the niche completely is risking to lose that part of your income, because, as evidenced by the massification of online games, people not buying them are clearly not interested.
Better to sell 5 million that none at all. Just budget your development accordingly and it's smooth sailing.
Better to sell 5 million that none at all. Just budget your development accordingly and it's smooth sailing.
I would say Ubisoft is pretty likely to turn Assassin's Creed down the Wildlands route where it works like a traditional Ubisoft game, but supports two or four player co-op for the entire campaign. They've already done this to Far Cry 5.
As you cut costs, your game has a harder and harder time reaching the sales it would have otherwise. Look at how Capcom's sales have been going.
There's also opportunity cost involved.
No you are not wrong.
The whole downgrade Watchdog thing, bullshots and AC Unity didnt help them. And people cant get over that stuff. While in the meantime they did great things and learned from the earlier mistakes.
That assumes every online game is gonna be a hit. This year has proved the contrary. A loyal fanbase has value too.
If I were a betting man, I'd say Ubisoft will end AC this Gen narratively speaking, closing the modern day storyline with its Origins trilogy, with three traditional games with an increasingly online focus.
Then the Servicepocalyose will come with the next generation.
Palette Swap
Member
I wonder what the outlook is here, in the grand scheme of things. At Ubis scale of operation, it almost looks like vanity project.
Is this a way to test the waters to see how a proper single player game would perform in 2017 while keeping the franchise alive and relevant? I mean, given how long development cycles are, they must have already greenlit a follow up to this game (if they intend to do one).
Or is this just a transitional entry before they finish moving on to whatever they want their product portfolio to look like 2-3 years from now?
And yeah, they could definitely tune the overall economy down the line and introduce a secondary currency or simply sell chests.
Time savers have been a thing since Black Flag. I'd say the only case of Ubi playing fast and loose with crossing a line is treasure maps being behind the Helix Point paywall in Syndicate, but even that's a mild example as odds are you want them because you're chasing 100% completion, in which case you'll earn more than enough points throughout your time with the game, anyway.
Edit: Oops, Unity, not Syndicate. You can buy them from select shopkeeps in the latter.
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