Support NeoGAF

[Hookshot]

The crisis at Ubisoft has deepened - and the end result is inevitable | VGC

A string of flops is forcing Ubisoft to change, but I hope some of what made the company different can survive…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Meanwhile, Star Wars Outlaws was a hugely disappointing launch from a commercial point-of-view. A seemingly decent game, from one of Ubisoft’s most acclaimed studios, based on a major IP and after a successful reveal at Summer Game Fest 2023… it felt like a bankable hit. Yet it missed spectacularly. Across Europe, the game was the 47th best-selling game of the year, and sold less than Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which was released the year before.

Wonder hoe much money they lost? The license couldn't have been cheap.

 

[TintoConCasera]

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

This is the 2nd VGC article I've seen from Chris Dring this week. Is he now freelancing for them?

 

[pulicat]

Top 5 AAA Bomba of 2024
1. Concord
2. Starwars Outlaws
3. Dragon Age the Veilguard
4. Skulls and bones
5. Suicide Squad

 

[Mister Wolf]

Should have been create a character or had a male/female MC option like Odyssey, Valhalla, and Far Cry 6. They wanted a female Han Solo so bad they were willing to lose millions of dollars.

 

[STARSBarry]

Should have been create a character or had a male/female MC option like Odyssey, Valhalla, and Far Cry 6. They wanted a female Han Solo so bad they were willing to lose millions of dollars.

Na dude they got Matt Damon's likeness, that couldn't have been cheap, and the least of the games problems honestly.

 

[NuclearDiarrhea]

Top 5 AAA Bomba of 2024
1. Concord
2. Starwars Outlaws
3. Dragon Age the Veilguard
4. Skulls and bones
5. Suicide Squad

I'm sure the "modern audience" will turn up someday

 

[Doctor Hades]

I have been really enjoying both Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Star Wars: Outlaws on my PC over the Christmas period.

The latter game is one I've been waiting months to play properly as it was one of two games (the other being Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora) that would constantly exit to the desktop with no error log or message due to my system having Windows 11 24H2 installed since June 2024 as part of the release preview programme. This ended up being a good thing really as the game was definitely improved by post-release patches so I actually got to enjoy a better game that it was at release.

I think there is a moral there somewhere...

 

[Warspite]

Across Europe, the game was the 47th best-selling game of the year, and sold less than Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which was released the year before.

So in the same period Survivor was selling more than Outlaws

 

[Bombolone]

Na dude they got Matt Damon's likeness, that couldn't have been cheap, and the least of the games problems honestly.

 

[MagnetoWasRight]

After all the patches, Outlaws is a fantastic game. The only real complaints left are the buttchin and knocking out stormtroopers with her fist when she has a damn stun gun.

 

[Horseganador]

Ubi is in a very bad way at this point, no matter how AC Shadows functions... it won't be able to pay 20,000 workers, either it gets bought or it becomes much smaller to survive.

 

[coachmcguirk91]

Top 5 AAA Bomba of 2024
1. Concord
2. Starwars Outlaws
3. Dragon Age the Veilguard
4. Skulls and bones
5. Suicide Squad

It sucks to say, but you could probably add FF7 Rebirth to that list. AAA Games absolutely shat the bed in 2024. Most of them were just bad or mediocre, besides Rebirth

Also, it took nearly a decade, but gamers finally came around to unite against Ubisoft. Open world trash with zero originality and ancient game mechanics. It was a long time coming

 

[Randall365]

Should have been create a character or had a male/female MC option like Odyssey, Valhalla, and Far Cry 6. They wanted a female Han Solo so bad they were willing to lose millions of dollars.

Spot on - I paid full price for this (with DLC) at launch and whilst I enjoyed aspects of it, parts were very frustrating (including the story) and it was evident that the focus was on things other than producing a great game. it has made me think twice about Ubisoft games and I had jumped in on Assassins Creed at launch each time since Black Flag. It was their biggest failure since Unity - and whilst Unity was simply over-ambition from a technical standpoint (and a desire to squeeze in mobile app nonsense) this was just politics.

Also on the story telling - Mandalorian and Andor were hits, Ashoka and Acoylte complete flops - so guess which theme they were with? A costly mistake for sure.

 

[Fake]

 

[RoadHazard]

Top 5 AAA Bomba of 2024
1. Concord
2. Starwars Outlaws
3. Dragon Age the Veilguard
4. Skulls and bones
5. Suicide Squad

Dragon Age was a bigger bomb than S&B and Suicide Squad?

 

[Xtib81]

It takes some talent to fuck up an open world star wars game.

 

[Woopah]

Remember when people thought Chris was defending this game as part of his "agenda".

This is the 2nd VGC article I've seen from Chris Dring this week. Is he now freelancing for them?

Looks like it, not sure if its going to be his permanent home though.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Ubisoft is truly fucked

 

[Astray]

This is the 2nd VGC article I've seen from Chris Dring this week. Is he now freelancing for them?

He's been working on something new iirc, but he's probably freelancing to pay the bills while he gets things going there.

 

[John Marston]

Hey man that's still in the TOP 50!

#glasshalffull

 

[Mr Hyde]

 

[mckmas8808]

Top 5 AAA Bomba of 2024
1. Concord
2. Starwars Outlaws
3. Dragon Age the Veilguard
4. Skulls and bones
5. Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad should be number 3 on your list.

 

[Kacho]

Remember when people thought Chris was defending this game as part of his "agenda".

I thought that was Dragon Age Veilguard. Or did he catch heat for soft language about Outlaws underperformance?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

It takes some talent to fuck up an open world star wars game.

Who knew SW stealth gameplay, from a new female lead with a Jay Leno chin, who can do Mike Tyson bare knuckled KO's against helmets would bomb.

Next brainer idea.... a pirate game with zero swashbuckling and raiding enemy ships..... oh wait.

 

[Kenpachii]

Played the game with the 1,5 patch. I enjoyed it, game is incredible short like 12 hours of main missions and side missions can all be done in another few hours after that, sadly the side missions are terrible and gameplay mechanics are way to simplistic.

Honestly i feel sorry for anybody that bought this at full price with the 1.0 patch that forced you to stealth the entire game instead of shoot your way through. Game is a 20-30 buck game at best. for 70 i expected assassin creed amount of content.

 

[Gilgalaad]

Top 5 AAA Bomba of 2024
1. Concord
2. Starwars Outlaws
3. Dragon Age the Veilguard
4. Skulls and bones
5. Suicide Squad

Are we sure Dragon Age does better than Outlaws?

 

[Kerotan]

At this rate I'll be getting the gold edition next year for 20 blips.

 

[Topher]

Dragon Age was a bigger bomb than S&B and Suicide Squad?

Doubtful

 

[Kenpachii]

At this rate I'll be getting the gold edition next year for 20 blips.

Bought the non gold edition for 26 on keysites. So there's that already.

 

[Woopah]

I thought that was Dragon Age Veilguard. Or did he catch heat for soft language about Outlaws underperformance?

He caught heat for both, but the "agenda" Chris supposedly has changes quite often.

 

[onQ123]

Probably has more to do with the fact that a Star Wars game came out a year before.

 

[ReBurn]

After all the patches, Outlaws is a fantastic game. The only real complaints left are the buttchin and knocking out stormtroopers with her fist when she has a damn stun gun.

Does climbing ladders still make her drop the weapon she's carrying?

 

[MagnetoWasRight]

Does climbing ladders still make her drop the weapon she's carrying?

Nope! It's still not 100% bug free but she can hold onto her weapon a lot longer and they even patched them to have more ammo.

 

[Saber]

47th? Wow thats hard to beat, surelly thats goes well for Ubisoft lol

 

[Kerotan]

Bought the non gold edition for 26 on keysites. So there's that already.

I'd get it now but I might as well wait until I clear the backlog. It'll probably end up on ps extra anyway so I'll just get the dlc then on sale.

 

[8bitpill]

Sweet Baby inc Client list

When do you think UBISOFT when cutting away the fat, will shed Sweet Baby Inc. Square Enix dropped them last year

 

[StereoVsn]

Should have been create a character or had a male/female MC option like Odyssey, Valhalla, and Far Cry 6. They wanted a female Han Solo so bad they were willing to lose millions of dollars.

And they doubled down with new AC game as well. Shadows better sell mine gangbusters, because there it’s game over for Ubi I feel.

 

[StereoVsn]

Nope! It's still not 100% bug free but she can hold onto her weapon a lot longer and they even patched them to have more ammo.

Why the f in a Star Wars “Outlaws” game there is only a single main weapon for MC? Who thought this was a good idea in the first place place?

Did the design go “Han Solo had a blaster, so our Henga Solo will also have a blaster?”

Did they not realize there were other main characters in the movies and it wasn’t just single blaster fights … and this is a game on to of that shit?

 

[LectureMaster]

Flawless game, really immersive.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Top 5 AAA Bomba of 2024
1. Concord
2. Starwars Outlaws
3. Dragon Age the Veilguard
4. Skulls and bones
5. Suicide Squad

What about Unknown 9 Awakening? Shit game that didn’t look AAA but the rumors were that it cost upper 8 figures or even 9 figures. Plus they had some whole transmedia universe planned with comics, TV shows, etc. And it only did like 1/3 Concord on Steam

 

[Meifu]

I wrote up a whole thoughs thing on the review thread. But on that flop list this is the only one that is actually a good game .

 

[Bernardougf]

It takes some talent to fuck up an open world star wars game.

They licensed from Lucas Film and probably got the knowhow on "how to fuck up a money printer" in a single package