Tag Archives: Yves Guillemot

December 1, 2025 · 22:32

It’s starting to happen.

This is a decently great day for me. The BBC, gave me ‘news’ that shows that I was right all along (one of many times), of course that is a debatable setting, but it comes with benefits for me. You see, on November 9th 2024 I wrote ‘The easy lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) and some disagreed, some always do. But I saw the potential of that device and I wrote about it, I also gave the direct setting that Ubisoft could benefit greatly from this. Now the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0mjvr33/experience-life-aboard-the-titanic-like-never-before) shows us all a different approach to that same solution. It allows the people to see life abroad the Titanic (that one that sank in 1912) and it looks nice and spiffy, I think it could be better, but this might have been a beta. I reckon that under Unreal Engine 5 it becomes truly magic, but that takes serious cash to develop and that might have been out of reach (for now), but the important part is that this is being implemented now. After Apple lost his marbles and thoughts for innovation, Meta with the Meta Quest 3 is all that remains and they have the setting to sweep the board. I reckon that they will optionally make a few side ventures or buy the Stadia, but then the entire solution will be under the hands of Meta (say: Facebook) a setting I saw a year ago and now as things are starting to move, those claiming to be innovators are left in the rubble of their own spin. As I see it, it is about to become a clear win for Meta and others could benefit too. 

They merely need to talk to Ubisoft and see what is possible, and that comes with a massive influx of revenue, so whilst all the winner (soon to be losers) are aiming for AI, other settings are developing and they are left in the field looking for their golf balls in the mud. So whilst others are trying to reinvent the wheel, there are a small numbers of people who are starting actual innovative waves.

People like Karl Blake-Garcia are setting new boundaries. Personally I never thought of the Titanic in that way and that makes it wondrous. Others are on the same shoes as I am, but see different applications and that is fantastic. In that meantime He saw the idea of a ship and he might have been influenced by James Cameron and that is OK. I saw the implementation of languages and the teaching vibes the world needs and that is OK too, I also saw an implementation (in the pre dump Apple Vision Pro days) where Apple had options and saw a game as well, but it seems that Meta has all the marbles in its corner now. I wonder if Ubisoft is making the jump from games to education, but that might be asking for too much, someone needs to talk to Yves Guillemot and Mark Zuckerberg is the most likely person he wants to talk to. 

The important part is that the world is looking into the AI corner (the one that doesn’t exist yet) and they are wondering when it is coming, all whist the realist are stating that there is no real revenue coming before 2028, which is nice but the interest on 4 trillion dollars will be due at some point before that. Still as we are shown “Over the next decade, Auto-ML will become even more user-friendly and accessible, allowing people to create high-performing AI models quickly without specialized expertise. Cloud-based AI services will also provide businesses with prebuilt AI models that can be customized, integrated and scaled as needed.” Over the next decade? That will bring it to 2035 and I’ll most likely be dead at that point. Thank the lord that people like Karl Blake-Garcia (and myself too) exist who are looking to alternative money makers, preferably venues not dependent on AI. Its too bad that Apple wasted all that time and effort without looking forward. But still Meta saw this venue and now while some wait for the Meta Quest 4, the previous generation is ready now and the systems are being adjusted to future that solution. To the best of my knowledge there are close to a billion people ready to globally start learning languages and that solution could soon be shown to classrooms and homeschoolers. Innovation is all in the mind and where it takes you. No AI was required. The real AI is between your own two ears, time to use it to show others what is possible.

So when others are seeing that there is a marker in Data validation and Data verification the BI industry might open up to a much larger field, we can only hope so because if I have to read another produced article on shipping where we see “standard deviation is a statistical measure of how spread out a set of data is from its mean (average)”, whilst the actual setting is “the difference between true North and magnetic North” I am gonna bloody lose it. And it could have been avoided if Data verification was actually working, but shipping is so out of touch with reality, isn’t it?

So whilst some might see this as a excellent setting to see what the Titanic actually looked like, there is a tidal wave of applications coming into that realm, I wonder who is seeing the options to innovate.

Have a great day, and as I see it, taking the plane (especially an airbus) might have its own lack of innovative applications according to some. So have a safe flight.

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September 10, 2025 · 12:34

Outside the box we see

That occurred to me, the Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2614596/saudi-arabia) is giving me ‘Artist showcases Qur’anic verses with intricate paper cutting creations’ It caught me unaware, I never considered this and the image (source: Arab News) is showing us the amazing creations 

With the subtext “Australia-based Pakistani artist Tusif Ahmad visited Jeddah this week to showcase his intricate and colorful papercutting representations of Qur’anic verses.” In that same setting I am a little amazed that this is an Australian based artist. It is the first I ever heard of it (and here I am blaming the media yet again). And it is not impossible that I overlooked that setting, so I am willing to take part of the blame. Yet the setting should have been a lot more visible in Australia. Weirdly enough three thoughts penetrated my feeble brain.

  1. Does this technique work in English too?
  2. Is it possible to do this technique in braille, so that the blind could enjoy this?
  3. How can non-Arabic people enjoy the art for what it is?

I am not saying that this is a prerequisite, but there is a larger stage (there always is) and to propagate the setting to a larger audience is what we tend to focus on, especially as I am an absolute Arabic noob (a non Arabic literate person).

So when we see “Over the past 12 years, he has produced more than 500 pieces, exhibited globally, and won recognition for an art form he describes as “an invitation to reflect on the Qur’an.”” Making the ‘unheard’ of scene a lot more visible. I reckon that Australian Universities should invite his art form a larger audience (the young tend to be more accepting of new forms of art) and that is seemingly a starting point. I am of course considering that this was already done, there his no way that I am the starting point of anything that isn’t my concoction.

So as we are given ““Each artwork aims to create a bridge between tradition and modern expression, inspiring both Muslims and non-Muslims to connect with the spiritual essence of Islamic art,” he said.” That I might as a non-Muslim not see the whole picture (or image) and I get that, but I know of this art form for less than a day and that needs to be revisited.

Of course my brain goes into all kinds of side-roads, like “What happens when you take this idea and add lasers to this and project that form of art” that and a few other ideas I get from “During his Jeddah talk, Ahmad showcased works from a series inspired by the surahs Ar-Rahman, Yaseen, and Yusuf. He explained that small pieces may take weeks while larger ones require months of patience and spiritual focus.”

A setting is that Ubisoft take this idea and add it as an achievement to AC Mirage (as they are creating a new addition to this game later this year) and create an entirely new following, giving this IP (owned by Tusif Ahmad) a interesting large following, giving himself a character in Bagdad at 862CE and letting this art form creating a wave of additional fabs and showing it to a larger audience. It is a way to get art the attention it needs and this merely happened as I combined two ideas in the same time. Timing is almost everything. You still need to cajoles to combine ideas and do this against the folly of time where people laugh at your ideas.

As such Yves Guillemot, I just gave you another setting that might have gone unnoticed in the larger grand scheme of things. And I reckon that Tusif Ahmad might never have considered showing his work to a population that is interested in video games. As such as his audience he would gain, I would wish him good fortune (artists tend to be a hungry lot at times)

Its all in a days work and as I just passed the mark of midweek (Wednesday 12:01pm) it is time to bid thee all a good day and have a great time wondering what comes next. I don’t know because New Zealand is ahead by three hours and they cannot tell me what happens at 15:00 (as they aren’t answering the phone). Time travel through telecom. Who would have thought it.

Write to you all later (in about 20 hours)

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September 9, 2025 · 15:25

One thought of many

That is at times all of the settings we see. We see an idea and we focus on it. I for one am ‘smitten’ with that affliction. It came to pass as I have been playing AC Shadows and the story gives us the Portuguese. I remember that setting from the James Clavell setting given to us by Richard Chamberlain in 1978, with the work Shogun he, Toshiro Mifune and Yoko Shimada put Japan on our eyesights forever. This is not an attack on the 2024 Shogun, as I haven’t seen it yet (not out on Blu-ray in Australia) but I have heard many good things about it and I look forward to seeing Hiroyuki Sanada replaying the role that (as I see it) made Toshiro Mifune a great actor in the  western world. That is the setting, but it is not what this is about. The setting is set around the Jesuit order, one that had influence in Japan (I am not judging whether it is good or bad) and there is no reasonable way that any jesuit makes for a good assassin. But the setting of AC Shadows could propagate the Jesuit settings, or as they call it ‘Societas Iesu’ founded in 1540, as such it has a rich history, and history being the capital setting as this society is founded on “evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 countries. Jesuits work in education, research, and cultural pursuits. They also conduct retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, sponsor direct social and humanitarian works, and promote ecumenical dialogue” for me the idea of prolongating education has another setting. You see, as classes go into disarray in the near future, we need to set new boundaries, not more investments. I see it that the backdrop of Assassins Creed could be used to a setting to learn languages AC Shadows Japanese and Portuguese, Just as the setting of AC Brotherhood could be the starting stage of Italian and Latin. Two programs that give rise to 4 languages. We don’t always get that lucky. There are settings where we merely could learn English (AC Syndicate and Watchdogs legion) so we have an old and new setting for the language. Students could learn a lot by what Ubisoft set in motion. There are settings for Greek, America (they don’t speak English, LOL) and from that we go on. And the fact is that these students can learn all the time (at home or at School) a setting to propagate knowledge and it goes far beyond the borders of that nation. See how these languages give rise to people in India have a much larger setting for languages. As some might ridicule the idea, the setting has been given and some (preferably in Ubisoft) will give rise to that idea and equip something like the Meta Quest 3 and walk around in these conditions, all whilst practicing your language skills. We get all the news on ‘sue strategy’ whilst no one is pushing that envelope to get something going. I gave visibility to this setting almost 6 months ago, so my quote for “Google and Amazon left billions on the floor” is hereby set to true. It is not the only setting there are more, so when you start realising that education is under the hammer and you are shown that education has to be cut, see where we could have given a larger rise to a new pedestal of learning. In that same setting AC Shadows give rise to culture (As does AC Brotherhood) we can argue that Paris in not a setting for culture (look at me, making another funny). 

We need to consider that the art of culture might soon be lost as America squanders whatever it has to keep its billionaires afloat and here Ubisoft has a larger setting to push education to a larger stage in Europe and India, because 1 billion hungry Indians (hungry for knowledge) is a large population to push an idea to. There might be issues over time, but the Ubisoft solution is about 80% finished at present. So do what you want with this idea, but at least I was thinking outside of the box, no AI required and it is close to release (the voice interaction requires actual programming), so when you see another BS media piece on what to sue from who, consider that they never looked at the opportunities given, a simple setting I employed, with no real issue on getting profit (this will be in the hands of Meta and Ubisoft), a donation will of course be graciously accepted. Are you listening Yves Guillemot? 🙂

Have a great day and try to learn something today, even if it is in a direction you never expected. I today did my bit for education, technology, arts and culture. What will you do today?

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September 4, 2025 · 13:19

Revenue ignored

That is the setting I see. It is likely that others do not see it that way and that is fine. I and referring to Ubisoft. I got their product AC Shadow last week. At present I can only afford it as a preowned game, that is life. But as it is one of the first preowned games I am getting in that way, I am now ‘devoid’ of the initial codes for cosmetic extras. That is fine, I get that these codes are not transferable. That is the benefit of the full game purchasers. However considering that this game was as such 50% cheaper, Ubisoft is also out of revenue. So, I am guessing that Ubisoft has the option to ‘reclaim’ additional revenue.

As such I now do not have:

  • Thrown to the dogs bonus quest
  • Claws of Awaji expansion
  • Yasuke Sekiryu Character pack

I am not complaining on this, codes are not transferable and I think that is fair, but then I thought that these codes might be optionally bought for $3-$5 after a while. So lets say that there is a delay to buy these codes by months up to 12 months. So those who bought the full codes get these ‘extras’ for up to a year and after that Ubisoft can get sales from these codes. It could bank them millions. Optionally you could earn them through the Ubisoft store for exchanging these Ubi-coins. That is up to them, but I reckon that this solution is something that could bank them millions. This is set to the dozen of so games they released and for the millions of people who bought a preowned game. I am actually surprised that no one bought this to the attention of that youthful young scoundrel called Yves Guillemot (apparently the CEO of that place). It is not that CEO’s walk away from revenue, as such I wonder why this was decided. I get that there should be an advantage to the buying population, but after 6 month or a year? I reckon that there is a case t be made for that revenue.

And that is after the setting where Ubisoft is walking away from millions. Ah well, some people can afford to walk away from that amount of money. What a luxury.

As I see it, there is now an additional reason to add a Japanese language model to the idea’s that I already spouted and Ubisoft has another reason to reconsider some of the ideas that re out in the open. And as I see it, Apple is dragging its feet as well. But then they decided to call themselves innovative people (lacking innovation that is).

Anyway, from my point of view AC Shadows is a magnificent product. I was a little upset by the 140GB is had to download and it took hours to do this. But then no one is perfect (almost no one).

So whilst you consider the impact of all that material that could now be downloaded to enhance your playing ability, consider the impact of all these games getting a second stage and what additions could now spice up their wallets in addition to issues they forgotten they had. 

Have a great day, Vancouver will join us in this Thursday in a little under 4 hours.

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April 2, 2025 · 02:02

Software directions

That tends to be the norm, some software BI person looks at where the masses are and then shoots his net, so that he can catch the biggest population. And I (initially) tended to think the same way. We can call this the wrong way. 

So this started last night when Wired (at https://www.wired.com/story/can-gaming-save-the-apple-vision-pro/) gave me ‘Can Gaming Save the Apple Vision Pro?’, OK, I admit, the story was two weeks old, and none the less relevant to this conversation. Personally I didn’t know that the Vision Pro required saving, but that is my wimple setting. You see, new devices open up new frontiers and on November 9th 2024 I gave the world (apple too) ‘The Easy Lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) and in under an hour I designed a near original game an adaptation from a world favorite game. Yes it took me less than an hour to think of a solution. 

Now there is another idea based on all time favorites and used in a very different different setting. You see, people look in the same direction over and over and hoping that something new hits them. I look in the opposite direction and that is why I have over half a dozen original IP settings and this one could bring Ubisoft the fortune it so immensely desired, the dream of growing to greatness. The funny part is that most of the work is done already. You see, schooling is required all over the world and the chances are that Ubisoft overlooked it. And apparently Timmy the Cook did too (said to be the CEO of Apple). 

The setting is larger to be considered as more and more need is out there for languages. OK, there are some hangups. But the larger setting becomes visible in mere minutes and 80% of the gamers have had that feeling, especially those who played any of the Assassins Creed games. You see, we all want to be that assassin, but the missed part is that they loved walking down the streets of Florence, Rome, The America’s, New York, Paris, London, Egypt, Greece, Iran and Japan. The one thing that Ubisoft excelled in were the graphics. When these games get upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 it becomes a very different game. Now on Apple Vision Pro (optionally MetaQuest as well) people can actually practice their language skills in a private setting and there are millions ready to get ready. Now there is no killing, there is no climbing all over the place. It becomes a walking setting, with optional reward settings and Ubisoft actually opened the door to this when they had the expansion The Discovery Tour added to the game AC Origin. It gave us a different setting to the game and also gave us just how deep they had taken the game. Now consider that we get access to languages English is gotten from AC Syndicate and Watchdogs Legion, and optionally AC3. French from AC Unity (when it is properly fixed), Arabic from Mirage, Italian and Latin from AC Brotherhood and optionally AC2, Greek and Egyptian from AC Origin, and most of the work is already done. Now there is one setting that takes precedence.

About a month ago I saw someone program a chatbot to take on scam centers. His view was that when they are held busy by chatbots, scammers cannot scam. But that impact is larger. People can now be set in chatbots engaging in the use of natural speech. As such there is a unification of skills and in that setting Ubisoft could offer a much larger population. According to ‘records’ in 2022, the United Kingdom had the most students learning English as a foreign language. There were approximately 262,400 students who were learning English as a second language that year, followed by Ireland with almost 116,000 foreign students. The third place ranking was completed by Canada, with around 105,000 students learning English as a foreign language. That implies a population of billions who want to learn English. When the modules are ready Ubisoft could cater to millions of people who want to learn any of these languages and with a subscription model they could cater to hundreds of thousands of them. To make it fun they could add the villa in Monteriggioni and as language assignments are completed they could get another painting added to the villa. There is also the notion that ‘midterms’ in several stages would upgrade Monteriggioni. You will not get a well and a few other things, but most other upgrades become possible. And as you engage with the people in Florence and Rome you could get lots of interactions. With Latin you get the added nun/priest outfits and get access to the old Vatican. Linguistic skills are valued globally and for those who want to learn Arabic there is the world of Mirage (just Bagdad) and there we will see what more there is to learn. Any language student gets assigned an address and as your skills progress you will get a ‘better’ address. All this was already possible and now it serves a much better purpose. There is classic English (AC Syndicate) and modern English (Watchdogs Legion) the setting already exist for the most. But the added setting of interactive chatbots will push the Ip to new heights and the graphic skills of Ubisoft have seldom been questioned (only in AC Unity). So this took a little more than an hour, but it was there for the longest of time. It just required Yves Guillemot to wake up to see what he had and now that this writing is out in the open, he could wake up and seek new frontiers. There is the thought that Unreal Engine might not be a solution everywhere, but it will give the most lifelike views on Vision Pro and MetaQuest. As such it just fits better. 

Software directions are out in the open. The trick is not to take the mundane direction that everyone seems to be taking. As such I offer this thought to the wannabe captains of industry.

Have a great day and think of what language you would like to learn, because that is a universal thought we all have. It might be that you want to learn the dead languages (Greek and Latin), you might want to broaden your horizon with English, French, Italian and Japanese and for those wishing to learn Spanish, a case can be made to include AC Black Flag. The rest? Well that gives a person a dozen languages to learn, but cases can be made for other languages as well. How that goes? It would be up to Ubisoft. 

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March 31, 2023 · 20:09

Those cordially invited

That is a setting that is not merely an evolving one, it sort of fits several stages and it all revolves around the choices that some make. As such when the Gaming Bafta’s were on, there were two considerations. The first one was how well did Sony do, the second one is how bad Microsoft is doing. I will get to the logic a little later. Sony sort of won a few times. There was God of War who was a winner, of course the music by Bear McCreary won and Christopher Judge as the voice of Kratos won. It won 6 awards in the Gaming Bafta’s and had 15 nominations, including EE game of the year, best game went to Vampire Survivors by Luca Galante. Horizon Forbidden West by Guerrilla games, a Sony exclusive won best technical achievement. One out of 5 nominations. This maters as these two games are gaming achievements of the highest order. God of War is given a 94% score, HFW an 88% score (I personally believe it should have been a 92%). Microsoft and their acquired houses had 4 nominations and zero wins. OK, I will grant that Bethesda had bad luck having to go up against one of the Final Fantasy kids, but still as I see it, no bang for seven and a half billion spend on purchases? Perhaps next year. The big titles were not here and I was missing Hogwarts Legacy, but they might have missed the cut off point. As such Microsoft has additional issues next year and that is before the storm hits. You see, the E3 was cancelled. It does not matter what the reason is, they cancelled it for some of the players having their own spin presentation, where they can intentionally not invite those critical of them. It makes sense and it is a valid and acceptable choice to make (even as I am spinning this in personal ways too). You see, I do not know the individual reasons and that means I merely do not know. But the hardships that Bethesda presently has, the lack of releases by Microsoft houses and whatever Ubisoft has to remain absent, they might all be perfectly valid in Business Intelligence, but gamers will spin this. One source gave us in January “Ubisoft’s Project Q has now been reportedly cancelled. The PvP battle arena game was announced less than a year ago in April 2022. They’ve already delayed Skull and Bones six times now and the recent comments by CEO Yves Guillemot haven’t helped.” Another source gave us that Assassin’s Creed Mirage and The Crew: Project Orlando will not come before Q1 2024, implying that they miss the summer haul and the Christmas revenue haul (including thanksgiving), two massive revenue moment. As such it makes sense to give E3 a miss, yet I personally would have spun this into ‘We will get a better result when we take more time’ even though one game has had 6 setbacks. They basically face a lose lose proposition. In all this I set the groundworks for new IP and that actually matters this time. You see there is an element missing at present. That element is Tencent. They are giving a miss for now, but they are pouring buckets of gold into their Unreal engine 5 design teams, this implies that they could grow big next year, they could pull the carpet from under Microsoft legs. 

I did not give Tencent the consideration I could have, mainly because Amazon is a better fit, but in the setting that they are in. I am sitting on a totally new form of gaming on one hand (a small exaggeration), on the other hand the other IP in phase one could represent five billion and a lot more after that. Tencent could be the direction to grow my setting and even as I prefer Amazon as a first choice, one needs to go where the gold is (a small personal greedy direction). And as long as Microsoft is rejected as a contender, I am happy, even if Tencent ends with the IP. It still is important for me to assist in sending Microsoft to some revenue graveyard by December 2026. You think I am serious, and I am, but there is a hidden egg in the graveyard part. 

If Microsoft had focused on quality instead of spin (which they in part might be) there could have ben a little hope, yet at present when we see the Xbox Series X and after two years we still see review (source: Tom’s guide) “Few next-gen launch games” a setting you can accept in year one, but not after two years, you see how Microsoft is desperate and now I add Project: Graveyard against that setting, without Microsoft being able to attend that game? It is nice to hand Microsoft the wooden spoon in 2024, especially when they could have spend a little over $100 billion by then (Mojang, Bethesda and Blizzard) and that is before the other IP is launched (if it is sold) and before the list of Sony releases get to be even larger. Ubisoft is important for Microsoft and their consoles as they were their biggest drive, no matter how we think of some games, Ubisoft has had moment of true greatness and one additional title could safe Microsoft. So when we set the larger stage and we see the gaming Bafta’s and the E3 cancellation, the larger stage of Microsoft is as I personally see it diminishing. And the stage is worsening in other ways too, but I will write about that should Microsoft acquire Blizzard, because that is expected, but not set in stone at present.

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October 16, 2021 · 16:02

Ubituary

With not too much sadness and some feeling of achievement it is my joy to announce that Yves Guillemot, former CEO of Ubisoft was murdered on the night of Friday 15th of October, he was allegedly murdered by Antón Castillo dictator of Yara. Insiders claimed that the bug of his wealth vaporising on a daily basis enraged him beyond believe. Insiders investigating this (and the pandora papers) stated that Yves went missing in cloud environments linked to server with processor id CFC1E8CA-1DBB-1DCA5E8-60F8E99BD225, the people at the data centre deny that Yves Guillemot ever visited their firm and they also made claim that this processor number in unknown to them, investigative journalists were unable to track 37 of the 153 data servers, the investigation is seemingly ongoing.

So some will clam that I have no sense of humour, or at least a very sick one. You see, at least I am creative, we want to think that Ubisoft is creative, but from my point of view it is the ability to stack a game with bugs and glitches. When we look around we see SVG giving us ‘THIS FAR CRY 6 BUG HAS PLAYERS LOSING THEIR MINDS’, Sportskeeda comes with ‘How to fix the Maine 15f/158 error code in Far Cry 6’ and they also give us “While many bugs are found in Far Cry 6 itself, Maine 15f/158 seems to be linked to external account sources. So far, there has been no word from Ubisoft about what exactly the Maine 15f/158 error code is or what may be causing it” and the list goes on, yet I would like to add the Washington Post who gives us ‘A glitchfest that’s too big to wrangle’ with mention of “Yara, as a simulation of an island, falls squarely in the uncanny valley. Your enjoyment of the gameplay is likely to hinge on how much this bothers you. My first few hours with the game, as I acquainted myself with the brain-dead virtual denizens of Yara, felt awful. I watched AI drivers, honking, run over their fellow Yarans in the streets. In one mission, all of my opponents marched, single file, past me out of the military base I was sent to infiltrate, leaving it ripe for (an anticlimactic) plundering” the people report glitch after glitch, bug after bug and when a game is somewhere between $79 and $149 (there are a few versions) we need to consider why a company is allowed to release a game that is so broken? The problem is that there are more and more. All whilst some game makers set the stage of a non-disclosure agreement for too close to release. All whilst we see that some games are too big to review and so far the amount of bugs set the stage that consumers should be allowed to get full refunds up to 10 days after purchase. Whilst one sources gives us in May ‘‘Far Cry 6’ dev confirms game will not have “Cyberpunk-style issues”’, most can now confirm that the matter is a lot worse, plenty of gamers would love mere Cyberpunk style issues and it is all over the net and also a larger stage on YouTube. Seeking ‘Far Cry 6 bugs’ and ‘Far Cry 6 glitches’ shows how far Ubisoft has fallen of the beaten track. As far as I can tell, since 29 October 2020 when Watchdogs: Legion was released, we see that it was the only real decent release. I played it, and yes it had a few bugs and glitches, but nothing damaging, the fun for that game did not diminish. 

But Ubisoft did not learn its lesson. AC Valhalla, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, the Division 2, all flaws games, too flawed as I personally see it and now Far Cry 6 adds to that list of bungles. So is the state of a Ubituary (pun intended) so far out of bounds?

I know that when I buy an open world game that there will be issues, the bigger the game, the larger the chance of that happening. Yet in all this Ubisoft is seemingly releasing games that should not even be regarded as Beta versions, they are that flawed and as I see it, they are getting away with it and that is even worse. So whilst we get the crying Chihuahua gang (ACCC) with claims like ‘Current powers no match for Google’ (you can see that in two directions) we see Ubisoft clearing the masts of BS as the ACCC is overlooking the larger stage and Ubisoft should be held to a larger mirror, they claim to be an AAA+ developer, then they better prove it, because at present there are plenty of indie developers who show better quality products.

P.S. I apologise for not being able to add colours, I will do that later when WordPress stops fucking up!

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November 30, 2020 · 23:48

A company for an apple & egg

This is the setting I find myself in today, I have been harsh on Ubisoft for several reasons and after Watchdogs: Legion, I thought they had learned their lesson, but no, they never learn and I reckoned 1-2 weeks ago in my blog that if Yves Guillemot would run off with 10 cents on the dollar he would be lucky, the negative setting of AC Valhalla is however adding up and up and up. Its reliance on questionable reviews, NDA’s until day 1 of the game and a misrepresented setting of ‘early release’ is adding fuel to the fire that I see Ubisoft degrade it value to a mere 250 million company, for a firm that used to be valued at 2,000,000,000 a mere two years ago, this is quite a leap and not a positive one, even as Elon Musk is set to twice that, all whilst his value will soon rocket to 1,200,000,000,000 soon enough, Ubisoft goes in the other direction, it goes from bad to worse if we connect ‘Ubisoft’s newest game in Japan censored’ (at https://www.mccourier.com/ubisofts-newest-game-in-japan-censored/) a week ago. There we see “Ubisoft responded, stating that removing blood stains was essential for the game to be validated by CERO (Computer Entertainment Rating Organization), which is responsible for classifying video games. However, CERO declines all responsibility for this choice and confirms that it has not been consulted by Ubisoft”, I am not judging here, but it seems that either CERO or Ubisoft is misdirecting the gamers and if it is Ubisoft, that is a really bad move, in light of squandered options, especially in light of ‘early release’ all whilst the bugs and glitches are adding up, Ubisoft missed its target by miles. Even as some claim that “Cloud saves have also been renamed to Manual Save Cloud to differentiate them from standard offline saves. A notification has been added as well for when cloud saves fail to be pulled from the server”, whether fixed or not, it is again shoddy testing by Ubisoft, will they never learn? A save game is the gospel and bible of the long term player, not properly testing that is an issue , and when we go from a level 0 issue to the several levels of glitches, one so hilarious (unless you are the player), where a Drakar (a Viking boat) is flying and put flying in a video of dragons, that is the stage Ubisoft find itself in, they have regressed towards the level of joke and it will hurt Google as well, its stadia is depending slightly too heavily on Ubisoft games with its new Google Stadia, in that stage with not enough alternatives it could find itself in all kinds of hurt, giving the Apple Arcadia a massive advantage over Google, something they will not be happy about.

And when we see “Visual bugs relating to Eivor’s cloak have been addressed, while player and NPC animation problems have also been improved. Audio, lighting, and texture clipping issues could also crop up, which Ubisoft said it’s addressed. For PC players, shadow resolution set to high will now work as intended”, we see a possible return to the age of AC: Unity. Is that what Ubisoft has regressed to? 

A stage of failure after failure, improper testing, hype creation, boasts and non-delivery. Each of them a massive hurt by themselves, combined they are the nails in the coffin of the cadaver once known as Ubisoft. And they had created an optional safe harbour with Watchdogs: Legion, what a day a software company can make. 

I am not happy, I am actually a little sad, from a decent company, they moved unto legendary, only to squander it away with massive failures, so as I see “a successful start for Ubisoft, but it hasn’t been without its problems. Users across all systems have reported problems with corrupted saves, performance issues, and other in-game glitches”, I see the hand of Ubisoft marketing, a set stage that could only fail over time and now that they think they got a reprieve, I am here with the personal view that it has ended for Ubisoft, all whilst the owners of PC and consoles they are all looking forward to a 45GB patch, I had to download a 50GB patch for Miles Morales, but at least it came with a second complete game (I had the Ultimate edition). So how many games and patches will it take for rural players (which add up to millions) to use up all their bandwidth? We all seem to focus on the cities with unlimited downloads, but consider that Rural France, Rural Germany, non metropolitan UK, Rural Australia, a stage with tens of millions of players, they will feel the brunt, merely because Ubisoft refuses to learn its lesson? How is that for value of software? And this was merely the day one patch, for the latest, optionally fixing your save games you will need to download 4GB more.

Yes that was the early release of AC Valhalla and as I see it a CEO that cannot contain its marketing needs, a sad situation for any firm and those around them are hurting, merely because (as it seems) hypes seemingly creates the need of Ubisoft, not excellence, and when did we applaud mediocrity on that? So whilst McCourier gives us “In light of what CERO said, Ubisoft seems to have underestimated the tolerance of the Japanese authorities. Ubisoft has also apologised to Japanese players, and a corrective patch should address this issue in the coming days or weeks”, gamers will see another patch and optionally more glitches coming their way, I wonder how much more a gamer needs to download before they realise that Ubisoft is done for?

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January 20, 2020 · 13:30

Changing the headline

It started (for me) around 6 hours ago when Emma Boyle at Techradar gave us ‘Ubisoft is aiming to create more unique games with an editorial shake up‘, which sounds nice, yet the initial problem for Ubisoft will be to make proper games, an initial essential requirement. As I see it, Ubioft lost their edge and now they are using PR and marketing to make it into ‘Ubisoft is aiming to create more unique games with an editorial shake up‘ (at https://www.techradar.com/au/news/ubisoft-is-aiming-to-create-more-unique-games-with-an-editorial-shake-up), proper games are made not merely by innovative designers and thinkers, but it requires a team of methological thinkers to properly test the game, they need a few wild cards to make sure that ‘stupid choices’ are optionally caught. We are now all about the results of The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint, yet the fuming disasters of Assassins Creed Unity are still not forgotten. All whilst Far Cry 4 was more of the same (not a flaw and not the worst idea), yet the short sighted impact of Ubisoft needs to be seen where the bungle of a title is best prevented, at the very top (Yves Guillemot). I have had my issues with Yves Guillemot, yet he does have a proper business instinct and that is something that Ubisoft needs as well. The eyes are now all on Watchdogs: Legion which is approaching release and the idea, concept and work on it is pretty amazing. It takes Watchdogs in another dimension, one that we have not seen before (as far as I know) and it could make way for an entirely new Cyberpunk line. Yet the story is merely one part, it is the release and the initial feel that matters and to be honest, with previous blunders, I would feel more relaxed if they delay it to fix things BEFOREHAND, than give us some lame excuse afterwards, because that is marketing for you, get the money first. 

Consider the fact that I was able to initially ‘design’ a new Watch Dogs 3 (playing in Okinawa) in less than 8 hours, setting the initial stage for close to 50-100 hours of gameplay and with the setting of optionally 4 storylines, all set in hypermodern (slightly futuristic) Japan. Each of the storylines was different and a separate play through of the city with other approach options. Taking lessons from past successes and failures to give the people a new experience. And I got there by ignoring the storyline and setting a free roam stage where you could fall into choices. 

Yet Polygon gives on the 17th (at https://www.polygon.com/2020/1/17/21071083/ubisoft-editorial-team-changes-paris-serge-hascoet-yves-guillemot) ‘With all its games looking the same, Ubisoft shakes up its editorial team‘, there we see the words of CEO Yves Guillemot “blamed on a lack of differentiation in consumers’ minds“, it is actually simpler than that, when you try to build game that pleases all, you end up with a product that pleases none, as I see it, it is really that simple. And as I personally see it, the quote: “Ubisoft chief creative officer Serge Hascoet will remain in charge of Ubisoft’s editorial group, but that he will be given more subordinates and they will be given more autonomy, so that he is able lead from a broader perspective rather than directing individual projects himself” sounds nice, but will it work out that way? It is merely internal marketing of another kind (I am not laying blame on Serge Hascoet). Ubisoft is in a difficult place and this preemptive setting is merely good for the stage if Watch Dogs: Legion misses out too much, if this goes sideways (which I will not initially expect), the value of Ubisoft will diminish 30%-60%, which would scare the shareholders to no degree.

That this is all marketing (to some point) is seen with: “Guillemot said Breakpoint had “been strongly rejected by a significant portion of the community” and that it “did not come in with enough differentiation factors, which prevented the game’s intrinsic qualities from standing out.”“, how about the fact that it was littered with bugs? There is a reason why people are happy to wait 12-20 weeks and pick up the game for 75% less, bugs are a main reason. The lack of quality has driven the massive day one release buy to a soft interesting week 5 or later buy. You can only remain with a setting of special editions with optional additions when you do something about the quality, and that had remained absent. As such I hope that the Watch Dogs: Legion delay is also so that it can be properly tested. I also oppose to some degree the statement “the company needed to leave more time between the launches of its live service games so that they aren’t cannibalizing one another’s interest and audience“, yet too many games at the same time is an issue, but it is not merely about Ubisoft, the game designers ALL want to capture the audience, even as they all know that the consumer in this day and age can only afford one new game, the stage is still set to getting them all. So as we then get into comparing Breakpoint against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, we saw how Activision kicked the hell and nearly all life out of Breakpoint, that danger would have been a lot less if it had been properly tested. Activision also took a stand, as we take notice of “Modern Warfare’s single-player campaign focuses on realism and feature tactically-based moral choices whereupon the player is evaluated and assigned a score at the end of each level” (source: GamesRadar). Making of forcing a choice is not debilitating, bad testing is, that simple truth hit Breakpoint at least twice over, and as such if became the failure it is (as I personally see it). In all this, the power of better testing will enable ALL games from Ubisoft and making sure that the release date is not what marketing it makes out to be, but when development states that it is ready is a second part in all this. They forget that in the end it is the gamer who wants it and as CD Projekt Red has proven twice over, it comes when it is ready, and as I see it their 93% rating proves them right, which opposes 57% from Breakpoint and it sets a different precedent, it makes the gamers wonder if Ubisoft is still a AAA developer, a question they never really asked before, as I see it Watch Dogs: Legion will push that question to a larger degree in a much larger population making the 60% loss more and more direct, in this I am trying to remain an optimist, the losses could be larger.

The clear message becomes, that Ubisoft better get it right with Watchdogs, if that fails several franchises could be up for grabs for very little, because that is also the curse of shareholders, they will sell, as long as they break even in the deal and for now, that is not the case.

I for one would be a little sad, Ubisoft is a French company, to see a non American (or Japanese) company be this successful was an interesting side, it opened others to the idea that good games did not need come from either two countries (CD Projekt Red also proved that) in all, France has too much on the anvil and they could win and remain or lose a lot, it is not a great place to be, but the two elements I gave out could limit losses to some degree and there is no fault or damage to shift a release date, that is just junk others thrown into the mix. 

And it is not over for Ubisoft, as we see how top title after top title is making an impact on Nintendo Switch, there is a lot from Ubisoft that does have a massive following and they could again. Consider FarCry III on Switch, and even as some are already on Switch, they were not the greatest Assassins Creed games (I still do not regard Assassins Creed IV an AC game). More important, as we see Witcher III on Nintendo, where is AC Origins? It was a masterpiece, could that not be transferred? It is easy to look at transfers, but it is also the cheapest way to repair a software house (and it optionally gives low cost and high yield revenue). In addition the setting where a games might take up to 100 hours, yet the main story take no more than 20 hours, making it an unbalanced equation. Set that against a speed run on Witcher 3, which is not my favourite game mode by the way, taking a player no less than 25 hours. As such we should take notice that there is an optional shortfal in some Ubisoft games (not in AC Origins, or AC Odyssey though), as such there is a lot more that Ubisoft can do, especially in Watch Dogs: Legion and as I personally see it, they better do that BEFORE the game is released, not as some lame DLC excuse (free or not). All this is coming to roost at Ubisoft even before that new Microsoft contraption and the Sony PS5 are released. It shows just how much Ubisoft needs to get fixed and not in a marketing way. They actually remained in the game longer than I anticipated, but as far as I (and others) can tell, they are running out of options, so whether we see an obituary of Ubisoft in the coming year, or a revitalisation is up to the big chair, the quality of games is not something they can short change the gamer on again, they have done that too often (as I personally see it) and the entire “but we fixed it” will not hold water, not this time, there are too many competitors at present.

Their first-person shooter is up against Activision (80%), their RPGs are up against Guerrilla Games  (90%) and CD Projekt Red (92%), and several other games are up against Santa Monica Studio (94%). It goes on and Ubisoft needs to see that they are not alone and that others are winning the gamer share that Ubisoft once had, it is the direct result of sub-standard delivery on quality all that whilst we see that there is no other group that is so into gossip like gamers, mistakes like this become the setting of failure within hours of day one sales and there is a larger group no longer running out on day one, they are largely becoming week 2 buyers (at best)  when it comes to Ubisoft games, as I personally see it, when a gamer gets to spend their cash once on a new game twice a year, that new game better be really good. 

That is the setting that Ubisoft faces and marketing will not save them this time. As to what the new headline should be, I leave that up to the reviewers who took over from me, I looked at games for 13 years, I gave a view of games to two generations and even as I still love games, it had become time (in 2000) for others to take over, yet I never stopped looking at games with a critical eye (yet enjoying them became my number one priority). No matter what story you see published, Guillemot must be realising that his time is over, I will admit that even as For Honor was never my cup of tea, it was unique and amazing as a title, even as it was a multiplayer title, Ubisoft outdid themselves that time around. I recognise that there are plenty of games that are not my cuppa tea, yet that does not stop me from admiring excellence, for Honor delivered, and they are not alone. 

As I stated, changing the headline would give us the real issue and I think the headline should be ‘If we had only given more time to testing out product‘, it might end up being a lousy obituary, but the truth tends to be that, lousy and hard hitting. In the end, we will need to wait until later (after Q2) 2020 to see where Ubisoft is going and what the optional gamer will buy from that point onwards. Yet this is all happening whilst some of the others are solely focussed on getting their one games out. So no matter how we personally see it, Ubisoft is in a vice and they basically put themselves there, considering that AC Origins was a 2017 release. When you get articles on ‘Here are the best (worst) <insert title> bugs‘, you have an actual problem and with 2 years of bugged titles, something should have been done a long time ago, especially as I personally see it that this issue has been around since 2012 to an increasing degree (I will abstain from the ‘to a larger degree’) expression. I understand that NO GAME is absent of bugs, Ubisoft merely has too many of them and for the most they are all over the web and YouTube, so it is not merely my view, as per illustration have a look at the funny parts (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykcA3yKPolY), it is merely the tip of the iceberg and we all know what happened to the Titanic when they wanted their drinks on the rocks.

 

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October 31, 2019 · 11:44

Can you figure it out?

Let’s play a game, let’s play the game called ‘Can you Figure it out?‘ In this case a very numbers worthy game has been called to attention twice before, so let’s have a look especially with Black Friday coming up (in about 4 weeks). Let’s play it shall we?

Breakpoint, normal PS4 edition is $37.88

Breakpoint, Steelbox Gold edition XB1 $95.68

Breakpoint, Gold edition PS4 $59.56

Breakpoint, normal edition XB1 $62.77

Breakpoint, XB1 digital code $59.99

 

Can you figure out the 5 prices? And they all come from the same vendor, Amazon! This is a game that had the enormous flaws, the design weaknesses and the discussion issues, Having two bare prices would have been enough, one for XB1, one for PS4, although they too should have been driven across the fold, and what is that about a code for downloading? Why is it priced differently? OK, that latter part is fair enough I think, yet it shows just how unremarkable the Microsoft download is. A game that should be 100% prices until the end of the year no longer is and it will be getting worse up to Black Friday, now 4 weeks away.

I expect Breakpoint to go down a few notches in price, the initial price setting has become that much of a debate, with Ubisoft it has become a buyers’ market, they decided not to learn. Then there are the lightning errors, to see through the window of a bunker has a better light differential, then to just be outside. There are a few more that I noticed, but there could be an alternative approach to events, so I keep my cool.

However, one of the posters on YouTube gave an interesting view (for PC) that he had to lower the resolution to 1080p to deal with the performance of the game, so this game might not be actually playable (on any decent resolution) on anything but a PS Pro, or a Xbox X version (mere speculation by yours truly).

And still, beyond all the facades, beyond all the versions and mapping issues, this as well as the later far cry versions are as close as a playable version of Midwinter as this is going to be. Yes, for some that title is a revelation, but it is what it amounts too, a version that is as close to as the original in a version that is as crazy as possible. Yet in all its shape and all its flaws it is what the player is willing to pay for it, that is the game that Ubisoft invited, that is what ‘failed to complete‘ enticed. An AI that is esteeming below what an AI should offer, and that is merely in game vision, apart from that the colliding parts of one person against simple events like a barricade, or a wall.

In the end, the game that should have been a whopping 75%-90% was merely a 56% by metacritic; PC Gamer (probably because of the resolution issue) gave it a mere 40%, that is the consequence of not properly testing a game before release, if the entire Call of Duty path is part of their decision, the entire matter becomes a larger hoax. And that is not even the largest issue, the larger issue is that we stopped anticipating a 85%-95% game from Ubisoft, so any Ubisoft game will have a lower expectation, from the lower starts of -10% to a maximum of -15% away from the 100% of a near perfect game should be regarded as. That is what they are now fighting for, with Watchdogs: Legion being a game with a rating no more than 70%-85%, the revenue that it should promise will abstain, people will wait for the 50% discount, that is what Ubisoft will be fighting. The eternal fight against average, in case of Ubisoft it will be most likely a rage against average and avarice. For a lot of ‘fans’ it is a rather large problem, I was looking forward to Legion, so the anticipation of that game being within certain levels (an 80%+ game) is rather important and I am considering that Ubisoft will try to make it a game that is over 75%, the problem is that to understand this slide of quality is to expect us to figure out what Yves Guillemot will do.

No matter what their decision will be, it will be out of our hands and in the hands of a reacting population of gamers that have had enough and that is the part that is still willing to consider Ubisoft and do not go directly to Activision’s Call of Duty.

From this point until the end of the year will be intense for Ubisoft, but they did this to themselves, no one can tell us any different on that.

 

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