Ubisoft Finally Realises How Bad (Most Of) Their Games Are
Ubisoft has had it with the poor reception their games are getting, so they're finally shaking up their editorial team a bit.
Ubisoft earned plenty of praise for a new creative direction with the Assassins Creed series, a pivot it is now embarking upon for other major franchises. | Source: Ubisoft/Polygon (Screenshot)
- Ubisoft’s most recent games have suffered from some pretty bad reception.
- Their editorial team is getting a much-needed shakeup to help fix the lack of variety in their line-up.
- The fact that 100 Parisians basically controlled their entire output for years in the first place seems like a poor move.
Ubisoft games are pretty rubbish these days. You might think that a blanket statement like that needs qualifying. Honestly, their games are all so similar that it barely feels like I’m talking about multiple games. Over the past decade, they’ve managed to homogenize their entire catalog into the same murky paste.
Part of the reason for that is the editorial team. A team of 100 people based out of Paris who basically controlled all the games Ubisoft put out. They controlled it all, from design to script-writing. Now, according to VGC, they’re finally going to change that up a bit.
Ubisoft’s Editorial Team is Changing
It was announced in a statement to VGC on Friday that the editorial team would be “expanded and restructured”. The exact form these changes will take is unclear. From what we know it seems like Ubisoft is trying to bring variety to their lineup.
That would make a nice change. Finally, we can maybe have a game that doesn’t feature the same open-world elements covered in a new coat of paint. While we’re at it maybe follow Sony’s lead and do a game without any online elements either.
Both of the features I just mentioned were thanks to the editorial team. At least now it looks like their control will be less centralized. We might finally see something other than a live-service, open-world title come out of Ubisoft now.
Remember When Ubisoft Made More Than 1 Type of Game?
Back in the day, Ubisoft had a very varied lineup. Frequent Tom Clancy games were offset by games like Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil. Allowing a group of only 100 people to control your entire studio’s output destroyed that legacy. If they’re lucky they can claw it back.
It’s nice to think that we might actually get a game that feels new from them. Not just one that looks new. Maybe they can put out a main-series Rayman sequel for the first time in 7 years. Or even better, maybe they’ll actually finish Beyond Good and Evil 2.
No matter how you look at it, this restructuring can only be good for the company. Insistence on rigidly sticking to the one thing that works never goes well in the long run. You can only do the same thing so many times before the quality starts to drop.