Once upon a time during X360/PS3 generation Ubisoft was bit struggling but around the middle of that console generation they kinda found their groove and overall started offering diverse lineup of good and interesting games. They did went bit overboard with copy/paste mechanics in their games (that is when Ubisoft The Gem term was born) but they offered enough variety betwen their smaller initiatives and big games. They had slight hiccup at the end of the X360/PS3 generation with introduction of Online Passes for used games but if i remember correctly they were one of the first publishers to drop it when PS4/X1 arrived.
And since the start of PS4/X1 era up to the mid of that generation Ubisoft was on upward trend. Between lot's of new IPs, long support for their games and great lineup, diversity and overall good quality of games they were one of the best publishers out there. But then around that PS4/X1 mid gen they started to go down fast. They started to make same games again, they dropped their smaller projects, their projects started entering dev hell and talent started leaving. And by the end of the generation their products were starting to get released with more and more issues culminating with Ghost Recon Breakpoint (to this date irony of that name is still amazing)
Then it came big one, all dirty laundry started to show up and harassments and mistreatment of employees evidence started popping up. From Escoblades to Ashraf, from Maxime Beland to Yannis Mallat and Serge Hascoët. And many others that were let go and a lot of those who are still at Ubisoft like Jonathan Dumont who is now one of the top devs on Assassin's Creed Infinity. According to reports they did almost nothing to improve things and just like other companies just went silent and waited for things to calm down.
And after all of that Ubisoft decided to shift things regarding games for current generation, and apparently for the worse. One of their obvious goals is chase for Fortnite level F2P GAAS product, and they are so focused on that that they started developing crazy amount of F2P products while lowering their non F2P and non MP oriented output a lot. That is why we ar enow in situation where Ubisoft in 2022 still doesn't have any non MP and non F2P game release date announced and/or released. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is only game with realistic 2022 release date and even that has no info other than game announcement from last year. Only 2 games Ubisoft released so far this year are R6 Extraction and Roller Champions.
They had The Settlers scheduled for release on March 17th and 2 weeks before they delayed game indefinitely (after really poor reception from beta). And this is not their only product that got abruptly delayed. Ghost Recon Frontline got announced as part of Ghost Recon Anniversary stream and beta was announced that should have been released couple of weeks after announcement. But backslash was so bad that day after it got delayed indefinitely. Then we have entire Prince of Persia Remake debacle. And so on.
Then there is whole Ubisoft NFT, i mean Quartz thing that they are mighty silent about since introducing it (even though person in charge of it was very vocal on Twitter when they announced it). Their wish to turn every single of their franchises into GAAS titles no matter the cost (look at Assassin's Creed Valhalla and in general destruction of Assassins's Creed franchise so they can earn a lots of money from MTX) is another of their goals.
So here we are, second year of new generation and one of the publishers who previously was one of the first to adopt new hardware and release games for it is more-less without announced game for 2022, not having E3 presentation, not attending GamesCom and majority of announced titles are F2P GAAS games, other part are games in development hell and workplace more-less the same since allegations. Company that was once one of the publishers with most diverse lineup and company with most new IPs is now GAAS, F2P factory that would slap brand on anything to sell it, no matter if it fits or not and call it A Ubisoft Original.
And since the start of PS4/X1 era up to the mid of that generation Ubisoft was on upward trend. Between lot's of new IPs, long support for their games and great lineup, diversity and overall good quality of games they were one of the best publishers out there. But then around that PS4/X1 mid gen they started to go down fast. They started to make same games again, they dropped their smaller projects, their projects started entering dev hell and talent started leaving. And by the end of the generation their products were starting to get released with more and more issues culminating with Ghost Recon Breakpoint (to this date irony of that name is still amazing)
Then it came big one, all dirty laundry started to show up and harassments and mistreatment of employees evidence started popping up. From Escoblades to Ashraf, from Maxime Beland to Yannis Mallat and Serge Hascoët. And many others that were let go and a lot of those who are still at Ubisoft like Jonathan Dumont who is now one of the top devs on Assassin's Creed Infinity. According to reports they did almost nothing to improve things and just like other companies just went silent and waited for things to calm down.
And after all of that Ubisoft decided to shift things regarding games for current generation, and apparently for the worse. One of their obvious goals is chase for Fortnite level F2P GAAS product, and they are so focused on that that they started developing crazy amount of F2P products while lowering their non F2P and non MP oriented output a lot. That is why we ar enow in situation where Ubisoft in 2022 still doesn't have any non MP and non F2P game release date announced and/or released. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is only game with realistic 2022 release date and even that has no info other than game announcement from last year. Only 2 games Ubisoft released so far this year are R6 Extraction and Roller Champions.
They had The Settlers scheduled for release on March 17th and 2 weeks before they delayed game indefinitely (after really poor reception from beta). And this is not their only product that got abruptly delayed. Ghost Recon Frontline got announced as part of Ghost Recon Anniversary stream and beta was announced that should have been released couple of weeks after announcement. But backslash was so bad that day after it got delayed indefinitely. Then we have entire Prince of Persia Remake debacle. And so on.
Then there is whole Ubisoft NFT, i mean Quartz thing that they are mighty silent about since introducing it (even though person in charge of it was very vocal on Twitter when they announced it). Their wish to turn every single of their franchises into GAAS titles no matter the cost (look at Assassin's Creed Valhalla and in general destruction of Assassins's Creed franchise so they can earn a lots of money from MTX) is another of their goals.
So here we are, second year of new generation and one of the publishers who previously was one of the first to adopt new hardware and release games for it is more-less without announced game for 2022, not having E3 presentation, not attending GamesCom and majority of announced titles are F2P GAAS games, other part are games in development hell and workplace more-less the same since allegations. Company that was once one of the publishers with most diverse lineup and company with most new IPs is now GAAS, F2P factory that would slap brand on anything to sell it, no matter if it fits or not and call it A Ubisoft Original.
