With the pre-release of Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown began, Ubisoft has chosen this week to rebrand its Ubisoft+ subscription companies, and introduce a PC model of the “Classics” tier at a cheaper price. And a giant a part of this, says the writer’s director of subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, is getting gamers “comfy” with not proudly owning their video games.
It’s arduous to maintain up with how usually Ubisoft has rebranded its on-line portals for its video games, with Uplay, Ubisoft Sport Launcher, Ubisoft Join, Uplay+, Uplay Passport, Ubisoft Membership, and now Ubisoft+ Premium and Ubisoft+ Classics, all names used during the last decade or so. It’s additionally appeared faintly bewildering why there’s a requirement for any of them, given Ubisoft launched solely 5 non-mobile video games final yr.
Nevertheless, a requirement there apparently is, says Tremblay in an interview with GI.biz. He claims the corporate’s subscription service had its greatest ever month October 2023, and that the service has had “tens of millions” of subscribers, and “over half a billion hours” performed. In fact, lots of this might be a results of Ubisoft’s varied moments of refusing to launch video games to Steam, forcing PC gamers to make use of its companies, and sure choosing a month’s subscription quite than the complete value of the sport they had been trying to purchase. However nonetheless, clearly individuals are opting to make use of it.
However it stays unusual why sufficient folks would need to subscribe—and at $17.99 a month it’s not low-cost—to a single writer’s output. That’s not a diss of Ubisoft’s video games—though you may need to apply your personal—however one thing that may be as true had been it Activision Blizzard or EA.
You’ll be able to subscribe to Sport Cross, or PlayStation Plus, and get a broad vary of a whole lot of video games from dozens of publishers, or you may pay considerably extra to solely get the video games made by one single writer, and certainly a writer with a really distinct type of sport. TV networks and film firms tried this, and people numbers are scaling down quick, with many already compromising by returning their exhibits to the bigger streamers.
What’s extra chilling about all this, nonetheless, is when Tremblay strikes on to how Ubisoft needs to see a “client shift,” just like that of the marketplace for CDs and DVDs, the place folks have moved over to Spotify and Netflix, as an alternative of shopping for bodily media to maintain on their very own cabinets. Provided that most individuals, whereas being part of the issue (hiya), additionally consider this as an issue, it’s so bizarre to see it phrased as if some defective considering within the firm’s viewers.
One of many issues we noticed is that avid gamers are used to, a bit bit like DVD, having and proudly owning their video games. That’s the buyer shift that should occur. They acquired comfy not proudly owning their CD assortment or DVD assortment. That’s a change that’s been a bit slower to occur [in games]. As avid gamers develop comfy in that facet… you don’t lose your progress. If you happen to resume your sport at one other time, your progress file remains to be there. That’s not been deleted. You don’t lose what you’ve constructed within the sport or your engagement with the sport. So it’s about feeling comfy with not proudly owning your sport.
Tremblay goes on to say to GI.biz, “However as folks embrace that mannequin, they’ll see that these video games will exist, the service will proceed, and also you’ll have the ability to entry them once you really feel like.” However…we all know that isn’t true! We all know how usually companies don’t proceed, what number of video games are now not obtainable.
Certainly one of my all-time favourite video games was revealed by Ubisoft in 2003, known as In Memorium (Lacking: Since January within the U.S.), and that’s definitely not on its Classics vary, I’m certain as a result of the corporate way back misplaced any rights to it. Fortunately for me, I personal a bodily copy of it. However any variety of different Ubisoft video games from the early ‘00s I stick in its Classics website haven’t any outcomes. There’s no motive on Earth to suppose the identical gained’t be true of Ubisoft’s present video games in 20 years.
There are nonetheless plans for Ubisoft so as to add streaming entry to Activision Blizzard’s video games to Ubisoft+, as weird as that will appear given the writer’s current acquisition by Microsoft. It’ll additionally appear pretty redundant, given all of the video games will come to the much more ubiquitous Sport Cross, the place they gained’t be behind the technical hurdle of streaming. And certainly Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown is already obtainable to play by way of the Epic Video games Retailer for those who pre-ordered it there.
If, for no matter motive, you simply adore Ubisoft’s output, then sure—for $17.99 a month you may play Cranium & Bones, Avatar, Murderer’s Creed Mirage, Anno 1800, and The Crew: Motorfest proper now, which is quite a bit cheaper than shopping for all of them individually. However you gained’t personal any of them, and also you’ll have to preserve paying that 18 bucks a month in perpetuity if you wish to preserve them, proper up till you may’t any extra.
