Opinion: Ubisoft’s Upsetting Impact on the Gaming Industry

If there is one word to describe Ubisoft’s current state, it would be outrageous. This company has only been declining in quality over the years, and this will worsen with its poor decision-making. Three unannounced games have been canceled this year due to slower sales, and its upcoming game Skull and Bones was delayed for the sixth time. The fans, employees, and many others know that Ubisoft has become a shadow of what stood out to them the most. This is not only happening with Ubisoft, but this is also happening to other popular gaming companies as well. The only way to save Ubisoft and bring them out of the hole it has fallen into is to make significant changes, not only to its games but to the company itself.

The biggest mistake a company can make in its game is chasing trends. There has been a noticeable pattern in which gaming companies would go from creating their movements to following directions that are on the internet to appeal to their audiences. Ubisoft has not only done this, but it has spent the last few years doing nothing but adding trends to its games. Ubisoft would add battle passes to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and Rick and Morty accessories. Ubisoft has even gone so far as to become the first gaming company to add NFTs to its game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Ubisoft also planned on creating a Battle Royale game called Ghost Recon Frontline which was later canceled due to the number of dislikes received in its trailer. This shows fans are tired of how this company tends to ruin itself to adapt to popular things.

Ubisoft ignores its fans and refuses to give them what they ask for. The year 2022 was very disappointing as there was a 10% decline in the company when a 10% growth was expected. It is due to the company not listening to its fans and giving them what they want. And while it refuses to listen to what the fans say they want, it continues to change its games when they did not need to be changed in the first place. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is a prime example of this. The game has turned from an intense tactical game to a game focused on being competitive and balanced. By changing the mechanics that nobody had a problem with at all, and reworking maps, making them bland, Ubisoft single-handedly changed the game that people loved and turned it into a game that is somewhat similar to Valorant. Ubisoft continues to do this with other games while disregarding the aspects that made its games good in the first place. The company’s motto might as well be “If it ain’t broke, fix it” because it only cares about shaping the game up to its liking, not the fans’ liking.

Ubisoft needs to stop focusing on gaining money and start focusing on what made it famous and well-known in the first place. Ubisoft needs to start having a passion for the games that it makes. It managed to create the games we loved playing then and now because they felt like they had a soul. Now, the company has become so desperate to increase sales, which have decreased, that it relies on its big-hit games and in-game accessories. Not only that but currently, Ubisoft is also struggling to create decent games for its fans. The game Rainbow Six Extraction was released a couple of years back but had little to no effect on the company or the community. This also happens with other games, such as Hyper Scape, which was forgotten entirely after less than two years of release. There are currently so many games that are in development and are either being delayed, canceled, or just straight-up forgotten. Even if they get released, will they affect the public? Who knows? Ubisoft’s game Beyond Good and Evil 2 has even broken the record for the longest game in development for 15 years. For the past several years, Ubisoft has been disappointing gamers as it has failed to create games that its fans could connect to, love, and enjoy.

Games need an immersive experience with great gameplay and creative mechanics that appeal to the player. Single-player games should have a story that expresses emotion and give one a feeling that they are a part of the game. Multiplayer games should have maps that are unique in their way, with intense but fun action. As the CEO of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot continues to sugarcoat the issues in the company, and there is no telling if we will ever get a game like that again. I say all this out of love for Ubisoft because I want it to be better than before, but for Ubisoft to become the company that everyone once loved, it needs to stop trend chasing and making its trends. It needs to start giving the players what they want and act on the fans’ issues. It needs to start putting more heart into its games and be more creative regarding characters and stories instead of giving us soulless, bland, cash-grabbing games. And if all else fails, the CEO position of the company might as well fall into different, better, and more responsible hands.