Such a failed opportunity in Games for Windows. What I wouldn't give for a single app that seamlessly interfaces across multiple stores. Instead of being its own store it should have been what Windows always has been. A facilitator.
Again Activision is not going to do that. Both company's are independent Activsion-Blizzard is only a publisher for both company's.
In early 1994 they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for $6.75 million.[9] The same year the company briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios, before finally settling on Blizzard Entertainment after it was discovered that another company with the Chaos name already existed.[10] Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.
Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: Davidson was acquired along with Sierra On-Line by a company called CUC International in 1996; CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger; Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line which included Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard was part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi. In July 2008 Vivendi Games merged with Activision, using Blizzard's name in the resulting company, Activision Blizzard.
I don't understand why they are doing it now.
Btw it's the same in France, I can't find Far Cry 4, The Crew or Assassin's Creed Unity.
We should all boycot Ubisoft games. After the deodorant DLC for asscreed, this news just crossed the line.
We should all boycot Ubisoft games. After the deodorant DLC for asscreed, this news just crossed the line.
Im curious how many people have used uplay in the last few months for a new game?Because its received several updates improving it a great deal.
When it launched it was extremely barebones and quite laughable, and even now titles older than AC Black Flag need manual patching/installation, but for a recent game at this point its far from a painful experience if you can get over the fact that its not Steam (friends list, extra application etc)
I needed to download Child of Light again and it went like this
Thoughts?
Maybe you're right!
As I said in the Steam Community thread, I can't begrudge Ubisoft for doing this. It seems to have worked for EA to some degree, and with the amount of IPs Ubisoft have these days, it makes sense for them to attempt a similar route. It's sort of been coming over the last few years, with the uplay integration, the lack of any real sale discount, and the lack of Steam Versions available outside of Steam.
So I wouldn't say this was a sudden change in distribution.
Blizzard hasn't been an independent company since 1994. Activision-Blizzard is a single company, resulting from the Activision Vivendi merger. Activision should totally put their products on Battle.net. They are throwing away money by not doing it. Personally, I;d rather everything just be on Steam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment#History
Split from Vivendi[edit]
On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from owner Vivendi for $5.83 billion, dropping the shareholder from a 63% stake to 11.8% by the end of the deal in September. Following the conclusion of the deal, Activision Blizzard became an independent company as a majority of the shares are owned by the public. Bobby Kotick and Brian Kelly own a 24.4% stake in the company. In addition, Kotick remains the President and CEO, with Brian Kelly taking over as the Chairman.[14] On October 12, 2013, shortly after approval from the Delaware Supreme court, the company completed the buyback, along the lines of the original plan.[15] Vivendi sold half its remaining stake in May 22, 2014, reducing its ownership to 5.8%,[16] which subsequently helped finance Vivendi’s takeover of EMI via Universal Music Group.
It is sudden when you had preorder's up for AC:Unity and FAR Cry 4 on steam.
It is sudden when close to your entire Library of games from Beyond Good&Evil HD, Prince of Persia, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Rayman, Ghost Recon, all the Tom Clancy's are on steam.
We put up with EA because they had an MMO, and Battlefield. But do we wish the rest of their games like MASS EFFET, Need for Speed, and the likes were back on steam,......YOU BET YOUR ASS!!
It only add's more complication for people who might want to venture for the first time into PC.
And with prices for Pre-built PC hardware being really cheap now for PC gaming, it becomes more complex for someone to have a small box hook it to tv/Monitor with a controller and use big picture mode.
No now if they want to play anything like AC:U,CREW, RainBow SIx:Siege, they have to use that shitty service where their friends list is fucking empty.
Can't use steam to boot the game, and get into a voice chat to group up and play.
So not everyone here has that kind of "OK" outlook.
If this isn't a mistake this is where they lose all their customers on PC
It is sudden when you had preorder's up for AC:Unity and FAR Cry 4 on steam.
It is sudden when close to your entire Library of games from Beyond Good&Evil HD, Prince of Persia, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Rayman, Ghost Recon, all the Tom Clancy's are on steam.
We put up with EA because they had an MMO, and Battlefield. But do we wish the rest of their games like MASS EFFET, Need for Speed, and the likes were back on steam,......YOU BET YOUR ASS!!
It only add's more complication for people who might want to venture for the first time into PC.
And with prices for Pre-built PC hardware being really cheap now for PC gaming, it becomes more complex for someone to have a small box hook it to tv/Monitor with a controller and use big picture mode.
No now if they want to play anything like AC:U,CREW, RainBow SIx:Siege, they have to use that shitty service where their friends list is fucking empty.
Can't use steam to boot the game, and get into a voice chat to group up and play.
So not everyone here has that kind of "OK" outlook.
This. People need to get their heads out of their asses. Steam was nowhere NEAR the Steam we know today when they first started. Give competition time and the benefit of the doubt. I'd rather have DRM-free as well, but if Steam gets a chance, others should as well.
There is literally no reason to switch to uplay because they do nothing different.
But its competition!
Shitty money grubbing anti-consumer competition is way better than benevolent de facto monopoly!
This is disappointing. Why did they advertise the game on Steam with a pre-order offer and everything? I don't get it. They will lose a lot of PC sales because of this.
Because your purchase decisions have nothing to do with the product and are all about the store you buy it in? Smart.
Because your purchase decisions have nothing to do with the product and are all about the store you buy it in? Smart.
Fair enough Ubi, I guess the ball's back in my court.
*ahem*
I will not be buying any more Ubisoft PC games going forward. Even if they bring all of their games back to Steam, I'm not buying them. The only way they win me back is if they bring their stuff back to Steam AND utilize basic platform features, such as achievements, trading cards, etc.
Because this has worked so well for EA; I'm sure with their even less popular platform this will go swimmingly.
Some of these points you bring up imply not being able to start a game outside of Steam, while mainly using Steam as your go-to client.
Thankfully the import function does exist. You still have access to your Steam friend library. Any other aspects such as trading cards, or community obviously won't exist for that one game, but this is a semi-work around.
Unfortunately it doesn't get around the issue of the other 3rd party service such as Origin or Uplay from getting in the way.
Do Ubisoft games sell well on the pc?
This seems like they saw EA do it with relative success and thought they could do it as well, but I'm not sure ubi has a strong enough pc presence like ea has where they can afford to drop steam.
I don't think their fandom is as big on PC. There are a ton of Bioware and DICE fans on pc, I don't think you can say the same about AC, Rayman or Rainbow Six (atleast not for the last 10 years).
Clearly you didn't read further.
Since this happend Blizzard went up again with Quality games. And it will not happen. There both independent from each other that has always been this way.
What happens to those who pre-purchased Unit, The crew and Far Cry 4 on steam? Also nvidia is giving a choice between those 3 games when you buy their new cards: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/pick-your-path-bundle
Do you think they are giving steam or uplay codes?
What happens to those who pre-purchased Unit, The crew and Far Cry 4 on steam? Also nvidia is giving a choice between those 3 games when you buy their new cards: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/pick-your-path-bundle
Do you think they are giving steam or uplay codes?
Well, when I got Watch_Dogs for free from an Nvidia deal it gave me Uplay codes so I'm certain that that deal would give Uplay codes even if the games were still on Steam.What happens to those who pre-purchased Unit, The crew and Far Cry 4 on steam? Also nvidia is giving a choice between those 3 games when you buy their new cards: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/pick-your-path-bundle
Do you think they are giving steam or uplay codes?
probably something to do with how ubisoft have treated pc gamers in the past
Nice! That makes it even easier to avoid uPlay.
Have you ever used Uplay? From wiping save games, updates that break half way through (meaning I had to re-download the entire game), freezing my computer for a solid minute on start up for like a month. I have never had a good experience with the client. And that is not even mentioning the massive security vulnerability/spyware that they installed with Uplay at one point. Or the fact that their severs go down regularly. Uplay makes bloody GFWL look good.Defending games I can understand. Defending a digital platform just sounds ridiculous.
It has worked for EA. Origin has improved a lot since it started, and the free games started coming in and suddenly no one is complaining. I actually prefer the Origin client due to its simplicity and couldn't care less about cards and item trading and all those bells and whistles.
And it will work for Ubisoft, because people want to play Assassin's Creed more than they care about double clicking a different icon on their desktop.
This all has to do with people's perception of Ubisoft as a brand rather than the quality of the games themselves. You don't see anyone complaining about Blizzard's client.
Just like EA lost all its PC player base right? Oh wait...
Uh-oh.
Thankfully, the console versions are still out there.
Clearly you didn't read further.
Since this happend Blizzard went up again with Quality games. And it will not happen. There both independent from each other that has always been this way.