Disaster Apparently, Ubisoft is experimenting with pop-up ads in the middle of video games now. No thanks. (Updated) - Ubisoft claims that pop-up ads that many people saw in the middle of the game was a "technical error"

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(Image credit: @Fab_XS_ on X (Twitter))

What you need to know​

  • Ubisoft is a major video game publisher based in France, known for Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs.
  • Recently, a video being shared on X (Twitter) purports to show a sneaky little feature Ubisoft has injected into one of its older games.
  • Assassin's Creed Odyssey appears to be showing huge pop-up ads in the middle of gameplay now, despite previously being a fully-priced premium title.
  • Update: In comments to press, Ubisoft says that it was a "technical error" and has now been disabled.
Update (Nov 24, 2023): Ubisoft claims that this was due to a "technical error," and has now been disabled. Read their full comments below.
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Oddly specific technical error, I would say, but hey. It seems they have received the backlash loud and clear. Other publishers, please take note.

The original article continues below.

Whether it's arbitrary cuts, $75 horse armor, shrinkflation, pay-to-win, or premium early access, game publishers the world over are desperately trying to squeeze every last bit of profit possible for their shareholders. But one publisher may have just tipped things a little bit too far with this latest goof.

XboxSquad.fr reporter and co-founder @Fab_XS_ shared this video on X (Twitter), depicting what appears to be an ad for Assassin's Creed Mirage before the menu screen in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
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The video shows the player opening up the menu screen, only to be greeted with a gigantic Black Friday ad for Assassin's Creed Mirage, 20% off. I wouldn't mind hearing about such deals if I was actually searching for them (like our own Black Friday 2023 gaming deals live blog!) but, when I'm just trying to chill on the sofa and assassinate some dudes? Maybe not.

We're downloading Assassin's Creed Odyssey to see if we can replicate the ad at our end right now, but the clip shows no obvious signs of fakery or forgery. Plus, it's also not the first time Ubisoft has attempted to inject "ads" into its menus, with deals for in-game accelerators appearing alongside gameplay elements across some of its titles. However, a full-screen pop-up for one of its titles in the middle of your game really does take it to the next level.

Ads are commonplace in the middle of gameplay on mobile devices, typically in free-to-play games, as part of their business models. Similarly, we put ads on our web articles too, since we're not charging for access. By contrast, Assassin's Creed Odyssey was a fully-priced title and to patch these in post-launch feels aggressive and greedy.
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Assassin's Creed Mirage is pretty great, but only if it keeps pop-up ads out of the game. (Image credit: Windows Central)

I, for one, desperately do not want this to become the norm, and I suspect many others will not want it to become the norm either. Premium video games are supposed to be an escape from marketing bombardments, and it's hardly as if Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a multiplayer service game with expensive servers and matchmaking systems that need to be maintained.

If this video is indeed real (and there's no reason right now to think it isn't), all it represents is bare-faced greed. Even if it is fake, I suspect publishers would salivate at the concept of normalizing this type of system. Let's not allow them to do so.
 
With YouTube forcing people to disable their adblockers or buy YouTube premium this doesn't surprise me. With more and more companies being either bought out or closed down, I expect a future where people are forced to pay to watch the ads or they'll cancel you without a warning. These companies solely care about what they can milk from the consumer.
 
Every day, we draw closer to Futurama's prediction that companies would shove ads into your dreams, if they could.

Ubisoft injecting ads when you pause/use the map is just another step in boiling the frog and seeing how much the general populace will tolerate. I'm hoping this will lead to a growing minority sailing the high seas again. Remember kids, people that pirate most likely wouldn't have bought the game anyway.
 
Every day, we draw closer to Futurama's prediction that companies would shove ads into your dreams, if they could.

Ubisoft injecting ads when you pause/use the map is just another step in boiling the frog and seeing how much the general populace will tolerate. I'm hoping this will lead to a growing minority sailing the high seas again. Remember kids, people that pirate most likely wouldn't have bought the game anyway.
This has been the case since forever with movies, I'm hoping people will catch on with videogames as well. Although the real issue is that you can only pirate games on PC which already puts pirates in a severe minority, and you need some basic tech savvy which just means most people would rather prep their anus.
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Ubisoft claims that this was due to a "technical error," and has now been disabled.
Yeah no, that's bullshit. "Technical errors" don't create full-blown ads and strategically place them in a fucking game. They know it, we know it, they know we know it and they will still lie because they don't respect us. It was entirely planned and intentional, they just rolled it back because the backlash was too big, but they will try again. It annoys me to no end that they are able to get away this shit because there's enough gullible idiots who will gobble up the low effort slop they crank out. Ubisoft are disingenuous lying thieving faggots and even worse, French. But I repeat myself.
 
Someone implemented those "technical errors" and then, like with any AAA company, these had to be tested for functionality by whoever they outsourced this shit to.
AAA is in this completely shameless late stage capitalism mode now. I'll stick to buying actually finished games.
 
Yeah no, that's bullshit. "Technical errors" don't create full-blown ads and strategically place them in a fucking game. They know it, we know it, they know we know it and they will still lie because they don't respect us. It was entirely planned and intentional, they just rolled it back because the backlash was too big, but they will try again. It annoys me to no end that they are able to get away this shit because there's enough gullible idiots who will gobble up the low effort slop they crank out. Ubisoft are disingenuous lying thieving faggots and even worse, French. But I repeat myself.
Microsoft did this on the dashboard. At first they said any/all companies ads would appear on the dashboard, so people kicked off. The Microsoft rolled it back to just Microsoft exclusive game ads.

It was still ads on the dashboard, but the consooming niggercattle shrugged and said "at least it isn't real ads".

I'm sure there's a name for this tactic of going too far, then rolling back slightly. The UK government uses it every time they want to raise petrol prices.
 
Microsoft did this on the dashboard. At first they said any/all companies ads would appear on the dashboard, so people kicked off. The Microsoft rolled it back to just Microsoft exclusive game ads.

It was still ads on the dashboard, but the consooming niggercattle shrugged and said "at least it isn't real ads".
Same thing happened with 2k's sports games, I think NBA 2k21 had unskippable ads which caused the groids who play those games to start ooking, now the game "only" has ads for the online gacha game mode so they think it's fine "sheeeeeeeeit, at least it's ain't IRL ads knowi'msayin'? sheeeeit."
 
Assassin's Creed Mirage is pretty great, but only if it keeps pop-up ads out of the game.

No, no it's not. How it pushed anything above a 3 in a 5 star rating system is proof that Ubisoft still has dosh to fling around to journalists so they can act like something is better than it is. Mirage is abysmal even by AC standards.
 
What's funny is that a lot of customers wouldn't only not mind ads but may actively like them, if they were implemented better, such as in the form of in-game product placement. It is more work and less profitable for them I'm sure, but a lot of people liked them in games like Parasite Eve 2 & Sonic Adventure:

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These companies are so greedy now that this isn't even worth their time anymore, I guess.
 
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