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2014/12/02 17:40:58
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
The head of the games studio behind Assassin's Creed Unity has emailed players apologising for bugs in the video game and offering them free content.
Yannis Mallat, chief executive of Ubisoft Montreal & Toronto, wrote that it had been a "humbling" experience.
He is the latest in a series of software bosses to pen such an apology after a glitch-ridden release.
Experts said Ubisoft needed to act to protect its reputation.
"Assassin's Creed is Ubisoft's most important, bestselling franchise, and it's also generally the firm's most anticipated series by gamers," said Keza MacDonald, UK editor of gaming news site Kotaku.
"The fact that after Unity came out, the conversation has been almost entirely about how many bugs it's got and how broken it is in certain areas, is really, really damaging for the company."
Missing faces
Ubisoft has traditionally had a more consumer-friendly reputation than some of its rivals.
Assassin's Creed Unity Missing faces in the PC version of Ubisoft's title are one of the most obvious bugs
However, its brand had already been under pressure after May's release of Watch Dogs, which many critics had suggested failed to deliver the quality of graphics shown off at the E3 trade show before its release.
The issues with French Revolution-set Assassin's Creed Unity were even more clear-cut. Glitches meant the protagonist could fall through the ground, become stuck in hay carts, encounter invisible walls and, at times, parts of his face could become invisible.
In addition, frame rate problems and outright crashes led to criticism that the title was not ready for release - particularly the version for PCs.
"Unfortunately, at launch, the overall quality of the game was diminished by bugs and unexpected technical issues," wrote Mr Mallat.
"I want to sincerely apologise on behalf of Ubisoft and the entire Assassin's Creed team."
Assassin's Creed Unity Issues with the title's collision detection code mean that characters can get stuck in objects or move through them in an odd manner
He added that the company had already released three sets of fixes to address problems with the game's stability, performance and connectivity, and promised more patches to come.
"Please keep your feedback coming - it has been both humbling and incredibly helpful as we continue working hard to improve the overall quality of the game," Mr Mallat wrote.
Consumers who bought the basic version of the title are being offered an as yet unreleased add-on story for free.
Those who purchased a "season pass" - which provides a copy of all future downloadable content (DLC) additions - have been offered another complete game of their choice.
Assassin's Creed Unity One problem involves characters' bodies being twisted into unlikely poses
Options include the firm's recently released blockbuster Far Cry 4 as well as the forthcoming racing game The Crew.
"This is extraordinarily generous," commented Ms MacDonald.
"A lot of the time when you get a compensation offer from a publisher it's a back catalogue game or something relatively low value.
"It's not a full entire £55 next-generation title that's just been released or hasn't even come out yet.
"That's surprising to me."
Pressure to publish
Ubisoft's email came days after Bonnie Ross, the head of Microsoft's 343 Industries studio, offered her "heartfelt apologies" for delays in fixing problems with multiplayer battles in the recently released sci-fi shooter series, Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection Halo's developer said it had not experienced the matchmaking bugs during internal tests
And last week, World of Warcraft's executive producer J Allen Brack wrote to players apologising for "stumbling out of the gates" with the Warlords of Draenor expansion to the role-playing title.
Some gamers have had to queue for hours to be able to log into Blizzard's systems in order to start playing. They have been given a five-day extension to their subscriptions as compensation.
High-profile apologies for launch day software glitches are by no means limited to gaming.
Last week,Evernote's vice president of mobile products Jamie Hull emailed users acknowledging it did "not do a good job" with the release of the new version of its Penultimate handwriting app.
"Simply put, we released this version too soon... We're sorry. We screwed up," he wrote.
Driveclub Sony is giving away the Ignition expansion pack to Driveclub as an apology for problems
However, there is a growing perception that after the release of a number games that took months to fix - including Driveclub, Battlefield 4 and Rome 2: Total War - that publishers might be rushing some titles to market before they are ready.
"There's a pressure to get games out on time and on budget," said Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games at the IHS Technology consultancy.
"With the increased flexibility to send out updates on a regular basis there may be a temptation that if the game is not 100% correct, the publisher can ship a patch in a few days or weeks to correct issues.
"But there are plenty of games that are released that are great and finished. And there are plenty of others that have been delayed until next year, presumably because some weren't ready to be released on to the market.
"Obviously Ubisoft made a decision to release Assassin's Creed Unity on its scheduled date, perhaps because it had internal deadlines and financial targets that it had to meet. But the result is that it's had to provide significant recompense to early adopters of the game due to the number of bugs, which will inevitably hit the bottom line."
Interesting that they've given customers access / a choice of their brand new titles rather than 5 free days or useless ingame rewards.
Fair play to them assuming it all true.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/12/02 17:49:12
Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be
By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.
"Feelin' goods, good enough".
2014/12/02 19:16:33
Subject: Re:Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
Drop the title early or wait a while and spend even more money fixing the thing? Sorry, but is that even a question to these companies? What's an unplayable game when management are complaining that they don't want to wait on their bonuses any longer?
Go read the tales section on The Trenches for a bit. =P
2014/12/02 19:18:51
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
To be fair, you can play Sim City offline now, and EA "admitted to mistakes" back then, too. For whatever that's worth (hint: it's PR, just like Ubisoft's message here).
Don't count on the next release being markedly different in terms of content or misleading presentation. If you're lucky, you'll get another month of QA.
And I'm not saying this because I want to pour out a bucket of hate here, but so that people realise they are dealing with big money businesses here, and should adjust their expectations accordingly. Each of these studios may still have some passionate designers in them, but on a whole, the larger and the more successful a company gets, the higher is the risk of it turning from an idealism-driven venture into a full-on-capitalism moneymaking machine controlled by beancounters, lawyers and former bank managers. They will set design and publishing goals accordingly. Regardless of whether we're talking about EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Blizzard, or, hell, Games Workshop.
That's just the grim reality of the economy.
2014/12/02 20:48:29
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
Hey we fethed up so here, have this free piece of DLC for the game that is fethed up. Also, we know the DLC should be free anyway but someone has to feed the big black hole in my wallet.
Your's truly
French bastards.
2014/12/02 20:53:57
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
Botched launch? You guys are overreacting. It looks fine to me.
Every time I hear "in my opinion" or "just my opinion" makes me want to strangle a puppy. People use their opinions as a shield that other poeple can't critisize and that is bs.
If you can't defend or won't defend your opinion then that "opinion" is bs. Stop trying to tip-toe and defend what you believe in.
2014/12/02 21:00:37
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
See, it's not that it's hard to model and animate women, it's that Ubisoft is really damned bad at modeling and animating.
The people in the past who convinced themselves to do unspeakable things were no less human than you or I. They made their decisions; the only thing that prevents history from repeating itself is making different ones.
-- Adam Serwer
My blog
2014/12/02 21:08:07
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/12/02 21:12:11
Every time I hear "in my opinion" or "just my opinion" makes me want to strangle a puppy. People use their opinions as a shield that other poeple can't critisize and that is bs.
If you can't defend or won't defend your opinion then that "opinion" is bs. Stop trying to tip-toe and defend what you believe in.
2014/12/05 10:38:51
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
So the company that had a review embargo that ended 12 hours after release is sorry it was a crappy mess? They knew that it was a mess but sold it anyways.
Ubisoft has been on my crap list for a while now. Now they are full Black Flag company only.
2014/12/05 10:59:21
Subject: Re:Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
Lynata wrote: people... [need to] realise they are dealing with big money businesses here, and should adjust their expectations accordingly.
Or stop buying their gakky products (or wait until long enough after release to buy it that the price has gone down/the bugs and DRM shenanigans have been dealt with). It is never reasonable to "expect" a buggy, borderline unplayable piece of crap after spending full retail on it.
2014/12/05 11:03:16
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
I have to agree with Blaxican here (and that's not a statement you hear often). But then again that's basically already what I'm doing.
The people in the past who convinced themselves to do unspeakable things were no less human than you or I. They made their decisions; the only thing that prevents history from repeating itself is making different ones.
-- Adam Serwer
My blog
2014/12/05 11:18:11
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
RivenSkull wrote: So the company that had a review embargo that ended 12 hours after release is sorry it was a crappy mess? They knew that it was a mess but sold it anyways.
Of course they knew. Ubisoft are proven liars. They claim falsehoods all the damned time, from their claims that 30 FPS is "more cinematic" to their insistence that Watch_Dogs did not get a graphical downgrade. Right now they're telling everyone that the embargo for The Crew is because reviewers can't really experience the game until a community has grown. Bull gak. They just want as many people to pre-order it based on fake screen shots and doctored/pre-rendered trailers before the full game comes out.
Apropos:
However, its brand had already been under pressure after May's release of Watch Dogs, which many critics had suggested failed to deliver the quality of graphics shown off at the E3 trade show before its release.
No. Not suggested. It did fail to deliver the E3 graphics because the E3 graphical settings were turned off and hidden in the game's code, and then found later by people hacking into the game. Their CEO had the balls to say "Nope. Not a graphical downgrade!", and then was caught in a lie.
Ubisoft has taken the crown from EA as the most unethical and consumer unfriendly games publisher in the industry right now. Their games are broken on release, they lie about features, they put DLC up the wazoo, and microtransactions into full-priced games. To hell with them.
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2014/12/05 11:20:16
During the 80's and even the early 90's, developers were releasing bug ridden messes. But back then I guess they had an excuse in that development times were a whole lot shorter. These days 3+ years for big budget titles is not unusual, and it's long been a bug bear of mine that modern day big releases, more often than not, require day one patches to even make them playable. After that long a time and that amount of money, there really is no excuse for some of the absolute gak that gets thrown out of the gates at us.
Must try harder devs, must try harder
2014/12/05 13:38:53
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
A big part of the reason why games take so long to develop is the increased demand for graphical "realism", which doesn't really add much to the game but DOES take a ton of work and is easy to get wrong.
The people in the past who convinced themselves to do unspeakable things were no less human than you or I. They made their decisions; the only thing that prevents history from repeating itself is making different ones.
-- Adam Serwer
My blog
2014/12/05 15:03:49
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
Melissia wrote: A big part of the reason why games take so long to develop is the increased demand for graphical "realism", which doesn't really add much to the game but DOES take a ton of work and is easy to get wrong.
I agree entirely Melissia. For me, graphical fidelity takes a distant 4th to gameplay, game design and sound. If a game plays well, is well designed and sounds great, I couldn't give a monkey's if it looks like a Pontiac Aztek or a Lamborghini Miura. I'm going to love it. This constant striving towards 'realism' in games is detrimental to them as a whole. I play games to escape into a story that I'm a part of. Not to be 'wowed' by the next big leap in visuals.
It's the reason I prefer 'Micro Machines' to 'Forza Horizon', or 'Quake 2' to just about any CoD game. Even if a game is one big QTE, like 'Heavy Rain' (which I loved). I loved it because it drew me in and would not let me go.
If there were more games that concentrated on gameplay and good design instead of looking pretty the devs would have an easier time and I'm sure more people would enjoy the results a whole lot more. It would also mean an end to seeing this month's massive release on the second hand shelves within weeks of it coming out...hopefully...
2014/12/05 15:12:43
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
Before the game came out they released a video that talked about how it was made by over 10 studios in 3 years. That kind of explains almost all of it.
2014/12/05 15:27:04
Subject: Re:Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
What is confusing to me is that I am pretty sure they are fully aware of the issues at launch.
I think what surprises them the most is how certain glitches get the fanbase into an uproar.
That is what messes them up: not being sure of what they can get away with.
They then convince themselves they can roll-out a patch that should deal with the glaring issues in good time of release.
They seem to be willing to roll the dice on launch than to wait "till it is done".
I subscribe to the "Cynical Brit" method:
1) NEVER pre-order, it gives no incentive to release or add features if they already have the money.
They would also be tempted to take out what could have been built into the game as pre-order rewards.
2) Take your time getting the program, do not reward them with money if the software is bug-riddled gack.
I figure any business should be treated like a person: only reward behavior you want.
A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.
Napoleon Bonaparte
2014/12/05 17:28:53
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
sarpedons-right-hand wrote: If there were more games that concentrated on gameplay and good design instead of looking pretty the devs would have an easier time and I'm sure more people would enjoy the results a whole lot more. It would also mean an end to seeing this month's massive release on the second hand shelves within weeks of it coming out...hopefully...
Isn't that basically what Minecraft is?
The people in the past who convinced themselves to do unspeakable things were no less human than you or I. They made their decisions; the only thing that prevents history from repeating itself is making different ones.
-- Adam Serwer
My blog
2014/12/05 18:05:12
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
Ratius wrote: Just to be clear, I dont condone shoddy game releases in any shape or form and think Ubisoft have messed up in the past too.
I just found it interesting that as compensation they are giving away one of their new premium titles rather than junk rewards that others do.
It's not as nice as it looks. The new game is only an offer for season pass holders and the reason for that is because they caned most of the season pass content. They left the first DLC and I think one other but, but then just said they wouldn't be doing the rest.
2014/12/05 18:35:05
Subject: Ubisoft admit botched launch and give something back to customers
sarpedons-right-hand wrote: If there were more games that concentrated on gameplay and good design instead of looking pretty the devs would have an easier time and I'm sure more people would enjoy the results a whole lot more. It would also mean an end to seeing this month's massive release on the second hand shelves within weeks of it coming out...hopefully...
Isn't that basically what Minecraft is?
And Minecraft is incredibly popular with all ages and both sexes. But it's one in thousands of games released every year. Whilst I don't personally enjoy it, I much preferred games like Don't Starve and Braid, it's just a drop in the ocean compared to most so called 'AAA' titles. Yes, I played and enjoyed, quite a lot of big releases. But none in recent years. I still enjoy a tear up on Gears Of War for example, but I'm fast becoming sick of these big games developers releasing half assed titles for a premium.
Look at the big sports titles released every year. The same game, just a little bit prettier. Yawn... Games are fast becoming a big old cash cow. There is a severe lack of originality in most big game releases and it's getting very boring indeed. And when devs do feth up, it's the gamers that suffer. All I'm asking is that the big devs start to care again. I don't want Assassins Creed 14, I want these devs to take a risk every now and again and bring out something original.
