Ubisoft initiates colossal restructure to become a more 'gamer-centric' company

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ubisoft-is-dismantling-its-studio-ecosystem-to-become-a-more-gamer-centric-company

152 points · 45 comments · view on lemmy.world

45 Comments

Katana314@lemmy.world · 154 pts · 214d

ChatGPT, generate for me a press release that will excuse the firing of another 10,000 employees.

sbbq@lemmy.zip · 119 pts · 214d (6 replies)

Gamers love it when games are cancelled!

wioum@lemmy.world · 70 pts · 214d (2 replies)

Don't forget value-creation and growth! It's what gamers crave!

ieatpwns@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 214d (1 reply)

Only way to get AAAA games. Makes sense!

Venator@lemmy.nz · 1 pts · 212d

AAAA games are the best! I love squeezing through a narrow vertical crevice, it's such a riveting gameplay mechanic!

ameancow@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 214d (2 replies)
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Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 213d

"We know people don't like how poorly we treat our employees, so we've laid off as many as we thought we could get away with to reduce the overall number of people's lives we make more miserable. We're the good guys here."

YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 213d

More generative ai & games as a service! It's what gamers crave!

scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 97 pts · 214d (3 replies)

Ubisoft founder and CEO, Yves Guillemot, said the company must pursue a "radically new" value-creation model and become a more "gamer-centric" organization to find its footing in an increasingly competitive and selective triple-A market.

Good! Realizing it needs to be about the gamer again not just shareholder value.

"The new operating model will further empower the execution of the Group's strategy, centered on Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences, supported by targeted investments, deeper specialization, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI," reads the document.

Oh god damnit nevermind, the boycott continues

mohab@piefed.social · 51 pts · 214d (2 replies)

“The new operating model will further empower the execution of the Group’s strategy, centered on Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences, supported by targeted investments, deeper specialization, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI,” reads the document.

I can't 😂😂😂 This is so funny, OMG… I swear I'd retire if my job is to write comedy. There's no topping this shit… it's like an absurdist Tim and Eric sketch 😂

scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 30 pts · 214d (1 reply)

I honestly don't know how they're so disconnected from reality. To in the same statement within 2 paragraphs say they both want to be more focused on the gamer, and immediately then say "More GenAI, more recurring payments, more Games as a Service". I just, I don't know man. I don't want layoffs but man they really just don't get it do they?

Yeah so, we know gamers have hated our stuff because of these horrible shitty practices - but, and hear me out, what if we did that stuff even more, don't even mention things like great stories and fun worlds or anything gamers have been asking for, and also laid off most of our staff and forced return to office too?

Nelots@piefed.zip · 10 pts · 213d

They do want to be more focused on the gamer. That is, more focused on how to extract as much money from gamers as possible with as little work on their end as they can get away with.

BaroqueInMind@piefed.social · 60 pts · 214d (3 replies)

Yeah that company is cooked. They likely won't last another decade and are going to make moves to look enticing for a buyout and pad the CEOs golden parachute. Fuck them and their millionaire management who are disconnected from reality and destroyed the careers of many creative people they fired under their feet.

ampersandrew@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 214d

I think this thing with Tencent is the only buyout they're going to get.

ameancow@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 214d (1 reply)
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YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 213d

I'm actually cool with this. They really have been ignoring a large swath of Tom Clancy shit, and I feel assassin's Creed just isn't as cool and interesting as it used to be. Not to mention Prince of Persia which they seem to have completely abandoned. I would love it if private equity came in and sold all their ips to other houses.

demonsword@lemmy.world · 53 pts · 214d (1 reply)

The publisher is restructuring around five 'creative houses' by implementing cost-cutting, project cancellations, and a return-to-office mandate.

"We'll become gamer-centric by fucking our employees even more"

ameancow@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 214d
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tiny_hedgehog@piefed.social · 38 pts · 214d (6 replies)

Literally the only way to do this is fire the first 3 or 4 levels of upper management.

thingsiplay@lemmy.ml · -9 pts · 214d (5 replies)

This would collapse the company instantly. They need to make sure a good followup is available. Because most are not and are even worse, either through greed or incompetence. And yes, it could be way worse than current leaders. Because if it was that easy to just fire them and replace them randomly with anyone and hope it does better, I am sure every company did that.

MotoAsh@piefed.social · 20 pts · 214d (4 replies)

You must be new to capitalism.

CEOs are extremely replacable. The one thing that differentiates a good CEO from a bad one is how much they STFU and let the actual workers do their job instead of shoving directives down everyones' throat every time a shiny new waste of an 'investment' catches their eye like AI.

thingsiplay@lemmy.ml · -10 pts · 214d (3 replies)

Not all CEOs are equally good or bad. Some help the company to be better, others are better at ruining it. Replaceable does not mean that ANYONE can do the job. You completely ignored my point.

MotoAsh@piefed.social · 11 pts · 214d (2 replies)

So you're saying Ubisoft execs aren't inept morons seeking the latest money-grubbing trends?

I hate to break it to you, but yes: Anyone can replace that kind of executive.

Could a random Joe replace the "executive" in a five man team? Probably not. Though any other scenario, it becomes more and more plausible. The bigger a company gets, the less competent the suits are. It's basically a law of capitalism these days.

CybranM@feddit.nu · 1 pts · 214d (1 reply)

I don't think they're talking about Ubi specifically. I agree that CEOs are "easily" replaceable but I also agree that some people would do a better job than others

MotoAsh@piefed.social · 7 pts · 214d

That's true of any position ever. Just because some would be great doesn't mean the entire group cannot be far below average.

Sibbo@sopuli.xyz · 31 pts · 214d (1 reply)

video game company wants to become more gamer friendly

Wait what? Isn't being gamer centric what making video games is about?

cybervseas@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 214d

Nope. Konami became gambler centric with pachinko and if I remember correctly Ubisoft previously announced they were going all in on Blockchain.

Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club · 29 pts · 214d (2 replies)

Gamers want AI, right?

/s

RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 213d

And ten tiers of UPlay subscriptions!!

thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 213d

I want AI in games; Actual Innovation!

Agent_Karyo@piefed.world · 29 pts · 214d

Some much "corporate speak" in the quotes from the Ubisoft CEO. Almost reads like random gibberish.

SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 26 pts · 214d

Cancelling Beyond Good & Evil 2 for a 13th time, huh?

Tetsuo@jlai.lu · 26 pts · 214d

The beginning of the end of Ubisoft.

I'm glad the devs of Clair Obscur got out of this and did their own shit.

itkovian@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 214d

Maybe Ubisoft should restructure itself out of existence.

pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip · 19 pts · 213d

I'm actually not sure I can afford to keep playing "buy an indie game every time Ubisoft does something evil or stupid".

But I'm down for a few more rounds, at least.

phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 17 pts · 213d

So Ubisoft dumped their entire C suite, starting with their CEO? Well I can only applaud that, that a CEO, known for not giving a shit about gamers, finally decided that he was wrong and decided to do the right thing! Kudos!

The only way he could have done it better was to take the samurai way out, but yeah, that won't happen...

/S needed?

Technotica@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 214d

Ha.. ha...hahahahaha... Yeah right.

MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 213d

"How to own multiple cool and successful IPs and still fail"

grueling_spool@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 213d (1 reply)

Classic publicly traded company using "reorganisation" (read: layoffs) to trick shareholders into thinking they are turning things around by simultaneously reducing costs and shifting blame for past failures of leadership.

The next step is a super safe release, like a remaster of one of their top selling games, followed by an announcement of a new entry in one of their most popular series. Line goes up. Ubisoft is back! Hire more developers, open a new studio (or buy an established studio), resume enshittifying. Rinse and repeat.

I have played these games before.webp

Abundance114@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 212d

Farcry 3 remastered incoming

sylver_dragon@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 214d

They are chopping the development teams and titles up into convenient bite-sized chunks. Ubisoft will hang onto the large titles in the Vantage Studios vertical, and the rest will be spun off or sold off. Any spun off studios will be saddled with crippling debt.

LostWanderer@fedia.io · 8 pts · 213d

LMAO The only way they could truly be gamer friendly is jettisoning the inept CEO and Executives, hiring individuals to fill positions of power that ACTUALLY understand what gamers want. One of the core problems that Ubisoft has is they are so out of touch with what gamers want and need from their games! All this restructuring, RTO mandates, and other cost cutting strategies is just going to fuck them up even more. The good news is, we might get more talented former Ubisoft devs making amazing games and Ubisoft itself ceases to exist as a company.

gnutrino@programming.dev · 4 pts · 214d

Reminds me of when EA decided to go player first

Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 214d (2 replies)

A gaming company is... Let me read that again... Focusing on games?

MotoAsh@piefed.social · 12 pts · 214d (1 reply)

Nope! They're focusing on GaaS and generative AI.

They are fully cooked. Now they're working on being over-done.

Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 214d

Oh yeah if that's the focus they should quit while they still got cash.

bigmamoth@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 214d (1 reply)

but i thougt everybody loved ac shadow ? what happened ?

RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 213d

Yeah, I thought they were boasting about how successful AC Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws were?