Ubisoft First Half Operating Profit Down By 93%

It could...

Division 2 is solid though and in many ways better than original but it's ultimately more of the same.

Sequels to live service games can be tough sells even when good (Division 2) and especially when not so much (Breakpoint).

 

To be honest they haven’t really released that many titles lately. So of course profits will be down. They have a new business model now though. Instead of releasing a ton of shoddy games every year they’re taking 2 years for those titles to make them less buggy and packed full of content. Their last 2 AC titles were absolutely awesome

 

First problem: Battleyes
Since they get Battleyes, they put it in all their game without an option to start without it as other company do:
The result is that The Crew 2, Breakpoint etc etc doesn't work at all on computer that have config that is not listed in Battleyes (exemple running those game on windows installed on a not windows computer, or that use early beta drivers)
The only awnser for their support is "no, we don't had any bad return about that" they just close topic with "resolved" tag (so they never read what people post, there is so much page about the problem that they can publish a book about it) if the game doesn't work then no money for Ubi.
Bad thing for them as the "not so legal" version work very nice, that mean that they could make people happy removing or changing how this crap work ( back to marketing school: happy people = talk good about it to 3 other people while unhappy people = talk bad about it to a minimum of 10 other people... it can go very fast to lost credibility).

second problem: the price
If you love a franchise you love to have the full version, but on Ubisoft plan
most of their game have the biggest version at an insane price over 100 Euro...
Its only a game and other company sell their biggest version around 69 Euro and 80 for the most Greedy one.

3rd problem: the quality of the game
Most of the new games of their hit licence seem to have been trashed... not that the game is all bad, fantastic graphic, good music, but no fun play, no evolution of the story, and most problematic: no gameplay at all.
It is at a point that i don't know if the peoples that have made Breakpoint have ever played another game of the licence or have read a book about it (maybe they have played Crysis or Assasin's creed lol).
If you make tabula rasa at each new game there no reason to follow the serie, even Final Fantasy alway keep things to link games even if the story is new at each game.

I hope that they will change on those point.

 

It´s so sad that no one is thinking about the poor CEOS/directors that are going to miss their huge performance bonus...

 

While I absolutely agree with you, I think they'd more easily fire a couple of hundred people (worldwide) than have a boss not get their bonus. ActiBlizz, for instance, did just that.

 

Well, that doesn't really correct me (and I know you wrote it in quotes) and I don't dispute that claim, I just wrote it more kindly. I guess my point is that the players have caught up on the fact that their games are the same with only minor variations, which is why they have poor sales.

 

The CEO is a very good one (lot of experience ).
But with this anouncement the part of ubisoft is in freefall 20 Euro going down oposed to 78 Euro before Breckpoint (it's not a joke but this game is well named isn't it?)
and the advice was "Sell parts" this morning.
*edit* Bank still follow so right now it is just a big warning it finish at 50,940 Euro

 

Far Cry 6 could change all that!

 

I also like The Division 2 over TD1, same with FC5 over FC4 and AC:Odyssey over AC:Origins. Feels like they get better and better at making Ubiesque games Buuut...looks like people are simply fed up with the formula and want something brand new.

 

They have got a lot to learn there game mechanics are all over the place. How can that be in this day and age.

 

Yeah... I hear you. I mean, I first thought @Netherwind 's 100% right, people are fed up with it.
Then again, are they? I'd call "nope"... COD still is the same as COD... Battlefield just as much... people are waiting for Baldur's Gate 3, Bloodlines 2... God of War, GTA6, Elder Scrolls games... you see what I mean?

 

Said it before, but ever since I played the closed alpha of Breaking Point earlier this year, where I encountered more bugs in 3 hours of playing than all other games I played in the last 5 years combined, I knew they will blow it major if they go on and release the game so soon. Not only did they release it, but they also added that insane microtransactions bullshit on top of an totally unfinished product.

I own almost all AC and FC games on Steam, Watchdogs, Division etc., so I am a fan of their games for sure. But with the amount of greed they've shown this year, I'm actually glad they got slapped in the face like this. The fact that they moved away from Steam, which I actually forgot for some reason, is the cherry on the cake.

 

Well, shitty games = shitty profits.
Concentrating on Online, coop etc. games will give you crap results. Exclusive store sale also will add to it.

 

What stopped me getting ghost recon and the division games is the always online requirement, i will never touch that type of games, so if they want to go down that road alot more then for me im out

 

I'd much rather see this sort of thing happen to EA. Ubisoft might recycle the same stuff over and over again but at least they don't have a tendency to ruin entire franchises* or buy out developers and their IP, only to let it rot.

*Yes, you could argue they do end up killing franchises, but not in the same way EA does. Many of Ubisoft's sequels/reboots don't share the same timeline with the same characters as in previous games (at least not to an important degree). So, if for example the last FarCry became a total failure to the point where the franchise gets killed off, most people wouldn't be all that upset. For the most part, everyone got what they wanted out of that IP and it's not like they're a continuous story, so wherever it ends is fine.
EA also ends up killing franchises by distorting the gameplay into something barely recognizable from the original game. You may see it as a bad thing that Ubisoft recycles the same games over and over again, but most people who buy into a franchise are seeking a specific play style.

 

I like the odd game by them. I bought Far Cry 5, got Asassins Creed Unity for free and played Breakpoint on Uplay+ on launch. Problem is just in those three games I get a weird sense of Deja Vu. They all share similar themes and gameplay structures. I considered playing that snowboard game until I noticed that there are three different sports you have to take part in to progress through the game. If you don't care for the Parachute stuff you still have to do it.

I actually enjoyed Breakpoint, mostly because of the scenery and shooting was quite fun for a while. But eventually I got bored of those things and just pressed on with the main story to get it over with ASAP. Other recon games seem fundamentally the same with just a lower iteration of graphics quality. So not sure why I would want to go back and try them.

Because all the games have a similar uniform feel to them, I don't think I want to play another for quite some time. So I canceled my Uplay+. Unfortunately 1 day after the first month rolled over. So I still have a second month left.

I don't see the Uplay model lasting long if other gamers get the same impression I did. $15 a month to play whatever you want. Breakpoint on Uplay was the same as the $180 ultimate bundle. Even with the 2 months of Uplay it was still cheaper than buying the standard game.

When I was a poor teenager I was into warez. Got tons of games and barely played any of them because too much of a good thing gets boring. Services like Uplay seem to encourage that mentality. I think they should focus more on making their franchises feel more unique instead of them all seeming to have been broken out of a generic mold with a slightly different theme each time.

Moving on to Red Dead redemption now. Never seen the console version outside of gameplay videos. Should be fun.

 

Sooner or later it had to come to this situation for Ubisoft, asking too much $$$ and giving way too little quality back to Gamers

 

In Millions Euro:
Last year-1H revenue: 767, Profit: 110 (Diff: 657)
This year-1H revenue: 697, Profit: 7 (Diff: 690)

Diff is what they burned or reinvested.

From this year's-1H: General Expenses 86 Million Euro, Marketing and distribution 187 Million Euro. R&D was in comparison 285 Million Euro.

It may be noted that they borrowed a lot of money this year, but their financials are 80 Million Euro better than last year. So, it may as well mean they cut profit for sake of financial side of operations.

 

That's you!....I love far cry!...every one they made...personal opinions I guess.

 

Well that is what you get when you put those stupid towers in every damn game, not to mention that every game doesn't have to be open world that takes over 50 hours to complete. The fans have been screaming for years for a good Splinter Cell game, you know a level based game, but I expect what they are working on will be more like Metal Gear 5 with a massive yet empty open world game with 50+ hours of playtime. No one has time for so many long games, hence why most people will chose one game and stick with it for a long time as people have jobs and family to tend to. Or they will buy a handful of different styled smaller games and hop from game to game.

Whoever made the decision all those years ago for every game they release to be bigger than the last needs to wake up. I am super excited for Beyond Good and Evil 2 as the first was and still is a masterpiece that I brought because it was on sale on the Gamecube and it blew me away. But seeing the game so far and how they are going "even bigger" this time I just don't have the time as many others don't either.

I am currently playing Outer Worlds, COD, and RDR2..... 1 of which is a massive open world, the other a seudo-open world, and the other a quick and fast paced multiplayer with a small single player and coop modes.

I still have over 490 games on steam, most of which I have never completed some never opened, I have other games on uplay, origin, ms store, epic store, battle.net, and gog galaxy. A lot of which are open world. I got Assassins Creed Origins and I played that for around 5-6 hours, once I got out the second area and the world opened up I took one look at the world map.... zoomed all the way out.... and said.... "OH HELL NO!" and I have never touched it since.

Games need to go back to their routes more, and start making smaller more quality focused games. A massive open world game is fine every 2 years but not every 2 months!