this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2024
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Fandom Pulse is reporting (paywall), according to a "Ubisoft insider", that the beleaguered video game company is pushing back on Steam to try and get certain data points removed from public view. This would include data points like peak and concurrent users. The insider continues by saying that Star Wars Outlaws has still failed to surpass the 2 million units sold point having been released for almost 3 months. That's a far cry (get it?) from the 5 million in the first month some investors were hoping for at launch.

The report also alleges that Ubisoft isn't alone. Other companies would also like Valve to stop reporting numbers that they'd rather paint their own way on investor calls, or just dodge entirely like Ubisoft has done on recent calls where the lackluster performance of Star Wars Outlaws has come up.

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[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 102 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wtf kinda of investor calls don't have concrete numbers? Nothin makes me more suspicious than when a company tells me things are fine but won't let me see for myself.

[–] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 41 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You have evidently not had the misfortune of listening to shareholder meetings of anything involving Elon Musk.

Oh sure, there are numbers. They're almost all aspirational, or outright lies/misdirects to focus on some other metric that looks better...

But, somewhat more seriously, it is pretty common in shareholder meetings for many different publicly owned companies to only report non-specifically-legally-required concrete numbers if:

A) The board/CEO thinks they are really good.

B) Someone specifically asks for an exact, precise number, which is not as common as you might expect...

... and even then, the easiest thing to do is just say 'I don't have that in front of me right now, I'll get back to you on that' when its almost always the job of this person to know that number and have it ready for that meeting.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

These higher ups are convinced that is just too much detail. Same with conversations on.. ok.. but how.. yeah that's implementation details.. that's for other people to worry about. Line goes up?

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 62 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, just more bullshit from AAA publishers to hide information that their games are mediocre and games to waste their money.

[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 42 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I won't even pirate a Ubisoft game these days. Free is still too expensive for the digital slop they put out.

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Agreed, my storage space and time is worth more than their slop

[–] doomcanoe@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Same. Which is crazy, cuz I spend my time arguing with Tankies on Lemmy.

I feel like .ml and .world are in a competition on who can fling the most shit at eachother.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 53 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

But if Ubisoft gets their way, they would not only get to fudge their numbers for shareholders, but also hide when their games completely break on Windows because their kernel level anti-cheat stopped working after a Windows update.

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

I’m just glad it’s finally out that Windows 11 is offering OS level DRM. Some of us were called conspiracy theorists for pointing out that was the intention of the TPM requirement.

[–] VolumetricShitCompressor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 49 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Seems like Valve is still a privatly owned company, poor aaa studios. Let's see how GabeN feels about that.

[–] Godort@lemm.ee 31 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

They might pull their games from steam and try to sell them on UPlay again

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 26 points 3 weeks ago

I couldn't give a shit either way. Not ever going to buy a Ubisoft game again. I was interested in Star Wars Outlaws until I heard they were involved.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Isn't the reason they gave up on that because they lost all their customers?

I actually sympathize with their desire to resist silly reporting over player counts, because it can snowball and generally it's silly not-news. But you do have to actually sell games at some point.

[–] subignition@fedia.io 26 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If they focused more on actually making good games, instead of monetizing the shit out of mid ones, their player count problems would solve themselves.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Oh, I'm not saying that the reporting is why they don't sell games. I just think it's mostly nonsense.

I'm saying that they have a big enough sample to recognize that pulling off of Steam isn't a reasonable path forward, because people aren't willing to deal with their launcher or epic. They know that they can't push Valve around.

[–] subignition@fedia.io 3 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't interpreting it that way, it seems clear that they want to eliminate Steam's reporting just because it makes them look bad, not because the numbers themselves are influencing sales

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

That would be nice, then their games won't clutter the Steam store so much.

Maybe epic will give them money to go exclusive there.

[–] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 42 points 3 weeks ago

Situations like these show us exactly why nonpublic company run by a sensible person is not only possible but can be good for everyone that matters (none of which are other big companys)

[–] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 31 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

The only way I'm buying a Ubisoft game is if Valve hides the developer's name lmao 🤣

Rayman, tho

Ok, look. We all have weaknesses...

[–] str82L@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

Maybe that will be Ubisoft's next demand of Valve. Might just work.

[–] beneeney@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago

I can't blame you on Rayman. Those games are so so good

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 weeks ago

Things that make companies mad are good things for consumers and that usually turns out to be more information or feedback.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 weeks ago

The insider continues by saying that Star Wars Outlaws has still failed to surpass the 2 million units sold point having been released for almost 3 months. That’s a far cry (get it?) from the 5 million in the first month some investors were hoping for at launch.

It might do better if it launched on Steam and was playable on Windows 11.

[–] Viri4thus 11 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Modern journalism:

Dragon Age Veilguard: return to form, massive success.

SW Outlaws: Trash only sold 2M, Ubisoft in panic.

Ever since Ubi fended off the hostile takeover, the media has conspicuously focused on portraying Ubi in a far worse position than it is. Maybe it's because they are a prime target for absorption from a certain company that has been gobbling up everything lately. It just so happens to advertise in almost every outlet nowadays. This smells of a Nokia like job.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

Ubisoft still hasn't done anything about the plausible sex assaut ring allegations from upper management's preying on admin.

I'm too offended to play the Ubisoft games I own, let alone buy new ones. And they dove into the microtransactions void even after promising not to.

Ubi is already festering with parasites. It just now needs to die off so all the larvae can go off and pupa up before finding other companies to victimize.

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[–] Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

For those of us out of the loop, what company are you talking about?

[–] Viri4thus 2 points 3 weeks ago
[–] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago

To be fair, if your first month estimate is 5 mil and you don't even sell 2 mil in 3 months that could easily be a panic. And for comparison, fallen order had sold over 8 mil units in about the same time period.

[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago

Easy. Remove Denuvo and I'll buy it.

[–] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

I really want Ubisoft to shut down.

[–] raker@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

I got the Far Cry joke. I'm a nerd.

[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Star Wars Outlaws was a lot of fun. Nothing ground breaking but, it was a decent game.

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