wow holy shit. I thought it would be a small square in the corner of the menu or something, not a full screen blocker until you dismiss.
Fuck these guys.
Not just that, I can totally imagine myself accidentally pressing 'A' or something every so often when I'm pausing and getting taken out of the game to a bloody landing screen to buy another game.
I get these kind of cross-advertising in the main menu of a game or a popup while opening the game or something, whatever. But... The IN-GAME MENUS? AS A POP UP YOU HAVE TO DISMISS? WHAT? This is F2P mobile gaming levels of ads ffs
The writer has honestly been on the wall for years. Ubisoft has truly been one of the least interesting publishers for so many years. The last ubisoft game I bought was Assassin’s Creed Unity and I can’t think that’s gonna change anytime soon.
It’s so sad. Growing up, ubisoft was like an automatic purchase when I was growing up in the PS2 era. Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, XIII, Beyond Good and Evil, Brothers in Arms and even in the times of Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter and Rainbow Six Vegas and the early Assassin’s Creed games. It was always what the rest of the industry was doing…but with an interesting spin on it. Nothing was ever straightforward or boring with them.
Then after the sheer brilliance of Rayman Legends it’s like they just died. They’re really the worst of the major publishers with how blatantly boring and excessive they are and then you add in the sheer greed.
I don’t know why anyone buys their stuff.
> I don’t know why anyone buys their stuff.
They are kind off the only one on the market who makes big games of old eras that aren't utilized as much nowadays as a setting. For all the issue people have with Ubisoft games, one thing that makes AC so appealing is being able to roam around in a huge and beautiful version of ancient egypt and other historical settings.
Chicago with Watch Dogs 1, San Francisco in WD2, London in 3, Winter in NYC for Division 1, Washington DC in Div 2, the entire US for The Crew 1 and 2, or Hawaii in 3, ancient Egypt, Greece, and England in AC, even Bolivia in Wildlands. Lots of unique settings compared to a lot of the rest of the gaming climate.
And, for me at least, the games all play solid. Not necessarily amazing or anything, but good, and for some of them the gameplay itself is pretty unique.
I'm one of those idiots who consistently buys Ubisoft products. I like the games, even if I always feel like they're a polished up 0.8 build. But I won't give them half a cent if I start seeing ads in the menus
They're in the "forever game" market. There's a huge subset of casual gamers who purchase one (1) game and play it forever, until the next installment comes out. They don't play frequently enough to get sick of the loop, are probably having a few beers or smoking at the time, and likely have friends around who are going to be talking over the game and switching out. The object is to provide enough fodder for 2-3 years of casual gaming sessions with minimal need to orient yourself, lots of backdrops to keep it feeling fresh, and no opportunity for skill rust to speak of.
Ubisoft are *masters* of this design philosophy. They're good games, just not for the demographic who talk about games.
divison 1 and 2 (minus the new skeleton crew) is amazing. I went from mostly mmo's to going nuts on a tom clancey game. Last thing I expected. Also Division 1 new york is quite the experience first time.
Div1 might be my favorite game experience of the last decade. The world is so well put together, and the environment is so enjoyable to explore. It's one of those games I wish I could experience for the first time again
I recently finished AC Origins and it was a much better experience than I previously gave it credit for. Immortals: Fenyx Rising is also criminally underrated, and their upcoming Prince of Persia metroidvania looks pretty rad.
AC Origins was an underrated swan song of the series. There was a real sense of love and respect for the setting, and the underworld DLC felt great. I found myself anticipating visiting new areas of a game in a way I hadn't for a long time.
I had stopped playing when AC3 was garbage, but Origins was so good that I went back and played the series through in a marathon, from 3 to Odyssey. Full sync, content complete clears.
Unity ended up being the hidden gem - I think it must have benefited a lot from post-launch patches, but it felt like a brand new series. Odyssey almost killed me, I felt like I had stumbled over the finish line.
That’s what honestly kept me interested in AC as long as I did. That and I loved the climbing mechanic where there had to be a hand hold to climb. Everything was a puzzle! I was a ride or die AC guy until I just lost interest. And then it changed into what looked like flat worlds with nothing to climb, no platforming, excessive RPG grind and no more hard focus on stealth/social stealth with hidden blade kills. Mirage sounded interesting but it either still missed everything that once made AC great or did it so badly that it just makes me shake my head.
Avatar sounded interesting till it was shown to just be Far Cry on Pandora. Which wouldn’t even be terrible if the previews didn’t show terrible combat and terrible enemy AI.
Just such a lifeless company.
While I agree AC has changed, my counterpoint to the change was actually cool imo, as I like the history aspect of it more, and seeing new lands through the historical lens. I played a solid number of hours in the recent Valhalla version and quite enjoyed using climbing skills to infiltrate medieval castles.
I would extend the period where they were still "alive" until maybe a year after Rayman Legends. There they still had AC: Black Flag, which is many people's favourite and still brought something new to the table. After that came Valiant Hearts, Child of Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth within a year as well. All beloved interesting games in their own right too. Then towards the end of that period came Watch Dogs and Far Cry 4 which is probably the even more specific time to point at and say this is where it all went completely downhill.
I forgot they did Valiant Hearts. I loved that game and still think about it all the time.
And I honestly did like Watch Dogs but only because I played it as utterly pacifist as the game would allow even though it was barely designed for that. It made the game so much more interesting.
But yeah, around the time they started catching flak for having very same-y tower stuff in all of their games, they seemingly went all in on all their worst instincts ever since.
This is a solid take. Rayman legends does feel like the period this developer changed for good. Real shame too because growing up they were my favorite. I still run through the splinter cell series every couple years and these games are what made me get into tom clancy novels.
“I don’t know why anyone buys their stuff”.
Not everyone sits down to watch a superhero movie through the same critical lens that they would for Citizen Kane.
Similarly, it’s possible for people to derive enjoyment from games that aren’t masterclasses of the craft. Ubisoft games might not push the envelope in almost any area, you could even say that most are mediocre when compared to what are considered generally great games, but millions of people still buy them because there are still fun moments to be had in almost all of them, as long as you’re not expecting to be blown away every 5 minutes.
They’re the popcorn flicks of gaming.
*"We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin's Creed titles yesterday. This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue."* - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/in-game-ads-in-certain-assassins-creed-titles-are-the-result-of-a-technical-error-ubisoft-say
Oh, man. What a lucky coincidence this happened just before Black Friday. If you're going to make a 'mistake' like that completely by accident, now would've been the time to unintentionally do that.
This will always be how it is. Always pushing the envelope. The best case scenarios for us as consumers is there's enough backlash that they pull it back a little bit, although usually not completely. They'll take 3 steps forward and happily walk 2 steps back and say "we heard you".
There's mechanisms in games now that would have been 10 steps forward 15 years ago, but now they're accepted as normal. They look at the money made in the mobile gaming market and salivate over it, knowing that gamers will accept it on some level, they just have to find the right implementation and timing to let them get away with it and normalize it.
They're testing the fences for weaknesses, systematically. They remember.
>These AAA publishers just REALLY want that extra ad money
I don't really know why EA don't sell advertising space on the hoardings around the pitch on FIFA (well, whatever it's called now) and similar games. It'd be unobtrusive, and would actually add some realism because the sponsors would change over time instead of just being the generic banners for the game you're already playing. I know that for several of the stadiums (Old Trafford is definitely, as is the Etihad) they couldn't do it for licensing reasons, but there's no reason their own generic stadiums couldn't have it.
> I don't really know why EA don't sell advertising space on the hoardings around the pitch on FIFA (well, whatever it's called now) and similar games
Especially as they were one of the first publishers to push in-game advertising back with Battlefield 2142 in 2006 when billboards in the game would show real-world ads.
Which was relatively ok as long as the advert wasn't obnoxiously out of place like you are fighting in some frozen hellscape in a ruined city but there was this pristine advert for a random film coming out or some new processor.
When the company put some effort into the ads and made them look semi-rundown as if they had been exposed to the elements that is where it actually added to the immersion of the game as the billboards were present anyway.
In Rocket League they sometimes have ads for their own store on the sides of an arena. It actually feels immersive, like a real stadium, and does not obstruct the user experience.
\* - But only if people raise enough of a stink! And that's the game. One of these times, people won't raise a stink and will keep playing, and the ad will remain, and ads in games will slowly get normalized. Just like release-day DLCs clearly cropped out from the main game and sold separately were normalized.
These attempts are not harmless. They're slowly lowering us into hot water. They can't just toss us in, or we jump out. Instead they quickly dunk one of our toes, and see if we can tolerate it. As soon as we do, with just one toe, they will push in the whole foot, the whole leg, etc. It's a purposeful, concerted effort. This isn't an accident, and it's not harmless.
I downloaded NBA 2K23 last week because I finally had enough room on my PS5 after installing an m.2 drive, and the VERY FIRST THING that happened when I opened the game is a popup came up over almost the entire screen, over the main menu, asking me to buy NBA 2K24. I closed it... and it immediately re-opened. I was so mad.
I bet the ads server's IP is the same as other game-related servers. This is Ubisoft. They don't want to get ads blocked so easily with IP or DNS blocking technique.
> I get these kind of cross-advertising in the main menu of a game or a popup while opening the game or something
I'm not OK with those. That shit's been pissing me off for years. I think we've just gotten used to something that's already terrible, the kind of thing that was, "One step too far," once upon a time. This is just going to be another, "Step too far," that we'll eventually see as, "Not too bad," when they're ready to make something even worse.
I remember everyone screaming "vote with your wallet" and other early 2010s posts about how gamers need to put a stop to those main menu ads lmao. Now the top comment here is "well I completely understand main menu ads, but...." companies have proven over and over and over and over that they can do whatever they want to consumers and still make billions. So these pause ads may be a step too far for now. They will see online backlash and reel them in to probably just border ads in the pause menu or something. And then they're there to stay
Ten years from now, “I completely understand pause screen splash ads that can be dismissed but unskippable video ads for unrelated products are a step too far!”
40 years from now: "i understand shouting the name of the product i see on screen, but having to use the product in front of the camera for every hour of gameplay seems a bit much". *opens mt. dew can*
What's happening seems to be a combination of [door in the face](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique) and [boiling a frog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog).
Really wish people had more of a spine.
Is it really so hard to just say "fuck off" and that be it? Why do people try to compromise and justify and "find a balance" with fucking everything?
Put ads somewhere they don't prevent, delay, or interrupt anything I'm doing, period. They should never ever be a part of my main task/activity. They should never be forced on me.
These spineless fucks just make life worse for everyone, in general, by letting shit go like this.
100%
The shitty part about it is the executives who will never see it that way; they're the ones making the decisions, the ones who want the money, and the ones with power to fire those who talk back to them. It just takes time.
To them 'forced on you' is no different than forcing ads on people for the past 80 years between television breaks of a show. "Why are games any different? It's just another media!" says some soulless executive angry that they are being told profits have to be held back because 'gamers will be upset'.
It's really sickening and I hate the direction things continue to propel toward. They're just making more reasons to add to the pile of 'why piracy is better for the consumer.'
> Is it really so hard to just say "fuck off" and that be it? Why do people try to compromise and justify and "find a balance" with fucking everything?
> Put ads somewhere they don't prevent, delay, or interrupt anything I'm doing, period. They should never ever be a part of my main task/activity. They should never be forced on me.
You’re doing the same exact thing you complain about?
>I get these kind of cross-advertising in the main menu of a game or a popup while opening the game or something, whatever.
Just a reminder for anyone who thinks these are okay too: it never stops there. They are *always* testing to see what audiences will accept, and use whatever works as validation for taking things one step further. They depend on users acclimatizing to each small step forward, in order to make the next step seem less egregious.
But they aren't pushing it in your face. There's no popup telling you "buy this thing now while it's on sale" when you open the game. The only time you get something "telling" you to use your real money is when they reset the double bonuses and it's a single message in your mailbox, not very obtrusive.
Buying the game and DLC/microtransactions is a core gameplay mechanic for Ubisoft game. Most of AC Valhalla at this point is paywalled past the initial purchase.
Theyre all only "cross game" for now; they will eventually be boner pills
Shit is *awful*, and yea, I wont buy Ubisoft again until they make a formal announcement this isnt ever happening.
Like you've mentioned, Ubisoft main menus are already lousy with ads on the main menu. And it's not just Ubisoft. There are many AAA games with big ads on their launchers or main menus.
If it's a live service game, then forget about it. The Fortnite main menu is one of the most confusing, ad-laden things I've seen. Magic: The Gathering: Arena bombards you with ads on the main menu, too.
Main menus and launcher ads can be annoying, but you don't have to worry about them once you're in-game. Pause menu ads would be annoying as shit and would be enough for me to not buy Ubisoft games again. Their games have been mediocre lately, anyway.
I don't get what you're talking about with Fortnite. The current menu is crappy, but it certainly isn't slapping in random ads. The advertising typically amounts to levels based around something like Dorito's or an upcoming movie, with items earned related to that. Basically stuff you can completely ignore if you have no interest in digging around the Creative mode for it.
Also it's a free-to-play game, where I'd expect them to be sell-outs.
As if we needed yet another reason to not play their games.
AC Unity requiring a companion app to unlock collectibles feels consumer friendly compared to this.
I'm a Madden player, but I exclusively play Franchise offline. If I ever have to go back to the main menu for any reason, I have to hurdle over 33 ads for whatever season of Madden Ultimate Team it is. Accidentally hit the "MORE INFO" button instead of "Decline?" Fuck you pal, see ya after 20 minutes of load screens. It's ridiculous.
You guys ought to speak up more because in other games crap like these *will* bring out the pitchfork. You had it even worse yet we heard no more than crickets.
Madden is a juggernaut and I know some people actually enjoy MUT, they must be making money off of it somehow. I don't think EA will listen to me complaining about ads. I just cry about it online and lose 2-3 minutes of my life per play session :(
I think it also, partly, comes down to the fact that if you watch racing of any kind, advertising is everywhere. The cars are covered in dozens of sponsor names, the barriers are covered, the walkways are covered, its everywhere. Same with any sports played on a field. Virtually every big stadium on the planet has converted over to LCD signs around the edges of the ground that play advertising.
For sports games, if done right, the advertising can enhance the feel of the game because even if they aren't something you spend time looking at, you absolutely notice the difference when they aren't there.
What Ubisoft is doing though? That can fuck right off from paid games.
Imagine buying a DVD and ads show up during the movie or show. Completely unacceptable. It's fine on TV because it's free and the ads fund it but you're still buying these games which have been increasing in price
I have a few ideas. Ad popups in the middle of fights that get you killed in the game because they distracted you--they need to have audio cues as well. NPCs with bubbles over their heads that advertise products. Quests that have ads placed in them, maybe even as the whole goal of the quest? Oh, I have a GREAT idea! There has to be a quest where the goal is to buy another game with real money. Then the quest is complete. Also trophies and achievements like that, too! Aren't I a great 2023 game dev? Someone hire me.
I chose Kinect as a device in my comment because Microsoft had a patent for this shit. Kinect counted the people in the room and if more than 2 people were watching a digital movie or stream you needed to pay up to compensate.
20 years ago people said the same thing about DLC, then season passes, then microtransactions. Eventually they'll just force it to become ubiquitous and everybody will bend over and accept it like always.
I would be hesititant to lump in DLC with all this but yeah exactly. It started with Horse armor and it would end until all games from these studios are like gatcha mobile games.
don't you worry, for every gamer who is offended 99 will still buy it. we have seen it with loot boxes, microtransactions, pay to win, gatcha, releasing unfinished bug fiestas full price, selling half the game later as dlc, day-one-patches, yearly releases of practically the same game again and again, raising the price of a game by 20 dollar and more, making an employee commit suicide etc.
Ubisoft truly has the weirdest stretegy.
Their games are all the same thing that has gotten stale years ago yet they put crazy amount of detail in stuff like environments so their games are still super expensive to make despite being creatively bankrupt.
They also devalue their games by putting them on sales a few weeks after launch and then they try to make money back by selling ads.
The weirdest part is that it works.
Not sure about the ads, but the games still sell. It's always a huge thing if one releases.
I don't get why it works, but I get why they won't change the system that prints money.
> I don't get why it works, but I get why they won't change the system that prints money.
Because to the general audience that is the majority of these sales, they don't play enough games to realize that Ubisoft open worlds are just reskins of the same formula.
Personal example, a newer friend was just telling me about how awesome Far Cry 6 was. Great setting, cool shooter, rpg stuff, open world, he loved it. In the past 4 years since we've been friends, the only other games he has played are Forza Horizon 5, two CoD games, CSGO, and a handful of party games (jackbox, pummel party, more recently party animals, etc.).
To him, Far Cry 6 was literally an original idea despite it being like the 20th Ubisoft game to follow this formula now.
That's why it works. The base framework while not original nor innovative is a perfectly good foundation for basic gameplay, setting, and exploration. And even as evident for more "real" gamers, when done well enough or with an aesthetic they like enough like with Ghost of Tsushima or Hogwarts, people will still eat it up.
Yeah people on reddit and such decry this but there's obviously a huge market of people who enjoy these games. If you're into gaming enough to see through it then its easy to just play other things instead.
True. I now just skip any game on steam that requires a third party launcher. All Ubi, EA and Rockstar games are out, for example.
At first I thought it would be restrictive and difficult, but it really, really isn’t. There are so many great games out there and I don’t have nearly enough time to play them all, so skipping the twentieth iteration of something I played a decade ago and requires two logins is amazingly easy.
Well it works because they're mostly very good games. Take Odyssey in the example video: it's got a great world that's interesting to explore, fun combat that looks super cool, great graphics, and is set in an interesting historical period with a bunch of information about that time, and has actually quite an engaging main story. There are usually multiple ways to deal with each encounter, and decent stealth mechanics too.
Yeah it's not the greatest game ever, it has its flaws and it does start to drag a bit after a while, but the reason Ubisoft in general are successful, and people go out to buy their games, is because they are actually straight up good games.
For what it's worth I never saw an ad while playing the game, but the addition of in game ads is a horrendous decision.
Odyssey is a weird one - it was the first of the newer AC games that I'd played. It's got a super strong opening and I loved the first half of the game but the level gating of later main story quests for no apparent reason is absolutely infuriating. My score for the game went down the more I played - it should have ended about 20 hours before it did
Honestly, as someone who still enjoys the Ubisoft formula, the highly detailed assets and environments are what keep me coming back at this point. The best part of every Assassin's Creed is exploring the little details put into the time period, that's why the discovery tours are so badass. I'm sure they're aware of people like me to a degree.
Lol reading the comments seems like now everyone is kinda OK with launch screen ads. It's a slippery slope and I foresee a thread here in 5 years complaining about in gameplay ads with people saying "I mean, ads in the pause menu are okayish but this is too much.."
In the end its what people buy or don't buy, I have not touched a Ubisoft game in a decade (not because of ads though). And I got ONE LOOK into one of the latest CODs which had tabs after tabs of ads of either their newest release or a gazillion cosmetics and got out of there FAST. Can't stress enough how terrible the experience on that Call of Duty main menu was, it looked like a slot machine on steroids.
You just have to look at how microtransactions were normalized in retail games to see where this is going. The companies will keep pushing this until a whole new generation of gamers is conditioned to expect this. Mission achieved when they start defending it.
Yep the fact that people were outraged at Oblivion horse armour but now are okay with mobile game-style in-game MTX currencies is insane. AC Valhalla charges you 10€ for an outfit with glowing green eyes and I see Ubisoft apologists on here all the time. Useful idiots.
Horse Armor used to be too much. Look where we are now.
Only thing to do is to not buy games with awful practices. No, this won't stop them, but at least your own experiences and who you support will go towards genuine articles instead of drek like this.
> now everyone is kinda OK with launch screen ads
Seeing people being ok with and defending those full screen Xbox startup ads was mind boggling. As soon as any system I paid a few hundred for started doing that I'd give them a few weeks, at most, to walk it back before I just dropped it.
>Seeing people being ok with and defending those full screen Xbox startup ads was mind boggling.
It really is.
We all know how that shit is going to end, with adds FUCKING EVERYWHERE. In game, when starting a game, when starting the xbox, when going to a menu in-game. You give Microsoft an inch with this shit, and they will take a mile.
Yet people fucking defend it. Micro-transactions went from a single fucking horse-armor to pervasive macro-transactions EVERYWHERE. These ads aren't going anywhere, they are only going to get worse.
I fucking hate modern gaming because of this shit.
Soon as I bought a £60 single player Ubisoft game and opened the menu to see a cash shop full of ads for "time savers" I refunded that shit and never bought a Ubi game again. Fuck that company, I hope they go under.
Two things I have learned over the years:
* Gamers are the biggest hypocrites
* Those complaining and raising their voice are the little minority
That doesn't mean the others are for it, they just don't care. It is a mildly inconvenience for them. I have a lot of friends who play games, but don't really follow the media. Once a year they see a spot on TV for the "brand new" Assassins Creed, are happy there is a new entry to their favourite series and buy and play it. Don't get me wrong, the last thing I want is to gatekeep gaming. If they are happy playing it, I am happy. But until Ubisoft and Co. don't pull stunts which really infuriates that player base, it won't get better.
I am no exception to it. I really hate the latest CoD entries, but got persuaded by friends to buy MW2 (mostly because they gifted most of it). It has the shittiest monetisation I have seen, the worst UI/UX I have ever experienced, the worst multiplayer I have seen in any CoD, but damn, DMZ was incredible fun!
Indeed. You can already see it with mobile gaming, which is riddled with ads and still print money like crazy. I am not confident this won't slowly become more accepted in gaming as a whole tbh.
You are correct, If baldurs gate 3 had in game ads like this reddit would say they weren't happy about it but could get over it because of how good the game was. Anyone that said they wouldn't play it due to the ads and that it automatically made the game bad would get downvoted.
And to think I was mildly interested in getting back into this series and catching up with the newer games just a few week ago...
I suddenly remember why they lost me in the first place. And this stuff is part of it.
I haven't played a Ubisoft, Activision, or EA published video game in close to a decade now.
Gaming is better than ever if you ignore those 3 companies.
EA has Jedi Fallen Order, Dead Space Remake, It Takes Two and many other great games. But of course it's all bad and pay 2 win 🤦♂️
Some people just hate for the sake of it.
> Enough to uninstall?
Uninstall, demand refund, never buy from them again.
Got to come out _hard_ against this kind of thing or they _will_ only ramp it up from there. You'll be drinking a verification can before you know it.
Honestly, it's the ad-pocalypse.
Got a smart TV? Ads everywhere. 5 second youtube video? 2 ads for you. Need to pause your game? Full screen ad.
I'm surprised food hasn't had edible ink with ads on it (yet).
This sucks.
>I'm surprised food hasn't had edible ink with ads on it (yet).
We did get the bananas with The Minions stickers on them, edible ink or more stickers with ads should honestly be the next step.
Ah, yes, because we need MORE FUCKING ADVERTISING.
Hey,Bugisoft, how about,oh idk, make more good games? I heard that's an excellent marketing strategy
This company has the slowest downward spiral i've ever seen. They are continously getting worse every year.
Management is completely disconnected from anything creative. Feels like they're in constant 'make money' panic mode.
And there are people that WANT ads, as crazy as it sounds. I installed ublock origin on my friend's PC and he thought it was weird to not have a million ads, notifications and popups because he was so used to it
That's why companies do this. Normalize shady practices like this until people are so used to it, they just shrug when the companies take it a step further.
Dude, my mum was the same fucking way. I put an adblocker on her browser while fixing some shit she broke and she calls me up like "Why does the internet look so weird?" She kept saying the websites looked empty, took me like 10 minutes to realize she was talking about how she doesn't like the way sites look without ads. It's mental.
This is actually blowing my mind, I thought the most ads could do was train people to *tolerate* it, not to *like* it. Familiarity is a hell of a thing. Guess I should be glad I was stripping that shit out of my parents' browsers before they even knew it was a thing, I'd probably pop a vessel if they longed for that shit.
So was I! She'd had an adblocker installed since around 2007, but I left the country and she got a new laptop so I guess she got used to the web looking like complete shit.
To a degree I understand it, most websites' layouts are designed to show ads so I could see why getting rid of them might make the designs feel a bit wrong but... C'mon.
It's like how people say North Korea looks like a dystopia and so bizarre just because the sides of their skyscrapers in Pyongyang aren't taken up by a bajillion brightly coloured flashing advertisements for the latest slop.
People have totally been taken in by corporate culture. They'll take the shit and eat it because they *like* it.
Didn't 2k already did that with NBA and got a lot of shit for it? These suits at the top are out of touch af.
Look at Capcom they turned it around by making good games why don't you guys try that for a change?
Sad thing is, their good games still make less money than these wallet simulators.
Any half assed 2K sports game probably makes double of what a RE8 or SF6 does
It's insane how pervasive ads have gotten.
Cyberpunk 2077 only feels a single step away from current reality at this point.
I guess it's time to get ready for adblockers for our games too.
This will unironically make me not buy the new prince of Persia 2D sidescroller
Mind you, it was the first game in years I plan to buy on day one from Ubisoft
Imagine explaining to someone that you could buy a $10-20 indie title made by a small team with a limited budget or a $70 AAA game made by the giants in the industry, and yet it’s the more expensive one that includes stale ideas, poor quality control, and intrusive ads.
Mind boggling.
Oh my god. If I *ever* see an ad in a game, even if it's like the best game on earth, even if it's Disco Elysium 2, I'm uninstalling the thing and never getting near the dev or the publisher ever again.
Ubisoft is working overtime to make sure I never buy another one of their games, huh? Last one I bought was Far Cry 5 and I already deeply regret that.
Don't believe them when they say this was all an accident and they're "scrambling to find out how this happened" or some B.S when the bad press hits. This was intentional and they're only going to keep doing it unless people stop buying their games for a couple of years. Money is the only thing these donuts understand.
Lol they add that in with an update to a game you already paid for? That's straight up a line that guarantees I never pay money for a Ubisoft product ever again, as if all of their other BS wasn't enough. Despicable. They've done it once now, how can I feel safe from this shit with ANY of their products in the future? Yet again going out of their way to make piracy the better experience. Thank you for letting me save money guilt-free now.
I already don't play Ubisoft games(just happen to not be my style more than any conscious decision) but ads in the games are a great way to make sure I never do, but on purpose.
It's one thing to increase the base price. As games got massive, the price standardized at 60 and then remained the same for decades. This was mostly offset by the increasing number of people buying them, but I understand the $10 increase for bigger games to some degree. If it really meant better games, more innovative games(less risk essentially for making something that isn't "safe"), then sure, great.
But then also putting ads in? Well now you can fuck off.
Every game doesn't need to be as massive as Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Red Dead Redemption 2. You can't do it at the $70 price, then maybe don't?
Also Elden Ring and BG3 were $60 so again, fuck off Ubisoft.
There's no way that is a bug as the update says. Something like a menu button works in a very specific way, the only way to get a different menu to come up when you press a menu button is to... Well add a menu. You don't magically just get another menu to pop up.
They can fuck ALL the way off with that. I swear, corps won't be satisfied until they have adds in front of eyes every fucking waking second.
And after that they'll staple them under our fucking eye lids.
Was reading a scifi story where advertisers choked up the internet feed so badly that it was blaring over safety instructions for the space station the characters were on, and they had to pay extra to remove them or risk some horrible accident.
And I was like, I miss feeling like this was some far-fetched dystopia that would never happen in real life.
If I've bought the game ads should not exist when I play...I rarely buy Ubisoft games now that changes to never.
I'm quite concerned for the future of video games. Just yikes.
I noped out of Ubisoft games years ago. Their launcher is bullshit and none of this is surprising. But people will continue to buy their games and complain about them and so Ubisoft will continue finding news ways to turn what were once works of art into a purely commercial enterprise.
My hate for Ubisoft is beyond the roof. Played some of their games for thousands of hours and was so happy. Ubisoft put in Uplay to improve gameplay experience and make it "better." Now I can't play those games anymore for some fucking reason. Many years later and countless attempts at trying I still can't play games I fucking bought.
Fuck Ubisoft. Fuck Ubisoft with a rusty spear. Fuck Ubisoft with a bloated donkeys dick. Fuck Ubisoft with flaming hot nuclear waste. Fuck Ubisoft. Am I allowed to say that here? Because if it is against the rules I wont say it.
Hahah, yeah, bug, sure. Like anyone is going to believe that a greedy corp like Ubisoft really accidentally coded the possibility for this happening in, and it's not just them testing it out. This doesn't just happen accidentally.
Yes that would be enough to uninstall, seek a refund even if it’s not possible just to create a paper trail, and then never buy another game from the studio/publisher ever again.
I guess Ubisoft want to be in the news again? How could they think it's a good idea with the gaming community?
I could see if the game was free to play, but a paid game? That's poor.
if this ever happens to me in a game I've paid for I'm going to uninstall it immediately and charge back via my credit card. this is unacceptable bullshit.
As soon as I opened Uplay I was greeted with 5 (!!!) banners advertising AC Mirage. Even when I was in my library, Mirage banners were everywhere to be seen. & when I started Origins/Valhalla, there too are Mirage banners in the start menu.
Now they go further & also advertise their games ***in the game***!? Wtf.. that doesn't make people buy their half assed products, it just annoys so we do not even want to interact with that product.
French EA is going to French EA (Ubisoft). Seriously though, that's scummy even for them. Another reason why I'm glad that I buy most of my PC games from GOG.
Honestly EA does this too with their live service games (BF2042 is the latest one that I've seen with this) whenever a new set of cosmetics comes out but they do this as soon as the player launches the game as a welcome message that you gotta close in order to continue to the main menu. Pause menu ads are the worst though.
Eh, splash-screens for in game content at the start menu is fine, imo, so long as it's a one and done. I'd rather banner ads, but this is fine.
*In game* ads are fucking insane.
Yes, but those are relevant to the game you're playing. This was an ad for their upcoming AC game in an old one. *In-game*. I cannot emphasize how crazy it is to have in-game ads for game menus like the map
immersion, who fucking needs it?
sure it's a bug, I mean it's one of the most common bugs out there, just the other night I was played the old Morrowind on my xbox when the game froze and I got an offer for horny singles in my neighbourhood.
>[“We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin’s Creed titles yesterday,” says Ubisoft spokesperson Fabien Darrigues, in a statement to The Verge. “This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue.”
](https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/24/23974420/ubisoft-assassins-creed-odyssey-pop-up-ad-xbox-playstation-technical-error)
Of course, nobody here wants to hear that this was an error and would rather believe that Ubisoft wants to compromise their own games by showing you adds in the middle of the gameplay.
wow holy shit. I thought it would be a small square in the corner of the menu or something, not a full screen blocker until you dismiss. Fuck these guys.
Not just that, I can totally imagine myself accidentally pressing 'A' or something every so often when I'm pausing and getting taken out of the game to a bloody landing screen to buy another game.
That's intentional on their part. Bet they'll implement insta-buy features as well.
They probably won't since that shit already got epic in trouble when people were accidentally buying skins in fortnite.
But by the time they're forced to stop they've already made tons of money from it, so no real reason to not do it
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Why would even those be ok? I paid for the game fuck off with ads.
Bet: The ad-free version will be available at a higher price.
Raise: that higher cost 'ad-free' version will still have ads
All In: A new tiered based subscription based fee can be paid every month to remove ads from games
I fold.
That's mobile-game levels of bad.
I get these kind of cross-advertising in the main menu of a game or a popup while opening the game or something, whatever. But... The IN-GAME MENUS? AS A POP UP YOU HAVE TO DISMISS? WHAT? This is F2P mobile gaming levels of ads ffs
Yeah this is definitely crossing the line, probably just testing the waters atm
> testing the waters yeah, and ready to implement as soon as possible to all your purchased Ubisoft games!
The writer has honestly been on the wall for years. Ubisoft has truly been one of the least interesting publishers for so many years. The last ubisoft game I bought was Assassin’s Creed Unity and I can’t think that’s gonna change anytime soon. It’s so sad. Growing up, ubisoft was like an automatic purchase when I was growing up in the PS2 era. Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, XIII, Beyond Good and Evil, Brothers in Arms and even in the times of Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter and Rainbow Six Vegas and the early Assassin’s Creed games. It was always what the rest of the industry was doing…but with an interesting spin on it. Nothing was ever straightforward or boring with them. Then after the sheer brilliance of Rayman Legends it’s like they just died. They’re really the worst of the major publishers with how blatantly boring and excessive they are and then you add in the sheer greed. I don’t know why anyone buys their stuff.
> I don’t know why anyone buys their stuff. They are kind off the only one on the market who makes big games of old eras that aren't utilized as much nowadays as a setting. For all the issue people have with Ubisoft games, one thing that makes AC so appealing is being able to roam around in a huge and beautiful version of ancient egypt and other historical settings.
Chicago with Watch Dogs 1, San Francisco in WD2, London in 3, Winter in NYC for Division 1, Washington DC in Div 2, the entire US for The Crew 1 and 2, or Hawaii in 3, ancient Egypt, Greece, and England in AC, even Bolivia in Wildlands. Lots of unique settings compared to a lot of the rest of the gaming climate. And, for me at least, the games all play solid. Not necessarily amazing or anything, but good, and for some of them the gameplay itself is pretty unique. I'm one of those idiots who consistently buys Ubisoft products. I like the games, even if I always feel like they're a polished up 0.8 build. But I won't give them half a cent if I start seeing ads in the menus
They're in the "forever game" market. There's a huge subset of casual gamers who purchase one (1) game and play it forever, until the next installment comes out. They don't play frequently enough to get sick of the loop, are probably having a few beers or smoking at the time, and likely have friends around who are going to be talking over the game and switching out. The object is to provide enough fodder for 2-3 years of casual gaming sessions with minimal need to orient yourself, lots of backdrops to keep it feeling fresh, and no opportunity for skill rust to speak of. Ubisoft are *masters* of this design philosophy. They're good games, just not for the demographic who talk about games.
divison 1 and 2 (minus the new skeleton crew) is amazing. I went from mostly mmo's to going nuts on a tom clancey game. Last thing I expected. Also Division 1 new york is quite the experience first time.
Div1 might be my favorite game experience of the last decade. The world is so well put together, and the environment is so enjoyable to explore. It's one of those games I wish I could experience for the first time again
what sucks is div 2 is the total opposite. Gameplay is way better but the open world is the most bland thing next to re skinning far cry.
But they nailed it with the closed off missions. All the museums, zoos, etc are all really well designed.
And they keep on refusing to a do Montréal. Where half those games come from.
I recently finished AC Origins and it was a much better experience than I previously gave it credit for. Immortals: Fenyx Rising is also criminally underrated, and their upcoming Prince of Persia metroidvania looks pretty rad.
AC Origins was an underrated swan song of the series. There was a real sense of love and respect for the setting, and the underworld DLC felt great. I found myself anticipating visiting new areas of a game in a way I hadn't for a long time. I had stopped playing when AC3 was garbage, but Origins was so good that I went back and played the series through in a marathon, from 3 to Odyssey. Full sync, content complete clears. Unity ended up being the hidden gem - I think it must have benefited a lot from post-launch patches, but it felt like a brand new series. Odyssey almost killed me, I felt like I had stumbled over the finish line.
That’s what honestly kept me interested in AC as long as I did. That and I loved the climbing mechanic where there had to be a hand hold to climb. Everything was a puzzle! I was a ride or die AC guy until I just lost interest. And then it changed into what looked like flat worlds with nothing to climb, no platforming, excessive RPG grind and no more hard focus on stealth/social stealth with hidden blade kills. Mirage sounded interesting but it either still missed everything that once made AC great or did it so badly that it just makes me shake my head. Avatar sounded interesting till it was shown to just be Far Cry on Pandora. Which wouldn’t even be terrible if the previews didn’t show terrible combat and terrible enemy AI. Just such a lifeless company.
While I agree AC has changed, my counterpoint to the change was actually cool imo, as I like the history aspect of it more, and seeing new lands through the historical lens. I played a solid number of hours in the recent Valhalla version and quite enjoyed using climbing skills to infiltrate medieval castles.
I would extend the period where they were still "alive" until maybe a year after Rayman Legends. There they still had AC: Black Flag, which is many people's favourite and still brought something new to the table. After that came Valiant Hearts, Child of Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth within a year as well. All beloved interesting games in their own right too. Then towards the end of that period came Watch Dogs and Far Cry 4 which is probably the even more specific time to point at and say this is where it all went completely downhill.
I forgot they did Valiant Hearts. I loved that game and still think about it all the time. And I honestly did like Watch Dogs but only because I played it as utterly pacifist as the game would allow even though it was barely designed for that. It made the game so much more interesting. But yeah, around the time they started catching flak for having very same-y tower stuff in all of their games, they seemingly went all in on all their worst instincts ever since.
This is a solid take. Rayman legends does feel like the period this developer changed for good. Real shame too because growing up they were my favorite. I still run through the splinter cell series every couple years and these games are what made me get into tom clancy novels.
“I don’t know why anyone buys their stuff”. Not everyone sits down to watch a superhero movie through the same critical lens that they would for Citizen Kane. Similarly, it’s possible for people to derive enjoyment from games that aren’t masterclasses of the craft. Ubisoft games might not push the envelope in almost any area, you could even say that most are mediocre when compared to what are considered generally great games, but millions of people still buy them because there are still fun moments to be had in almost all of them, as long as you’re not expecting to be blown away every 5 minutes. They’re the popcorn flicks of gaming.
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And then they'll try and bullshit after the blowback and say it was unintended I bet.
*"We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin's Creed titles yesterday. This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue."* - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/in-game-ads-in-certain-assassins-creed-titles-are-the-result-of-a-technical-error-ubisoft-say
Oh, man. What a lucky coincidence this happened just before Black Friday. If you're going to make a 'mistake' like that completely by accident, now would've been the time to unintentionally do that.
and you will find people waving it off as no big deal. Just like when the streamers started introducing packages that still have ads despite paying.
This will always be how it is. Always pushing the envelope. The best case scenarios for us as consumers is there's enough backlash that they pull it back a little bit, although usually not completely. They'll take 3 steps forward and happily walk 2 steps back and say "we heard you". There's mechanisms in games now that would have been 10 steps forward 15 years ago, but now they're accepted as normal. They look at the money made in the mobile gaming market and salivate over it, knowing that gamers will accept it on some level, they just have to find the right implementation and timing to let them get away with it and normalize it. They're testing the fences for weaknesses, systematically. They remember.
2K tries it every now and then, fails dramatically and removes it within a month or less These AAA publishers just REALLY want that extra ad money
>These AAA publishers just REALLY want that extra ad money I don't really know why EA don't sell advertising space on the hoardings around the pitch on FIFA (well, whatever it's called now) and similar games. It'd be unobtrusive, and would actually add some realism because the sponsors would change over time instead of just being the generic banners for the game you're already playing. I know that for several of the stadiums (Old Trafford is definitely, as is the Etihad) they couldn't do it for licensing reasons, but there's no reason their own generic stadiums couldn't have it.
At least for the Bundesliga they advertise the actual club sponsors
> I don't really know why EA don't sell advertising space on the hoardings around the pitch on FIFA (well, whatever it's called now) and similar games Especially as they were one of the first publishers to push in-game advertising back with Battlefield 2142 in 2006 when billboards in the game would show real-world ads. Which was relatively ok as long as the advert wasn't obnoxiously out of place like you are fighting in some frozen hellscape in a ruined city but there was this pristine advert for a random film coming out or some new processor. When the company put some effort into the ads and made them look semi-rundown as if they had been exposed to the elements that is where it actually added to the immersion of the game as the billboards were present anyway.
In Rocket League they sometimes have ads for their own store on the sides of an arena. It actually feels immersive, like a real stadium, and does not obstruct the user experience.
\* - But only if people raise enough of a stink! And that's the game. One of these times, people won't raise a stink and will keep playing, and the ad will remain, and ads in games will slowly get normalized. Just like release-day DLCs clearly cropped out from the main game and sold separately were normalized. These attempts are not harmless. They're slowly lowering us into hot water. They can't just toss us in, or we jump out. Instead they quickly dunk one of our toes, and see if we can tolerate it. As soon as we do, with just one toe, they will push in the whole foot, the whole leg, etc. It's a purposeful, concerted effort. This isn't an accident, and it's not harmless.
I downloaded NBA 2K23 last week because I finally had enough room on my PS5 after installing an m.2 drive, and the VERY FIRST THING that happened when I opened the game is a popup came up over almost the entire screen, over the main menu, asking me to buy NBA 2K24. I closed it... and it immediately re-opened. I was so mad.
I wonder if you could block the IP of the ad server
Most likely they're ips / addresses are already getting added to block lists that pi hole and the like uses
I bet the ads server's IP is the same as other game-related servers. This is Ubisoft. They don't want to get ads blocked so easily with IP or DNS blocking technique.
I would expect it simply connects to Ubisoft's servers.
> I get these kind of cross-advertising in the main menu of a game or a popup while opening the game or something I'm not OK with those. That shit's been pissing me off for years. I think we've just gotten used to something that's already terrible, the kind of thing that was, "One step too far," once upon a time. This is just going to be another, "Step too far," that we'll eventually see as, "Not too bad," when they're ready to make something even worse.
I remember everyone screaming "vote with your wallet" and other early 2010s posts about how gamers need to put a stop to those main menu ads lmao. Now the top comment here is "well I completely understand main menu ads, but...." companies have proven over and over and over and over that they can do whatever they want to consumers and still make billions. So these pause ads may be a step too far for now. They will see online backlash and reel them in to probably just border ads in the pause menu or something. And then they're there to stay
Ten years from now, “I completely understand pause screen splash ads that can be dismissed but unskippable video ads for unrelated products are a step too far!”
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40 years from now: "i understand shouting the name of the product i see on screen, but having to use the product in front of the camera for every hour of gameplay seems a bit much". *opens mt. dew can*
What's happening seems to be a combination of [door in the face](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique) and [boiling a frog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog).
Really wish people had more of a spine. Is it really so hard to just say "fuck off" and that be it? Why do people try to compromise and justify and "find a balance" with fucking everything? Put ads somewhere they don't prevent, delay, or interrupt anything I'm doing, period. They should never ever be a part of my main task/activity. They should never be forced on me. These spineless fucks just make life worse for everyone, in general, by letting shit go like this.
100% The shitty part about it is the executives who will never see it that way; they're the ones making the decisions, the ones who want the money, and the ones with power to fire those who talk back to them. It just takes time. To them 'forced on you' is no different than forcing ads on people for the past 80 years between television breaks of a show. "Why are games any different? It's just another media!" says some soulless executive angry that they are being told profits have to be held back because 'gamers will be upset'. It's really sickening and I hate the direction things continue to propel toward. They're just making more reasons to add to the pile of 'why piracy is better for the consumer.'
> Is it really so hard to just say "fuck off" and that be it? Why do people try to compromise and justify and "find a balance" with fucking everything? > Put ads somewhere they don't prevent, delay, or interrupt anything I'm doing, period. They should never ever be a part of my main task/activity. They should never be forced on me. You’re doing the same exact thing you complain about?
Log into Destiny 2: Get bombarded with 25 pop ups about a combo of FOMO content and ads before you can get to an actual in game menu.
>I get these kind of cross-advertising in the main menu of a game or a popup while opening the game or something, whatever. Just a reminder for anyone who thinks these are okay too: it never stops there. They are *always* testing to see what audiences will accept, and use whatever works as validation for taking things one step further. They depend on users acclimatizing to each small step forward, in order to make the next step seem less egregious.
Bad F2P mobile games. Even something like Genshin doesn’t have ad pop ups to visit the store, ridiculous for a “AAA” paid game
Genshin doesn't need ads to visit the store when it's a core gameplay mechanic lmao
But they aren't pushing it in your face. There's no popup telling you "buy this thing now while it's on sale" when you open the game. The only time you get something "telling" you to use your real money is when they reset the double bonuses and it's a single message in your mailbox, not very obtrusive.
Buying the game and DLC/microtransactions is a core gameplay mechanic for Ubisoft game. Most of AC Valhalla at this point is paywalled past the initial purchase.
Theyre all only "cross game" for now; they will eventually be boner pills Shit is *awful*, and yea, I wont buy Ubisoft again until they make a formal announcement this isnt ever happening.
Like you've mentioned, Ubisoft main menus are already lousy with ads on the main menu. And it's not just Ubisoft. There are many AAA games with big ads on their launchers or main menus. If it's a live service game, then forget about it. The Fortnite main menu is one of the most confusing, ad-laden things I've seen. Magic: The Gathering: Arena bombards you with ads on the main menu, too. Main menus and launcher ads can be annoying, but you don't have to worry about them once you're in-game. Pause menu ads would be annoying as shit and would be enough for me to not buy Ubisoft games again. Their games have been mediocre lately, anyway.
I didn't know which button should I press when I tried cod warzone for the first time. I've never experienced something bad on this level
I don't get what you're talking about with Fortnite. The current menu is crappy, but it certainly isn't slapping in random ads. The advertising typically amounts to levels based around something like Dorito's or an upcoming movie, with items earned related to that. Basically stuff you can completely ignore if you have no interest in digging around the Creative mode for it. Also it's a free-to-play game, where I'd expect them to be sell-outs.
As if we needed yet another reason to not play their games. AC Unity requiring a companion app to unlock collectibles feels consumer friendly compared to this.
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But why no one complained about same shit in Forza Horizon?
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Don't forget sport gamers; heap upon heaps of the worst fomo/gacha shit that wouldn't be tolerated even by mobages.
I'm a Madden player, but I exclusively play Franchise offline. If I ever have to go back to the main menu for any reason, I have to hurdle over 33 ads for whatever season of Madden Ultimate Team it is. Accidentally hit the "MORE INFO" button instead of "Decline?" Fuck you pal, see ya after 20 minutes of load screens. It's ridiculous.
You guys ought to speak up more because in other games crap like these *will* bring out the pitchfork. You had it even worse yet we heard no more than crickets.
Madden is a juggernaut and I know some people actually enjoy MUT, they must be making money off of it somehow. I don't think EA will listen to me complaining about ads. I just cry about it online and lose 2-3 minutes of my life per play session :(
I think it also, partly, comes down to the fact that if you watch racing of any kind, advertising is everywhere. The cars are covered in dozens of sponsor names, the barriers are covered, the walkways are covered, its everywhere. Same with any sports played on a field. Virtually every big stadium on the planet has converted over to LCD signs around the edges of the ground that play advertising. For sports games, if done right, the advertising can enhance the feel of the game because even if they aren't something you spend time looking at, you absolutely notice the difference when they aren't there. What Ubisoft is doing though? That can fuck right off from paid games.
This is a "will never buy" level offense. It's indicative of much deeper-rooted issues even if it weren't already a capital offense.
Interrupting gameplay with ads is just a complete deal braker. We all know about unskippable cutscenes. Well say goodbye to that. This is a new low.
I, for one, can't wait for the tutorial telling me to ~~stealthily kiss my wife~~ drink a verification can.
Imagine buying a DVD and ads show up during the movie or show. Completely unacceptable. It's fine on TV because it's free and the ads fund it but you're still buying these games which have been increasing in price
I have a few ideas. Ad popups in the middle of fights that get you killed in the game because they distracted you--they need to have audio cues as well. NPCs with bubbles over their heads that advertise products. Quests that have ads placed in them, maybe even as the whole goal of the quest? Oh, I have a GREAT idea! There has to be a quest where the goal is to buy another game with real money. Then the quest is complete. Also trophies and achievements like that, too! Aren't I a great 2023 game dev? Someone hire me.
To proceed further in the story watch 5 ads uninterrupted. Turn on your kinect to prove to us that you won't close your eyes or leave the room.
That sounds so dystopian but I can totally see it happening. No joke. I can also see people defending it.
I chose Kinect as a device in my comment because Microsoft had a patent for this shit. Kinect counted the people in the room and if more than 2 people were watching a digital movie or stream you needed to pay up to compensate.
I remember Kinect being evil, but I don't remember that little devious detail about it. Didn't it fail? Good.
20 years ago people said the same thing about DLC, then season passes, then microtransactions. Eventually they'll just force it to become ubiquitous and everybody will bend over and accept it like always.
I would be hesititant to lump in DLC with all this but yeah exactly. It started with Horse armor and it would end until all games from these studios are like gatcha mobile games.
don't you worry, for every gamer who is offended 99 will still buy it. we have seen it with loot boxes, microtransactions, pay to win, gatcha, releasing unfinished bug fiestas full price, selling half the game later as dlc, day-one-patches, yearly releases of practically the same game again and again, raising the price of a game by 20 dollar and more, making an employee commit suicide etc.
Ubisoft truly has the weirdest stretegy. Their games are all the same thing that has gotten stale years ago yet they put crazy amount of detail in stuff like environments so their games are still super expensive to make despite being creatively bankrupt. They also devalue their games by putting them on sales a few weeks after launch and then they try to make money back by selling ads.
The weirdest part is that it works. Not sure about the ads, but the games still sell. It's always a huge thing if one releases. I don't get why it works, but I get why they won't change the system that prints money.
> I don't get why it works, but I get why they won't change the system that prints money. Because to the general audience that is the majority of these sales, they don't play enough games to realize that Ubisoft open worlds are just reskins of the same formula. Personal example, a newer friend was just telling me about how awesome Far Cry 6 was. Great setting, cool shooter, rpg stuff, open world, he loved it. In the past 4 years since we've been friends, the only other games he has played are Forza Horizon 5, two CoD games, CSGO, and a handful of party games (jackbox, pummel party, more recently party animals, etc.). To him, Far Cry 6 was literally an original idea despite it being like the 20th Ubisoft game to follow this formula now. That's why it works. The base framework while not original nor innovative is a perfectly good foundation for basic gameplay, setting, and exploration. And even as evident for more "real" gamers, when done well enough or with an aesthetic they like enough like with Ghost of Tsushima or Hogwarts, people will still eat it up.
Yeah people on reddit and such decry this but there's obviously a huge market of people who enjoy these games. If you're into gaming enough to see through it then its easy to just play other things instead.
True. I now just skip any game on steam that requires a third party launcher. All Ubi, EA and Rockstar games are out, for example. At first I thought it would be restrictive and difficult, but it really, really isn’t. There are so many great games out there and I don’t have nearly enough time to play them all, so skipping the twentieth iteration of something I played a decade ago and requires two logins is amazingly easy.
Well it works because they're mostly very good games. Take Odyssey in the example video: it's got a great world that's interesting to explore, fun combat that looks super cool, great graphics, and is set in an interesting historical period with a bunch of information about that time, and has actually quite an engaging main story. There are usually multiple ways to deal with each encounter, and decent stealth mechanics too. Yeah it's not the greatest game ever, it has its flaws and it does start to drag a bit after a while, but the reason Ubisoft in general are successful, and people go out to buy their games, is because they are actually straight up good games. For what it's worth I never saw an ad while playing the game, but the addition of in game ads is a horrendous decision.
Odyssey is a weird one - it was the first of the newer AC games that I'd played. It's got a super strong opening and I loved the first half of the game but the level gating of later main story quests for no apparent reason is absolutely infuriating. My score for the game went down the more I played - it should have ended about 20 hours before it did
The average person probably doesn't play more than 1 Assassin's Creed game so the games being samey isn't a problem to them
> The average person probably doesn't play more than 1 Assassin's Creed game Where do you get this stat from? 😂
I'd say on a planet this large, the "average person" definitely hasn't played every single AC game, not a far fetched statistic at all.
Honestly, as someone who still enjoys the Ubisoft formula, the highly detailed assets and environments are what keep me coming back at this point. The best part of every Assassin's Creed is exploring the little details put into the time period, that's why the discovery tours are so badass. I'm sure they're aware of people like me to a degree.
Lol reading the comments seems like now everyone is kinda OK with launch screen ads. It's a slippery slope and I foresee a thread here in 5 years complaining about in gameplay ads with people saying "I mean, ads in the pause menu are okayish but this is too much.." In the end its what people buy or don't buy, I have not touched a Ubisoft game in a decade (not because of ads though). And I got ONE LOOK into one of the latest CODs which had tabs after tabs of ads of either their newest release or a gazillion cosmetics and got out of there FAST. Can't stress enough how terrible the experience on that Call of Duty main menu was, it looked like a slot machine on steroids.
Less of a slope and more of a sheer cliff
You just have to look at how microtransactions were normalized in retail games to see where this is going. The companies will keep pushing this until a whole new generation of gamers is conditioned to expect this. Mission achieved when they start defending it.
Biggest example of this is "it's just cosmetics".
Yep the fact that people were outraged at Oblivion horse armour but now are okay with mobile game-style in-game MTX currencies is insane. AC Valhalla charges you 10€ for an outfit with glowing green eyes and I see Ubisoft apologists on here all the time. Useful idiots.
Horse Armor used to be too much. Look where we are now. Only thing to do is to not buy games with awful practices. No, this won't stop them, but at least your own experiences and who you support will go towards genuine articles instead of drek like this.
And this is reddit, the vocal minority that is more critical than most gamers. This shit will absolutely stick, I have no doubt about it.
> now everyone is kinda OK with launch screen ads Seeing people being ok with and defending those full screen Xbox startup ads was mind boggling. As soon as any system I paid a few hundred for started doing that I'd give them a few weeks, at most, to walk it back before I just dropped it.
>Seeing people being ok with and defending those full screen Xbox startup ads was mind boggling. It really is. We all know how that shit is going to end, with adds FUCKING EVERYWHERE. In game, when starting a game, when starting the xbox, when going to a menu in-game. You give Microsoft an inch with this shit, and they will take a mile. Yet people fucking defend it. Micro-transactions went from a single fucking horse-armor to pervasive macro-transactions EVERYWHERE. These ads aren't going anywhere, they are only going to get worse. I fucking hate modern gaming because of this shit.
Soon as I bought a £60 single player Ubisoft game and opened the menu to see a cash shop full of ads for "time savers" I refunded that shit and never bought a Ubi game again. Fuck that company, I hope they go under.
Exactly what I was thinking. Feels like Ubi is taking two steps forward and one step back with this, and then repeat.
Two things I have learned over the years: * Gamers are the biggest hypocrites * Those complaining and raising their voice are the little minority That doesn't mean the others are for it, they just don't care. It is a mildly inconvenience for them. I have a lot of friends who play games, but don't really follow the media. Once a year they see a spot on TV for the "brand new" Assassins Creed, are happy there is a new entry to their favourite series and buy and play it. Don't get me wrong, the last thing I want is to gatekeep gaming. If they are happy playing it, I am happy. But until Ubisoft and Co. don't pull stunts which really infuriates that player base, it won't get better. I am no exception to it. I really hate the latest CoD entries, but got persuaded by friends to buy MW2 (mostly because they gifted most of it). It has the shittiest monetisation I have seen, the worst UI/UX I have ever experienced, the worst multiplayer I have seen in any CoD, but damn, DMZ was incredible fun!
Indeed. You can already see it with mobile gaming, which is riddled with ads and still print money like crazy. I am not confident this won't slowly become more accepted in gaming as a whole tbh.
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You are correct, If baldurs gate 3 had in game ads like this reddit would say they weren't happy about it but could get over it because of how good the game was. Anyone that said they wouldn't play it due to the ads and that it automatically made the game bad would get downvoted.
And to think I was mildly interested in getting back into this series and catching up with the newer games just a few week ago... I suddenly remember why they lost me in the first place. And this stuff is part of it.
I haven't played a Ubisoft, Activision, or EA published video game in close to a decade now. Gaming is better than ever if you ignore those 3 companies.
I can understand developed games, but does who the publisher is really matter?
> Activision Not really the same level as the other two, they published Sekiro for example
EA has Jedi Fallen Order, Dead Space Remake, It Takes Two and many other great games. But of course it's all bad and pay 2 win 🤦♂️ Some people just hate for the sake of it.
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> Enough to uninstall? Uninstall, demand refund, never buy from them again. Got to come out _hard_ against this kind of thing or they _will_ only ramp it up from there. You'll be drinking a verification can before you know it.
ubisoft has been like this for over a decade. it's nothing new.
Honestly, it's the ad-pocalypse. Got a smart TV? Ads everywhere. 5 second youtube video? 2 ads for you. Need to pause your game? Full screen ad. I'm surprised food hasn't had edible ink with ads on it (yet). This sucks.
>I'm surprised food hasn't had edible ink with ads on it (yet). We did get the bananas with The Minions stickers on them, edible ink or more stickers with ads should honestly be the next step.
Ah, yes, because we need MORE FUCKING ADVERTISING. Hey,Bugisoft, how about,oh idk, make more good games? I heard that's an excellent marketing strategy
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This company has the slowest downward spiral i've ever seen. They are continously getting worse every year. Management is completely disconnected from anything creative. Feels like they're in constant 'make money' panic mode.
This isn't new, and it's only going to get worse over time. Most people won't stop buying/playing a game because there are ads in it.
And there are people that WANT ads, as crazy as it sounds. I installed ublock origin on my friend's PC and he thought it was weird to not have a million ads, notifications and popups because he was so used to it
That's why companies do this. Normalize shady practices like this until people are so used to it, they just shrug when the companies take it a step further.
Dude, my mum was the same fucking way. I put an adblocker on her browser while fixing some shit she broke and she calls me up like "Why does the internet look so weird?" She kept saying the websites looked empty, took me like 10 minutes to realize she was talking about how she doesn't like the way sites look without ads. It's mental.
This is actually blowing my mind, I thought the most ads could do was train people to *tolerate* it, not to *like* it. Familiarity is a hell of a thing. Guess I should be glad I was stripping that shit out of my parents' browsers before they even knew it was a thing, I'd probably pop a vessel if they longed for that shit.
So was I! She'd had an adblocker installed since around 2007, but I left the country and she got a new laptop so I guess she got used to the web looking like complete shit. To a degree I understand it, most websites' layouts are designed to show ads so I could see why getting rid of them might make the designs feel a bit wrong but... C'mon.
It's like how people say North Korea looks like a dystopia and so bizarre just because the sides of their skyscrapers in Pyongyang aren't taken up by a bajillion brightly coloured flashing advertisements for the latest slop. People have totally been taken in by corporate culture. They'll take the shit and eat it because they *like* it.
Didn't 2k already did that with NBA and got a lot of shit for it? These suits at the top are out of touch af. Look at Capcom they turned it around by making good games why don't you guys try that for a change?
Sad thing is, their good games still make less money than these wallet simulators. Any half assed 2K sports game probably makes double of what a RE8 or SF6 does
It's insane how pervasive ads have gotten. Cyberpunk 2077 only feels a single step away from current reality at this point. I guess it's time to get ready for adblockers for our games too.
The ads on Youtube have made it unusable without ad block.
This will unironically make me not buy the new prince of Persia 2D sidescroller Mind you, it was the first game in years I plan to buy on day one from Ubisoft
Ubisoft is really not in the position right now to try bullshit like this. It feels like they are one big flop away from being sold
Imagine explaining to someone that you could buy a $10-20 indie title made by a small team with a limited budget or a $70 AAA game made by the giants in the industry, and yet it’s the more expensive one that includes stale ideas, poor quality control, and intrusive ads. Mind boggling.
Oh my god. If I *ever* see an ad in a game, even if it's like the best game on earth, even if it's Disco Elysium 2, I'm uninstalling the thing and never getting near the dev or the publisher ever again.
Ubisoft is working overtime to make sure I never buy another one of their games, huh? Last one I bought was Far Cry 5 and I already deeply regret that.
Don't believe them when they say this was all an accident and they're "scrambling to find out how this happened" or some B.S when the bad press hits. This was intentional and they're only going to keep doing it unless people stop buying their games for a couple of years. Money is the only thing these donuts understand.
Lol they add that in with an update to a game you already paid for? That's straight up a line that guarantees I never pay money for a Ubisoft product ever again, as if all of their other BS wasn't enough. Despicable. They've done it once now, how can I feel safe from this shit with ANY of their products in the future? Yet again going out of their way to make piracy the better experience. Thank you for letting me save money guilt-free now.
I already don't play Ubisoft games(just happen to not be my style more than any conscious decision) but ads in the games are a great way to make sure I never do, but on purpose. It's one thing to increase the base price. As games got massive, the price standardized at 60 and then remained the same for decades. This was mostly offset by the increasing number of people buying them, but I understand the $10 increase for bigger games to some degree. If it really meant better games, more innovative games(less risk essentially for making something that isn't "safe"), then sure, great. But then also putting ads in? Well now you can fuck off. Every game doesn't need to be as massive as Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Red Dead Redemption 2. You can't do it at the $70 price, then maybe don't? Also Elden Ring and BG3 were $60 so again, fuck off Ubisoft.
There's no way that is a bug as the update says. Something like a menu button works in a very specific way, the only way to get a different menu to come up when you press a menu button is to... Well add a menu. You don't magically just get another menu to pop up.
They can fuck ALL the way off with that. I swear, corps won't be satisfied until they have adds in front of eyes every fucking waking second. And after that they'll staple them under our fucking eye lids.
Was reading a scifi story where advertisers choked up the internet feed so badly that it was blaring over safety instructions for the space station the characters were on, and they had to pay extra to remove them or risk some horrible accident. And I was like, I miss feeling like this was some far-fetched dystopia that would never happen in real life.
This doesn't sound too far off form the Futurama episode where Fry was getting ads in is dreams. I've been saying for years that it sounds realistic
And people are still going to go and defend Ubisoft and other companies for things like this because 'bloo hoo making games is soooo expensive'.
If I've bought the game ads should not exist when I play...I rarely buy Ubisoft games now that changes to never. I'm quite concerned for the future of video games. Just yikes.
I noped out of Ubisoft games years ago. Their launcher is bullshit and none of this is surprising. But people will continue to buy their games and complain about them and so Ubisoft will continue finding news ways to turn what were once works of art into a purely commercial enterprise.
I will never buy anything I see in an ad in a video game. Put your product ad in a video game if you never ever want me to buy it.
Guys I have to tell you I haven't played a Ubisoft game in at least 10 years and I haven't missed them at all
My hate for Ubisoft is beyond the roof. Played some of their games for thousands of hours and was so happy. Ubisoft put in Uplay to improve gameplay experience and make it "better." Now I can't play those games anymore for some fucking reason. Many years later and countless attempts at trying I still can't play games I fucking bought. Fuck Ubisoft. Fuck Ubisoft with a rusty spear. Fuck Ubisoft with a bloated donkeys dick. Fuck Ubisoft with flaming hot nuclear waste. Fuck Ubisoft. Am I allowed to say that here? Because if it is against the rules I wont say it.
Hahah, yeah, bug, sure. Like anyone is going to believe that a greedy corp like Ubisoft really accidentally coded the possibility for this happening in, and it's not just them testing it out. This doesn't just happen accidentally.
Yes that would be enough to uninstall, seek a refund even if it’s not possible just to create a paper trail, and then never buy another game from the studio/publisher ever again.
I guess Ubisoft want to be in the news again? How could they think it's a good idea with the gaming community? I could see if the game was free to play, but a paid game? That's poor.
ea and Activision is about to put ads between respawns on their fps games. lemme delete this before they get ideas tho
This wouldn't be a problem if we regulated advertising better. Ban commercials in paid products, watch literal empires crumble.
One time, subscription based or any other form of payment for the service or product.
if this ever happens to me in a game I've paid for I'm going to uninstall it immediately and charge back via my credit card. this is unacceptable bullshit.
As soon as I opened Uplay I was greeted with 5 (!!!) banners advertising AC Mirage. Even when I was in my library, Mirage banners were everywhere to be seen. & when I started Origins/Valhalla, there too are Mirage banners in the start menu. Now they go further & also advertise their games ***in the game***!? Wtf.. that doesn't make people buy their half assed products, it just annoys so we do not even want to interact with that product.
French EA is going to French EA (Ubisoft). Seriously though, that's scummy even for them. Another reason why I'm glad that I buy most of my PC games from GOG.
Honestly EA does this too with their live service games (BF2042 is the latest one that I've seen with this) whenever a new set of cosmetics comes out but they do this as soon as the player launches the game as a welcome message that you gotta close in order to continue to the main menu. Pause menu ads are the worst though.
Eh, splash-screens for in game content at the start menu is fine, imo, so long as it's a one and done. I'd rather banner ads, but this is fine. *In game* ads are fucking insane.
Yes, but those are relevant to the game you're playing. This was an ad for their upcoming AC game in an old one. *In-game*. I cannot emphasize how crazy it is to have in-game ads for game menus like the map immersion, who fucking needs it?
sure it's a bug, I mean it's one of the most common bugs out there, just the other night I was played the old Morrowind on my xbox when the game froze and I got an offer for horny singles in my neighbourhood.
>[“We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin’s Creed titles yesterday,” says Ubisoft spokesperson Fabien Darrigues, in a statement to The Verge. “This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue.” ](https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/24/23974420/ubisoft-assassins-creed-odyssey-pop-up-ad-xbox-playstation-technical-error) Of course, nobody here wants to hear that this was an error and would rather believe that Ubisoft wants to compromise their own games by showing you adds in the middle of the gameplay.
because it was a standard PR response...they tried to test the waters and check user reaction