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>And publishers will always care about the money first and foremost. Have you seen their share prices and the garbage games their making with heavy losses? The

>And publishers will always care about the money first and foremost. Have you seen their share prices and the garbage games their making with heavy losses? They clearly don't care about making money. If they did they wouldn't be doing what they're doing. Perfect example is Ubisoft.

jsheard 2y ago
What do you think they care about then, if they're not trying (but in some cases failing) to make money? Is this the point where we invoke conspiracy theories about the games industry trying to destroy itself on purpose due to some vaguely defined woke agenda?
- Cumpiler69 2y ago
  How come some little known games studios manage to make good games consistently that sell well and why does Ubisoft keep failing despite ownings some of the biggest IPs in the industry when their audience keep telling them what their mistakes are but they keep ignoring. So yeah, it's intentional, not a conspiracy. It's the emperor's new clothes. Nobody working there wants to point out flaws in the games they're making (like having a black samurai in medieval Japan as a main character) for fear of being called a racist/bigott, so everyone goes along with it till the studio collapses.
  - jsheard 2y ago
    I don't particularly enjoy Ubisofts games, they're the definition of bland uninspired AAA slop, but they are profitable. As a publicly traded company their financials have to be transparent so we know for a fact they were net positive over FY 2024.
    - Cumpiler69 2y ago
      Their share price today is lower than in 2008. Unadjusted for inflation. Ubisoft is always making profit but their profit margin getting smaller and smaller so that one day (if this continues), executives will begin to sack developers to keep their high salaries intact while pandering to shareholders.
      - jsheard 2y ago
        Funny you should choose 2008 as the reference point because they did a 2:1 stock split right at the end of that year (i.e. the stock price halved but they doubled the number of stocks in circulation, keeping the companies value the same). Comparing the price of a single stock now to then is apples and oranges. Their stock price has dropped sharply since its all-time peak in 2018-2021 but I recall they were already being accused of a woke agenda during that peak, for example due to the villain of 2018s Far Cry 5 being a white American conservative preacher. Their stocks decline wouldn't start until 3 years later.
    - sickofparadox 2y ago
      They are held afloat by a few massive live service games, but every single one of their major releases this year has been a disaster. From the comedy of errors in their latest Assasin's Creed game, to the first ever "AAAA" flop Skull and Bones, to Star Wars outlaws, which was so bad the board announced a comprehensive internal review to figure out what went wrong, and the recent announcement of the sunsetting of their "COD killer" XDefiant. They can't coast off of Rainbow 6 Siege forever.
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    >How come some little known games studios manage to make good games consistently that sell well because you're ignoring the thousands that failed, I suppose. Survivor's bias will do that. I wouldn't call Torn Banners a large studio and that's the other half of this article. > why does Ubisoft keep failing despite ownings some of the biggest IPs in the industry because "succeeding" for a company the size of ubisoft is no longer just "making a fair profit on games and coasting about to make more games. Which is what most not-large studios strive for. And because they use these failures as an excuse to not say the quiet part out loud in that they are preparing for a recession. You'll at best hear "economic headwinds". People woulda been laid off no matter what. The fact that not just ubisot but virtually every lage studio this year has been doing this shows that this isn't some speciic ubsoft failure. And the profits sugggest this isn't some upcoming 2nd collapse. But you gotta read between the lines, and you're not even reading the same book to begin with.
- junaru 2y ago
  > What do you think they care about then, if they're not trying (but in some cases failing) to make money? They care about attracting investment fund money and not building a good product and growing their consumer base. There's no conspiracy, ticking woke checkboxes gives you extra points in any consideration, that's a fact in current political climate. Biggest investment funds are those managing retirement funds so even a single fund like that is 'voting with wallets' of hundreds of thousands(if not millions) of its clients that wouldn't support the game company to begin with. If you want to see something grassroots check Grinding Gear Games and their developer interviews for the sequel game (POE2) that will be releasing tomorrow. You will see them engaging in discussion with community for hours, talking about their server infrastructure and how it can fail, releasing numbers of their stress tests and how many players they expect based on preorders (~1 milion). Than again this only happens when your PR person is actually the technical lead that knows the product inside out and not someone interested in quick buck. Guess how many of that team will be fired this christmas... Edit: 10 minutes about their infrastructure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lB3TM5FrsY#t=1h9m50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lB3TM5FrsY#t=1h9m50s
- LightHugger 2y ago
  Hmm, there are some companies that are run by openly ideologically driven people who are caught up this. They are very open about their agenda which is also very well defined in conference talks and blog posts, there is no conspiracy theory, just annoying preachy people whose games are undesired by the market. Not sure why you think this is a conspiracy theory.

jsheard 2y ago

What do you think they care about then, if they're not trying (but in some cases failing) to make money? Is this the point where we invoke conspiracy theories about the games industry trying to destroy itself on purpose due to some vaguely defined woke agenda?

Cumpiler69 2y ago
How come some little known games studios manage to make good games consistently that sell well and why does Ubisoft keep failing despite ownings some of the biggest IPs in the industry when their audience keep telling them what their mistakes are but they keep ignoring. So yeah, it's intentional, not a conspiracy. It's the emperor's new clothes. Nobody working there wants to point out flaws in the games they're making (like having a black samurai in medieval Japan as a main character) for fear of being called a racist/bigott, so everyone goes along with it till the studio collapses.
- jsheard 2y ago
  I don't particularly enjoy Ubisofts games, they're the definition of bland uninspired AAA slop, but they are profitable. As a publicly traded company their financials have to be transparent so we know for a fact they were net positive over FY 2024.
  - Cumpiler69 2y ago
    Their share price today is lower than in 2008. Unadjusted for inflation. Ubisoft is always making profit but their profit margin getting smaller and smaller so that one day (if this continues), executives will begin to sack developers to keep their high salaries intact while pandering to shareholders.
    - jsheard 2y ago
      Funny you should choose 2008 as the reference point because they did a 2:1 stock split right at the end of that year (i.e. the stock price halved but they doubled the number of stocks in circulation, keeping the companies value the same). Comparing the price of a single stock now to then is apples and oranges. Their stock price has dropped sharply since its all-time peak in 2018-2021 but I recall they were already being accused of a woke agenda during that peak, for example due to the villain of 2018s Far Cry 5 being a white American conservative preacher. Their stocks decline wouldn't start until 3 years later.
  - sickofparadox 2y ago
    They are held afloat by a few massive live service games, but every single one of their major releases this year has been a disaster. From the comedy of errors in their latest Assasin's Creed game, to the first ever "AAAA" flop Skull and Bones, to Star Wars outlaws, which was so bad the board announced a comprehensive internal review to figure out what went wrong, and the recent announcement of the sunsetting of their "COD killer" XDefiant. They can't coast off of Rainbow 6 Siege forever.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  >How come some little known games studios manage to make good games consistently that sell well because you're ignoring the thousands that failed, I suppose. Survivor's bias will do that. I wouldn't call Torn Banners a large studio and that's the other half of this article. > why does Ubisoft keep failing despite ownings some of the biggest IPs in the industry because "succeeding" for a company the size of ubisoft is no longer just "making a fair profit on games and coasting about to make more games. Which is what most not-large studios strive for. And because they use these failures as an excuse to not say the quiet part out loud in that they are preparing for a recession. You'll at best hear "economic headwinds". People woulda been laid off no matter what. The fact that not just ubisot but virtually every lage studio this year has been doing this shows that this isn't some speciic ubsoft failure. And the profits sugggest this isn't some upcoming 2nd collapse. But you gotta read between the lines, and you're not even reading the same book to begin with.
junaru 2y ago
> What do you think they care about then, if they're not trying (but in some cases failing) to make money? They care about attracting investment fund money and not building a good product and growing their consumer base. There's no conspiracy, ticking woke checkboxes gives you extra points in any consideration, that's a fact in current political climate. Biggest investment funds are those managing retirement funds so even a single fund like that is 'voting with wallets' of hundreds of thousands(if not millions) of its clients that wouldn't support the game company to begin with. If you want to see something grassroots check Grinding Gear Games and their developer interviews for the sequel game (POE2) that will be releasing tomorrow. You will see them engaging in discussion with community for hours, talking about their server infrastructure and how it can fail, releasing numbers of their stress tests and how many players they expect based on preorders (~1 milion). Than again this only happens when your PR person is actually the technical lead that knows the product inside out and not someone interested in quick buck. Guess how many of that team will be fired this christmas... Edit: 10 minutes about their infrastructure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lB3TM5FrsY#t=1h9m50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lB3TM5FrsY#t=1h9m50s
LightHugger 2y ago
Hmm, there are some companies that are run by openly ideologically driven people who are caught up this. They are very open about their agenda which is also very well defined in conference talks and blog posts, there is no conspiracy theory, just annoying preachy people whose games are undesired by the market. Not sure why you think this is a conspiracy theory.