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Rumor: Vast majority of developers at Ubisoft are “deadweight” and “they don’t know how to do anything” other than “pushing social change.”

EN250

Member
Smells like some ragebait grifter from youtube, a new Endymion bullshitter has born to rile up the idiots who for some reason believe these low iq no life douchebags have the inside data from these million/billion corps lmao

Avoid getting sucked in the horseshoe logic, being against dei-woke leftist crap doesn't mean you become exactly the same but for the right wing side
 

Bry0

Member
My hunch from reading this, and what I suspect about the QA portion from my own experience. This is purely my speculation from my personal experiences.

1. Too many fresh out of school “game design/game artist” hires. In my experience many of these individuals are passionate but aren’t that talented and usually have unrealistic expectations of what game development in a large company is like. I think these are the types of people being referred to as “deadweight”. When you have poor management and hiring practices you end up having too much “deadweight” because they work for cheap.

2. Because we are talking video games, a lot of these “3rd wave” hires probably grew up gaming, and often include(but are not exclusively) social outcasts. Hence the “social change” aspect. You all know exactly what these individuals are like. In my experience they usually have more of an art/creative background than a more technical background. That’s just my anecdotal experience. I don’t mean to disparage a large swath of people because some of these individuals kick ass, but the majority coming out of school with “game design” degrees that suck. Lol

3. The teams are probably way too big. I suspect they mark bugs “wont fix” because the programmer needs to pull in an artist, or vice versa, but everything is so compartmentalized and spread across teams in different places internationally that they just say “f it”. Even in smaller companies this creates issues, so I can’t imagine what it’s like at the scale Ubisoft is with hundreds and hundreds of people on a single project.

4. Management! Even going back 10 years, I know Ubisoft knew for a fact AC Unity was a disaster. Play tests weeks before launch were basically completely busted and this was well known. They simply decided to launch it anyway. I’m actually glad to see Shadows get pushed back, but Ubisoft learned their lessons too late. This company needs a clean slate to shed this baggage and unfortunately a lot of folks are probably losing their jobs soon, but the business isn’t sustainable like this.

And really all this can be extrapolated from just looking at recent Ubisoft games alone.
The idea that some “mid level” engineer can’t get a job elsewhere because they don’t have a “brand” is pretty dumb and I highly suspect some of this is made up as rage bait.
 
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MrRibeye

Member
Devs worldwide used to admire the talent at Ubisoft.

The amazing 'motion matching' animation tech used in TLOU2 was invented by an animator at Ubisoft Toronto.
Unreal Engine 5 world editing tools are a 1:1 copy of the Assassin's Creed world editor, because Epic hired Ubisoft Montreal's engineering team.
The guy in charge of Apple's Metal API used to write graphics engine code for Ubisoft.

Things really got shaken up when the Ashraf Ismail and Serge Hascoët scandals became public. Suddenly there were HR police and sensitivity trainings. We all left around that time.
 

Dr_Ifto

Member
I read some of the comments here and then read the article thinking maybe Gaffers were just being harsh, and I just cannot believe anything said. Everything is generic, no meat & potatoes in any of the accusations. For a majority of a 20k employee company to be useless, that would be even more catastrophic than it already is. Plus, 90% of developers don't get to make decisions and have to build what they are told to build. I could see a lot of the writers & designers are pushing an agenda, but not developers.
 

BigBeauford

Member
I don't understand how a French company is so conspicuously woke. France is one of the least woke of the major western nations
72567ee17f29dbb7b0d7fc55be0b354d
 
Me thinks someone doesn't quite understand how much effort goes into pumping out releases in the way they do. If the vast majority wasn't doing anything, nothing would get done.

These giant games with 2,000 or 3,000 names in the credits will have some inefficiencies, but that's just part of getting games like CoD, or AC out the door almost every year.
 
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Humdinger

Gold Member

Yeah, that image captures it pretty well. If these reports are true (and I tend to give them credence, since there are multiple reports pointing in a similar direction), Ubisoft deserves to fail. I'm sorry for the good devs who go down with the ship, but this sounds like gross mismanagement.
 

Zathalus

Member
Of course its bullshit. The issue isn't developers, it's piss poor management and leadership sprinkled with some bad game direction. Just look at Ubisofts history, all the allegations and investigations done in 2020-2021, am I supposed to believe over ten thousand employees suddenly shifted to make it a DEI paradise in two years? No, this diversity and poor games push is squarely on management trying to redeem the companies image after the previous fiasco. But since the same people are in charge it just leads to another fiasco.
 
Where do you come from to think this? Also, while the french mother house accept all of this, the initiatives came from the Canadian branch.
I've lived in France, the country just isn't very woke. Stuff like trans shit, racial preferences, etc never took off there like they did in the US or northern Europe.

But yeah this being the Canadian branch makes sense.
 
Of course its bullshit. The issue isn't developers, it's piss poor management and leadership sprinkled with some bad game direction. Just look at Ubisofts history, all the allegations and investigations done in 2020-2021, am I supposed to believe over ten thousand employees suddenly shifted to make it a DEI paradise in two years? No, this diversity and poor games push is squarely on management trying to redeem the companies image after the previous fiasco. But since the same people are in charge it just leads to another fiasco.


Ubisoft themselves have confirmed that 50% of AC Shadows devs are inexperienced.

Large corporations have lot of dead weight, this happens everywhere. The only thing that could shock me is the scale of this, not the fact that superstars work better than 10 people combined. I know this first hand.
 

Dynasty8

Member
I don't believe this because someone online said it.

I believe it because of my experience with Ubisoft games and their terrible track record in the last few years.
 
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Green_Eyes

Member
Isn't it obvious? And it's not just Ubisoft or the gaming industry, these people are everywhere; all over the workforce. They're fraudulent, worthless, fake and heartless (while posing as nice).

Edit: Also, everytime I come back to Neogaf, I notice more and more ResetEra retards have crept their way in; nuke these weirdos.
 
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Mixed bag. Some of this is probably right on the money. Other parts of it could just be that the complaining developer doesn't understand the roles of folks who don't actually code. He doesn't understand that if some of those folks weren't there he wouldn't be able to code because he'd be bogged down in minutia all day. Game development is complex.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I read some of the comments here and then read the article thinking maybe Gaffers were just being harsh, and I just cannot believe anything said. Everything is generic, no meat & potatoes in any of the accusations. For a majority of a 20k employee company to be useless, that would be even more catastrophic than it already is. Plus, 90% of developers don't get to make decisions and have to build what they are told to build. I could see a lot of the writers & designers are pushing an agenda, but not developers.
Ubisoft's stock is down 90% in four years, how much more catastrophic are you looking for? They're on the verge of getting shut down and sold off in parts like THQ. They spent 10 years working on a "AAAA" live service game that everyone forgot about within weeks of release. The list goes on.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Where do you come from to think this? Also, while the french mother house accept all of this, the initiatives came from the Canadian branch.
I've lived in France, the country just isn't very woke. Stuff like trans shit, racial preferences, etc never took off there like they did in the US or northern Europe.

But yeah this being the Canadian branch makes sense.
Quebec is the least woke of all Canada. At least I think so.

When it comes to language and religion, they seem to be the most stubborn and pro-French people in the whole country. If you dont support French stuff, the people and gov dont like it and they even instill laws to protect it. I think they still got those laws where if youre a teacher or cop and try to wear a turban or headscarf you arent allowed because they dont like religious stuff that sticks out. Its an easy way to pin down minorities and their religious dress because the typical white Christian dude doesnt express it that blatantly. At most they wear a cross and that can be easily hidden under clothes.
 

YeulEmeralda

Linux User
Quebec is the least woke of all Canada. At least I think so.

When it comes to language and religion, they seem to be the most stubborn and pro-French people in the whole country. If you dont support French stuff, the people and gov dont like it and they even instill laws to protect it. I think they still got those laws where if youre a teacher or cop and try to wear a turban or headscarf you arent allowed because they dont like religious stuff that sticks out. Its an easy way to pin down minorities and their religious dress because the typical white Christian dude doesnt express it that blatantly. At most they wear a cross and that can be easily hidden under clothes.
The Netherlands has these laws too. It is not about racism religious people are just fucking weird and nobody likes them. And that includes Christianity.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Not sure how true any of these allegations are, but if this is actually the case, oh boy is Ubi fucked even more than anyone thought.
Yeah, you have to take things like this with a grain of salt. Anyone can say anything, and unless there's actual valid proof, it's nothing more than he said/she said nonsense. For all we know it could be made up, or it could be an ex-employee wanting to drag them. Or an employee that's unhappy and wants to drag them. I feel like stuff like this doesn't really have any meat without actual varying amounts of evidence.

But yeah, that being said, what we do know is that Ubisoft is really not in a great spot lately.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
“Then there's the what he refers to as the good developers, but they don't have brands. They don't tweet,” he relayed. “And he calls himself one of these developers. They make up a small portion of those developers that are still left at Ubisoft. The problem is while they're good they don't have names so they can't get jobs anywhere else.”
Laugh Lol GIF


Anyway, you'd entire thing reads like "my uncle works for Nintendo" kid making a video in 2025
Even the grains of reality, eg. Ubi operating dev as a factory assembly line are stuff that's been staple of the company for literally decades, even at their most successful.
 

Nickolaidas

Member
You lost attention and gave him ad revenue and algo placement.

You have more at stake here than just money.
I exchanged my time with the knowledge of their opinion via an entertaining (for me) video, and it was YouTube who game him ad revenue and algo placement, not me.

I didn't lose anything.

So I ask again: How was I conned? What did I lose?
 

Astray

Member
I exchanged my time with the knowledge of their opinion via an entertaining (for me) video, and it was YouTube who game him ad revenue and algo placement, not me.

I didn't lose anything.

So I ask again: How was I conned? What did I lose?
I mean if you can't see that the idea that he conned you out of your time and got you to believe in bullshit lies as a bad thing, then I honestly can't help you.
 
Quebec is the least woke of all Canada. At least I think so.

When it comes to language and religion, they seem to be the most stubborn and pro-French people in the whole country. If you dont support French stuff, the people and gov dont like it and they even instill laws to protect it. I think they still got those laws where if youre a teacher or cop and try to wear a turban or headscarf you arent allowed because they dont like religious stuff that sticks out. Its an easy way to pin down minorities and their religious dress because the typical white Christian dude doesnt express it that blatantly. At most they wear a cross and that can be easily hidden under clothes.
Quebec is the least woke part of Canada but I get the feeling most of the people working in tech in Montreal are woke Anglos
 

tr1p1ex

Member
I guess I should stop buying Ubi stock. It's so cheap tho. I figure someone would want to buy them for the IP. Decent IP.

RAbbids, Just Dance, Far Cry, Prince of Persia, Tom Clancy (R6, Ghost Recon, Division, Splinter Cell) and Ass Creed plus some others like Rayman and even Beyond G&E iirc. Anything else.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
A grifter is someone who cons me into buying something worthless from them, while they claim it has worth.

How exactly was I conned? What money did I lose?

A grifter is a small scale swindler.
This person swindled you out of your time because this is a waste of it.
If you used your real account to watch this shit then the algo now thinks your are dumb enough to watch this shit and will recommend more of his ilk.
This person is swindling devs who he is besmirching.
This person is swindling google by chatting shit and getting clicks.
 

xanaum

Member
This is an unbelievable absurdity. Can you imagine the furnace of money turning into ashes because of this? I can only imagine the frustration of truly qualified people getting fired alongside the dead weight.

DEI will one day be studied as the dumbest collective delusion of modern humanity.
 

deeptech

Member
I don't think we need to look that far or whether or not what is stated in OP is actually true or not. Just look at their games in past 10 years, this company has been a joke for a long time, their output says it all, it needs not insiders.
 

phant0m

Member
Rumor? There’s no rumor, nor is it Ubisoft. It’s medium to large enterprise almost across the board have brought on culture warriors.

I work in tech, and recently I heard someone say “we’re not using the term ‘users’ anymore, since it could get conflated with [drug users]. Let’s use operator or persona instead.”

I’ve been trying to get “meatbags” to catch on in the meantime. I’m so fucking tired of this nonsense
 
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