Why is Ubisoft so bad ?

[kalimba]

Seriously...I am wondering why on many forums Ubi gets the kick in the a...:confused:
Are they that bad ? What have they done ?...Just curious ...;)
Share your personnal experience...I have read that some people would even "ban'' CoD for beeing published by Ubi...:!:
So please , educate me !!!

Salute !

[Fafnir_6]

My own beef with Ubisoft is that they use DRM schemes that they don't bother keep updated or patched so that software from a few years ago won't run on 64-bit Windows 7, for example (maybe they just cheaped out on it). Installing Il-2 1946 off the disc onto a fresh Win7 x64 install requires you to find an undocumented updater for securom so that the stupid DRM will allow you to use the software you paid for legally. This is not a big deal in real terms, but I then look at the situation for a game like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (also released by Ubisoft) that you CANNOT run legally under win7 x64 because ubisoft is too lazy or cheap to bother release a small fix patch. You have to download an illegal crack to use the software you paid for...BS.

My 2 cents,

Fafnir_6

P.S. If anyone needs the crack for POP:TTT just PM me.

[Chivas]

I installed IL-2 1946 from the disk to a fresh copy of Windows 7 64 bit with no problems other than having to install as the administrator.

[Biggs [CV]]

Ubi soft bought "Red Storm Entertainment" The Tom Clancy franchise that included the insanely popular Rainbow 6. They made successful games like Ghost Recon and Rainbow 6: 3 Raven Shield, among others. Then they got stupid. They started rushing games out the door,quantity over quality, the games were buggy as hell. They ignored the fans pleas for the games to be fixed (patched). And every time they did release a patch it fixed 1-2 problems but created 3-4 more. Rainbow 6 : Lockdown was a major flop as it was unplayable upon release and died quickly. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter did alittle better but most people moved on quickly. Recently they have screwed up the WW2 submarine simulator Silent Hunter 5.
Many people who loved these games and supported UBI now are disgusted by the attitude of the UBI hierarchy.

[TheDawg]

http://images.wikia.com/rayman/images/7/7e/Rayman_2_Image.jpg

[DrPepper]

I know this doesn't help people who already have the game on cd or through steam... But for people who haven't got the game yet you can get it on gog, DRM free.

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/il_2_sturmovik_1946

[Wolf_Rider]

I thought for a moment there UBIsoft had popped in for a bo-peep

[JAMF]

...for publishing the Pacific Fighters cover with the "G"-name, making NG take legal actions and passing the bill to 1c:Maddox?

[David198502]

I installed IL-2 1946 from the disk to a fresh copy of Windows 7 64 bit with no problems other than having to install as the administrator.

same to me!!no problems at all

[Letum]

Silent Hunter 5

Ubisoft rushed the Dev team into producing a horribly buggy, unfinished game with a horribly restrictive DRM.
It an attempt to appeal to a console playing audience, they dumbed down the content of the game, giving crew members super abilities like extra explosive torpedoes or the ability to make a soup that causes the sub to dive faster (I kid you not).
In addition, due to fear or licensing issues, no American plans where in the game. They where replaced by strange Franken planes.

This didn't stop them hypeing it up with a website and marketing scheme that was entirely disconnected from the actual game.

The released game was unfinished and covered in some horrid bugs. At first ubisoft told us that there would be addon packs to add the missing content, patches to fix the bugs as well as some basic tools to open the game up to modders. None of these things happened and ubi let the game sink. the only thing they did do is to eventually remove the DRM.

It was an utter disaster and SH3 with mods remains the best Atlantic subsim by a long shot, despite it's age.

It was shameful.

[speculum jockey]

Well you have to give them credit for the amazing job they're doing to promote Cliffs of Dover. . . they have a "web site". . . . well, a front page.

Pretty much all the hype built up for the game is due to 1C and Oleg actually releasing content themselves and giving interviews. Ubisoft only cares about A++ titles that they can make for consoles and maybe do a crappy port to the PC.

Plus they like to "buy" a dev team, squeeze out a product as fast as possible, and then lay them all off as soon as the game goes gold. That's one reason why their patches suck, because they don't have anyone from the original team working on them.

[kalimba]

So it means that a publisher has the final word as how and when a game will be on the market, despite its current state of developpement ? :confused:
Would that mean that CoD is pushed out also by Ubi ? Would Oleg have waited another year for release ? It is a very interesting debate....;)
Thanks !

Salute !

[K_Freddie]

With the IL2 series, Oleg (1C) were under a UBI contract, and there were many unknown squabbles on exactly this.. 'Releasing products before they were ready'.
Luckily for us Oleg stood his ground and the COD development (AFAIK) is completely disconnected from UBI. 1C are using UBI for distribution though, which makes sense as long as UBI have no say in the product activation.

The other sims were in-house to UBI, and thats why they're stuff-ups.
UBI is a distributor, not a developer... period. And as soon as they realise it the better... Maybe with SH5 this message has sunk into those accountants.
:)

[Kikuchiyo]

On top of all the trashing up of what had been beloved franchises; Ubi is loathed for their draconian DRM. They even attempted an always connected DRM that ultimately failed, and cost them and the franchises they did this with dearly. They aren't the worst publisher for seeming to hate gamers, but many consider them a very close runner up. I'm glad that Ubi's only involvement is publishing when 1C Maddox was ready for the game to be released.

[Sturm_Williger]

...
UBI is a distributor, not a developer... period. And as soon as they realise it the better... Maybe with SH5 this message has sunk into those accountants.
:)

You'd think by now they'd realise that with the internet and most people's steadily increasing internet-savvy, that the word about a bum title spreads quickly and thousands of sales can be lost.
Gone are the days of people buying and only then discovering that it's a turkey. There's only so long you can shoot yourself in the foot before pain makes itself known. Hopefully Ubi may be beginning to feel some twinges.

[brando]

Slightly off-topic, but I noticed that Ford US is suing Ferrari for calling its new F1 racing car the Ferrari F-150. F-150 is 'apparently' the name of a popular Ford truck and their lawyers are laying down the same kind of BS that NG laid on UbiSoft and OM over copyright.

Mind-numbingly stupid (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12417757)

[caprera]

They ruined Rainbow6 and Silent Hunter series. *

I think it's enough to hate...



*
And still haven't sold more copies than originals: aka Dumb&Dumber

[DD_crash]

Slightly off-topic, but I noticed that Ford US is suing Ferrari for calling its new F1 racing car the Ferrari F-150. F-150 is 'apparently' the name of a popular Ford truck and their lawyers are laying down the same kind of BS that NG laid on UbiSoft and OM over copyright.

Mind-numbingly stupid (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12417757)

I wonder how much that idiot is on? Makes you wonder how cleaver the top dogs are in the commercial world.

[speculum jockey]

Also this one time, I saw Ubisoft kick a puppy.

[Oldschool61]

Well you have to give them credit for the amazing job they're doing to promote Cliffs of Dover. . . they have a "web site". . . . well, a front page.

Pretty much all the hype built up for the game is due to 1C and Oleg actually releasing content themselves and giving interviews. Ubisoft only cares about A++ titles that they can make for consoles and maybe do a crappy port to the PC.

Plus they like to "buy" a dev team, squeeze out a product as fast as possible, and then lay them all off as soon as the game goes gold. That's one reason why their patches suck, because they don't have anyone from the original team working on them.


THis is called capitalism enjoy it. THe rich upper echelons control everything so that it lines there pockets with maximum cash at the expense of the little guys. The larger the corporation the worse it gets. Unless government begins to regulate some of these things it only gets worse.

[TheDawg]

I didn't hate them till I noticed everyone else hating them.
Now I really HATE them.

[Vevster]

Silent Hunter 5

Ubisoft rushed the Dev team into producing a horribly buggy, unfinished game with a horribly restrictive DRM.
It an attempt to appeal to a console playing audience, they dumbed down the content of the game, giving crew members super abilities like extra explosive torpedoes or the ability to make a soup that causes the sub to dive faster (I kid you not).
In addition, due to fear or licensing issues, no American plans where in the game. They where replaced by strange Franken planes.

This didn't stop them hypeing it up with a website and marketing scheme that was entirely disconnected from the actual game.

The released game was unfinished and covered in some horrid bugs. At first ubisoft told us that there would be addon packs to add the missing content, patches to fix the bugs as well as some basic tools to open the game up to modders. None of these things happened and ubi let the game sink. the only thing they did do is to eventually remove the DRM.

It was an utter disaster and SH3 with mods remains the best Atlantic subsim by a long shot, despite it's age.

It was shameful.

I totally agree that SH5 is quite a poor game.
I totally disagree that the Dev Team was rushed. To the contrary. The development team took too much time developping the game compared to what they had promised to deliver.
Ubi was putting money into more time for, it seems, not much progress.
Launching the game as it was though, may have been a bad choice.

Maybe cancelling it completely would have been better.


Well you have to give them credit for the amazing job they're doing to promote Cliffs of Dover. . . they have a "web site". . . . well, a front page.

Pretty much all the hype built up for the game is due to 1C and Oleg actually releasing content themselves and giving interviews. Ubisoft only cares about A++ titles that they can make for consoles and maybe do a crappy port to the PC.

Plus they like to "buy" a dev team, squeeze out a product as fast as possible, and then lay them all off as soon as the game goes gold. That's one reason why their patches suck, because they don't have anyone from the original team working on them.


Got some examples?
Because Ubi's development teams went up quite a bit between 2008 and 2009 for instance. And not many people seem to have been laid off.


About the marketing of CoD, Ubi can do only with what they have. Wonder if Oleg gave them much to chew on over the years, and even now.
But for sure, we cannot expect the same level of marketing they give to a AAA title. That would mean losing money. Let's not kid ourselves, sales of CoD will not reach the levels of Assassin's Creed, even if the marketing put on it on CoD was huge.


Ubi is loathed for their draconian DRM. They even attempted an always connected DRM that ultimately failed, and cost them and the franchises they did this with dearly. They aren't the worst publisher for seeming to hate gamers, but many consider them a very close runner up. I'm glad that Ubi's only involvement is publishing when 1C Maddox was ready for the game to be released.

That, I totally agree with

[Avala]

Because they can?

[Sasha]

The way they humiliated players with DRM (SH5) and disguisting explanations of "DRM advantages"... You don't have to occupy your hard-disc with save games, you can play from various PC-s ...etc

This was black date in single player history... the second one was announcement that Oleg signed the marriage with devil... DRM CoD
:(:-x:(:-x

God Thanks that moders made great Il-2 1946 cosmetics:
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7596/77125594.th.jpg (http://img687.imageshack.us/i/77125594.jpg/)

[DrPepper]

God Thanks that moders made great Il-2 1946 cosmetics:
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7596/77125594.th.jpg (http://img687.imageshack.us/i/77125594.jpg/)

What map is that, any special mods installed for that, looks really nice. Would like to try the same out on my rig and see what it looks like. :)

[Flying Pencil]

Slightly off-topic, but I noticed that Ford US is suing Ferrari for calling its new F1 racing car the Ferrari F-150. F-150 is 'apparently' the name of a popular Ford truck and their lawyers are laying down the same kind of BS that NG laid on UbiSoft and OM over copyright.

Mind-numbingly stupid (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12417757)

I wonder if Activision (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision) will sue UBI for trademark/copyright infringement?

Of course it is acronyms, but these days suits are filed for the remotest of reasons.

[Flying Pencil]

I didn't hate them till I noticed everyone else hating them.
Now I really HATE them.

Well, look at it this way:
Publishers are in purely to make money off of other peoples blood, sweat, and tears, using its printing and distribution skills to make that money.

Good publishers should serve the developer, listen to their desires and needs and offer what help they can (but have some, not much, but some limits).

Bad publishers get a title and do what they want with it, and pressure developers to hurry up, and just right rough shod on the hapless programmers.
UBI created the name for this game (despite years of Storm of War), chose a CoD that sounds like CoD, and used IL-2 despite the fact their is nothing related between the two, AND the IL-2 airplane is not even in CoD!!

At the very start, it is already looking like UBI is messing up the game....


Perfect example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBg6L4H7WdE#t=15m49s

[kalimba]

With the IL2 series, Oleg (1C) were under a UBI contract, and there were many unknown squabbles on exactly this.. 'Releasing products before they were ready'.
Luckily for us Oleg stood his ground and the COD development (AFAIK) is completely disconnected from UBI. 1C are using UBI for distribution though, which makes sense as long as UBI have no say in the product activation.

The other sims were in-house to UBI, and thats why they're stuff-ups.
UBI is a distributor, not a developer... period. And as soon as they realise it the better... Maybe with SH5 this message has sunk into those accountants.
:)

And then you have Assasin's Creed that is rewarded across the planet ?

I think that develppers and Publishers have allways been in the crossfire of many " conflict of interests" between budget reality and "what is good enough " for release...After reading all the comments, I conclude that it is probably the status of all Publishers beeing a bit to greedy and at the same time tired of pouring money in endless developpement....:rolleyes:
As for support, mayby that Ubi is in fact the worse of all...But I could not say....
Thanks !

[mazex]

;222488']Ubi soft bought "Red Storm Entertainment" The Tom Clancy franchise that included the insanely popular Rainbow 6. They made successful games like Ghost Recon and Rainbow 6: 3 Raven Shield, among others. Then they got stupid. They started rushing games out the door,quantity over quality, the games were buggy as hell. They ignored the fans pleas for the games to be fixed (patched). And every time they did release a patch it fixed 1-2 problems but created 3-4 more. Rainbow 6 : Lockdown was a major flop as it was unplayable upon release and died quickly. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter did alittle better but most people moved on quickly. Recently they have screwed up the WW2 submarine simulator Silent Hunter 5.
Many people who loved these games and supported UBI now are disgusted by the attitude of the UBI hierarchy.

And let's count the number of sub sims (or sims of any kind) released by the other large publishers? Sure - the DRM for SH5 was not a good idea, but they DO release niche games like that, and the other SH games like SHIII which is really a great game that they obvioulsy get no credit for... And how about the whole IL2 series that they have supported? They DO release and support Cliffs of Dover which is a niche game (yes, lets face it!) - and what do they get for that?

[mazex]

Well you have to give them credit for the amazing job they're doing to promote Cliffs of Dover. . . they have a "web site". . . . well, a front page.


And let's compare that with the marvelous Silverlight Only "front page" for Microsoft Flight?

[Novotny]

Whether you like the french or not (which, incidently, is exactly that same proposition as 'are you French or not?') you have to admit that they're quite cool. Which is also, incidently, exactly why we in the UK hate them so much.

Except we don't; we're just jealous that they can score so many top beauties whilst stinking of garlic and doing bugger all of an afternoon. It's not fair.

CAUTION: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ABOVE ARE PROBABLY MEANT TO CONVEY HUMOUR.

[Biggs [CV]]

And let's count the number of sub sims (or sims of any kind) released by the other large publishers? Sure - the DRM for SH5 was not a good idea, but they DO release niche games like that, and the other SH games like SHIII which is really a great game that they obvioulsy get no credit for... And how about the whole IL2 series that they have supported? They DO release and support Cliffs of Dover which is a niche game (yes, lets face it!) - and what do they get for that?

Very true that they release niche games. But the Silent Hunter series was usually well done, at least after a couple patches the games were very good. SH5 was a mess and still is. People came to expect quality from the series and what did Ubi do? They rushed it and then let it crash and burn. What do they get for releasing niche games? Money and a loyal fan base that will keep buying the niche games. Until they screw it up...........