It has been announced that Ubisoft’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors will launch an investigation and review of the company.
The news came via a company financial statement and update, which included the delay of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the announcement that Star Wars Outlaws underperformed. The statement read:
“In the light of recent challenges, we acknowledge the need for greater efficiency while delighting players. As a result, beyond the first important short-term actions undertaken, the Executive Committee, under the supervision of the Board of Directors, is launching a review aimed at further improving our execution, notably in this player-centric approach, and accelerating our strategic path towards a higher performing model to the benefit of our stakeholders and shareholders.
“Finally, let me address some of the polarized comments around Ubisoft lately. I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”
At the time of writing, Ubisoft stock has decreased to 11.42 euros and has drastically fallen these past few months. Last month, Insider Gaming reported that XDefiant was at risk of losing its much-needed post-launch support after dwindling player numbers and following the release of a mild Star Wars: Outlaws launch, Ubisoft’s stock price fell to a near 10-year low.
Speaking with current and former Ubisoft employees, I am told that the move was inevitable and “the writing was on the wall,” as many Ubisoft studios have been struggling due to poor management. While I have reported on some of these issues in the past, Insider Gaming will have a more in-depth report in the coming days or weeks.
For more Insider Gaming, read about what classic sports game is getting a re-release on Steam in October. And don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
It took them this long?! Sell this dumpster fire already that’s what they were supposed to do a few years ago! The Guillemot’s will either sell or be removed by force.
Square Enix needs to be investigated to as well as a bunch of these companies.
Their priorities are in the wrong place.
How stupid can they be? That SBI is the one that ruins them! 🤦♂️
This is a company of finks and suits who probably hardly play video games. They’ll spend millions investigating their incompetence and I’m sure, when the investigation is over, they’ll fail to locate it. Their failures are right in front of their face and they’re too greedy to see what that is: they pride themselves on making money instead of making games. 20 years ago it was the opposite. It really is that simple. I’ve been playing Ubi games all my life and this company will never be what it once was–I’d bet my PS5, Switch, One S and PC on that.
They are almost back to Jan 2003 stock worth and NOW are they wondering, what is going wrong with their company?
Wow.
That they pushed AC:Shadows to Feb 25 is going to bite them as certain games are coming in the same month too, clearly overshadowing it.
All they have to do is make a good game. Give developers all the freedom and that’s literally all it takes to make a billion dollar hit release.
I guess we got too comfortable, not owning Ubisoft games.
Ubisoft can start with thinking gamers are gonna be okay renting their games in the near future. How’s Rocksmith dojng these days, guys?
Oh great, more job uncertainty and likely cuts. It’s not your operational efficiency that’s killing you Ubisoft, it the trash games you’re putting out that gamers are not at all “delighted” by and are not purchasing. We all know the people that should be fired will not be.
So now that I was given the high end version pre order as a gift, I get screwed and now have to wait 4 – 5 months because they decided to now make fixes to the game? They should have an option of allowing those with pre-orders to hold onto them. I’m sure the price will prob change, too. Only so long I can keep playing Odyssey.
It’s the same issue as many many other companies regardless of their field (Boeing anyone?)… putting shareholders interests ahead of a quality product. Unfortunately there is really is no solution for that. Toss in culture issues… and there you go. The answer to all your questions is always money.
The first step they can take to immediately grab some sales and positivity from the community is to ditch the horrific Ubisoft launcher required for all of their titles and start allowing their games to be played via steam. I refuse to download the Ubisoft launcher again and will not buy any game that requires it and I know I’m not alone.
Huh….
This cauht my attention:
“I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda.”
Then I remembered seeing that Ubisoft is excluding Men from their develop program since they only accept women and non-binary:
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/company/careers/interns-graduates/develop-at-ubisoft
Yeah, “YOU ARE NOT PUSHING ANY SPECIFIC AGENDA”…then WTF is this??
Just bring back Rayman.
“I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”
Broadest possible audience and by that they meant “modern audience”. Sorry but I fail to see how they are doing it. By targeting modern audience, they are looking at a smaller community and how is that, in any sense, the broadest possibility? If not to push any specific agenda, what are they smoking? Ask yourself this and look INWARD. Did anyone think it’s weird to play a Japanese character in a Japan in the first place? Go ahead, try and make a AC China setting and use this same approach and design decision.
They took too long to evolve their formulas, and bloated their games so much that repeat customers burnt out, one-on-one. Eventually it would lead to sales slumps that would ostensibly defy their more conservative revenue projections.
Also, the staff turnover and overextended branches (they’ve got studios everywhere) probably didn’t help the bottom line, much.
All of these things add up a little over time. Death by a thousand mini-cuts. So the board needed to have been proactive minimum five years ago.
Is that political nutjob here aiming to be taken seriously? Brainwashing? What, you think we didn’t spend a lifetime doing examination of the shit this fucker is talking about? You think you represent anything that isn’t leftist? You don’t even know what the fuck you are! GET LOST
We told our customers they’d “better get used to not owning the games they buy.” And we took away a game that people legally bought and owned for ten years from their accounts. All while doubling down on broken live service trash.
There ya go Ubisoft board of directors I solved the mystery for you.
This is total Bull 🐂. The company has received an endless list of criticism about their average and mixed rating games and particularly for AC since 2018!
They don’t care, they can’t change because the CEO and the board won’t change. They keep insist that they don’t have any agenda in their games 😂 But they talk about Yasuke, gay and black, a Samurai in Japan 😂
Ubi, we can’t save you and we don’t want to be honest, we had enough with ignorance and arrogance. You even went on New York Times recently to defend your game and push back on customers. How poor was that?
You re going down and is well deserved.
Bruh make siege 2 like they did for overwatch n I bet you’ll be back in business like deadass stop making games nobody asked for like outlaws 🤢 first one was garbo the second ain’t gonna be any better ppl just bought the hell outta the first one cuz of hype but the mechanics felt meh js Ubisoft siege and assassin creed pump them out like candy
What?! Reskinning Assassin’s Creed/Far Cry for the last 20 years isn’t a good business model?!
They’re putting together an entire committee to tell them that games are meant to be fun and not just a time suck
Why would Square Enix need this when they are doing ok while ubislop is one straw away from breaking the camels back?
Stop DEI practices.
Remove UBI launcher and broker a deal with steam/epic games.
Give devs more freedom instead of working towards a narrative.
Bring back Saints, Rayman, and AC.
I love seeing all these triggered little cry babies, whining about inclusion. That’s not what’s killing Ubi. Shrimpin ain’t pimpin and you all are def shrimpin. Them releasing the same games over and over is what’s doing them in. As well as ol dude saying gamers should get used to not owning the games they buy. AC: Valhalla was really good. But I’d say that was the last game they put out that I truly enjoyed. I’ve had fun playing other recent releases, but they haven’t struck me as something I’m going to play multiple times.
I just came here to say everyone has a reason why Ubi is failing and I think it’s funny that people think their reason is the only reason and the other reasons are not true. You are all right and you are all wrong. It’s ALL the reasons being cited put together in one big cocktail of poop, but most it’s the result of management incompetence and a track record of not listening to customers and seeing just how much they can try it on with cookie-cutter rehashing. The quality of their game has also dropped because of incompetent management that has effectively forced their experienced (talented) staff out of the door so they can hire cheap and less experienced staff.
There is an old saying that is applied to project managers and managers in general mocking their lack of understanding of how things are made and it goes “if 1 woman can create a baby in 9 months, 9 women should be able to do it in 1 month” and it’s that mentality that is at play. That and thinking they know best and thinking that all negative feedback is toxic.
They need to burn so the industry can learn.
This shouldn’t be rocket science.
Stop just reskinning the same game over and over. Stop jamming launchers nobody wanted down players throats. Stop canning new IP just because it doesn’t make Assassins Creed money on it’s first outing.
Oh, and stop abusing staff and protecting abusers, predators and rapists within your company. Yeah, really stop that Ubisoft.
Hope they continue to decline and go under. After getting falsely banned in Rainbow Six Siege on a 10 year old account and not able to appeal it, I promised them I would no longer be a customer. Glad to see them hurting.
Down with Ubishite
Go woke – go broke, burn in hell ubisoft
p.s. Soy moderators dont touch my post, just let it be.