Ubisoft Sellout - Bankruptcy Speedrun Any% Thread

[Oliver Onions]

Privacy firm files Ubisoft legal complaint over data collection, forced online in single-player games. Says Assassin's Creed maker risks fine of up to €92m

eurogamer.net

Some key points to save people a click:

The firm alleges that Ubisoft has flouted GDPR rules, and now risks a potential fine of up to €92m (£78m) - four percent of Ubisoft's €2.3bn turnover last year.

examination of the data Ubisoft had obtained showed a connection to external servers 150 times in 10 minutes, NOYB claims, referring to this as a "secret data collection".

As for the need to connect online, Ubisoft told the user this was required to verify ownership of the game upon its launch. NOYB argues that because the user's copy of Far Cry Primal was bought through Steam, the game could be verified through that without additionally logging into a Ubisoft account.

NOYB's argument seems to hinge on whether the user has accepted the game's EULA simply by playing the game (the complaint says this should not be the case), whether the information was personal data (the complaint says it was) and whether this was then processed lawfully (the complaint says not).

The whole thing has a whiff of a payday lolsuit to it but since it's happening in Europe where they are extremely strict about data protection violations there's a strong chance Ubisoft gets fucked on this if they can't convince Tencent to give them a sub to grease some palms.

 

[moocow]

The whole thing has a whiff of a payday lolsuit to it but since it's happening in Europe where they are extremely strict about data protection violations there's a strong chance Ubisoft gets fucked on this if they can't convince Tencent to give them a sub to grease some palms.

If they're hanging on the detail of "I didn't accept the EULA just because I played the game!" they were dead in the water from the start. "Shrinkwrap EULAs" have been upheld by idiot courts all around the world for decades now.

 

[Oliver Onions]

If they're hanging on the detail of "I didn't accept the EULA just because I played the game!" they were dead in the water from the start.

I thought the same, there's a reason games are so insistent on you agreeing before you're allowed to even see the main menu. Still, perhaps it can be used as a stepping stone towards getting all that forced analytic shit out of games, or at least making it opt-in rather than forced.

 

[ZMOT]

If they're hanging on the detail of "I didn't accept the EULA just because I played the game!" they were dead in the water from the start. "Shrinkwrap EULAs" have been upheld by idiot courts all around the world for decades now.

where's the shrinkwrap of my digital copy?
iirc the only reason they put it there in the first place was showing before/during installation is too late (but I'd have to look up the court ruling).

besides that EULAs aren't set it stone, it's just that usually no one goes against them so companies push more and more shit over time as long as they can get away with it.

I haven't played The Division 2 since it released, is there a good video that runs down all the ways they've fucked it up since? I've been thinking about going back to it so I can catch up on podcasts.

only played till roughly the NY expansion, but let's see

- regained a lot of goodwill with div1 1.6, squandered all of it with the launch of div2
- itemization and progression was worse
- gameplay more highs and lows
- buggy af (a sign of things to come).

which is all something they could've come back from just like 1.6, but instead

- nerfed event rewards noticeable to make people buy keys (keep in mind the gameplay and everything else was still hit or miss, now you're supposed to spend literally days more grinding)
- when called out doubled down and literally said "you just don't understand RNG" (in a fucking looter shooter where people do nothing else than track percentages)
- outright lied claiming they didn't change anything when the numbers prove otherwise.
- instead of a "1.6" fix everybody was expecting since people know they could do it, their "fix" was paywalling it behind a $30 expansion, complete with new level cap and everything. don't wanna buy it? enjoy your gimped game and dead population with every sucker being 10 levels higher and better gear. hope you didn't like darkzone...

 

[Oliver Onions]

- when called out doubled down and literally said "you just don't understand RNG" (in a fucking looter shooter where people do nothing else than track percentages)

This made me really nostalgic (can you have nostalgia for a bad memory?) for when the Anthem devs kept refusing to fix their broken loot system that almost never dropped legendaries, even on endgame raids, and after boasting about having fixed it they were demoing the new patch on livestream and when they opened a chest it was nothing but purples.

The chest happens at the very end of the video but it's worth watching the whole thing to see them clearly pissed off that all anyone wants to talk about is how shit the loot system is, instead of the game's art direction.

 

[ZMOT]

This made me really nostalgic (can you have nostalgia for a bad memory?) for when the Anthem devs kept refusing to fix their broken loot system that almost never dropped legendaries, even on endgame raids, and after boasting about having fixed it they were demoing the new patch on livestream and when they opened a chest it was nothing but purples.

that got fixed tho, and for free. not the first time I've seen stuff like that.

reminds me of a div1 livestream of one of the CMs running around in the dark zone. remember div1 didn't have any anticheat (another gg moment from massive). CM got roflstomped by a flying cheater, took the stream offline, came back 30 minutes later playing on a playstation

it really depends when people play a game for the first time, I know people who really like div2, but they bought it for 20 bucks years later. I played anthem when it was mostly fixed (no issues with loot whatsoever), so I got far less hate towards it than massive lying to my face.

 

[Miller]

- buggy af (a sign of things to come).

In a way I'm glad Ubisoft put another studio in chage of the game after Massive moved to Avatar, otherwise we would still have random crash-to-desktop on PC. Fuck Massive.

 

[Back me up!]

that got fixed tho, and for free. not the first time I've seen stuff like that.

reminds me of a div1 livestream of one of the CMs running around in the dark zone. remember div1 didn't have any anticheat (another gg moment from massive). CM got roflstomped by a flying cheater, took the stream offline, came back 30 minutes later playing on a playstation

it really depends when people play a game for the first time, I know people who really like div2, but they bought it for 20 bucks years later. I played anthem when it was mostly fixed (no issues with loot whatsoever), so I got far less hate towards it than massive lying to my face.

I got Division 2 at a exceptional great time where it was a year or so after release and Ubisoft was giving away the Deluxe version for $7 (the base was $5 but I figure I might as well splurge for the extra story missions) on the Ubisoft store for Christmas and thank god I did. Got me the 3 other specializations unlocked and ton of extra content. So yeah I always have a soft spot for Div2 just for that. By the time I got to the endgame after doing absolutely everything during the campaign the expansion and loot change was coming out so I pretty much thread the needle with that game perfectly.

It always surprised me when after they started to develop for it again it and put it on the Steam Store it has never been that cheap again.

 

[p1138]

This made me really nostalgic (can you have nostalgia for a bad memory?) for when the Anthem devs kept refusing to fix their broken loot system that almost never dropped legendaries, even on endgame raids, and after boasting about having fixed it they were demoing the new patch on livestream and when they opened a chest it was nothing but purples.

The chest happens at the very end of the video but it's worth watching the whole thing to see them clearly pissed off that all anyone wants to talk about is how shit the loot system is, instead of the game's art direction.

Studios for live service looting games love being stingy with loot.

It happened with Diablo 3 at launch and wasn't fixed till the expansion(years later they claimed it wasn't due to the real money auction house, even though they made a percentage off the transactions so it absolutely was, worst part about the itemization initially was base magic blue items were better due to the stat distribution).

Destiny 1, people would find "loot caves" where they could grind loot and eventually get high tier items for it, bungie stepped in and patched them out.

The Division 1. Same deal, even had people finding "loot caves" like Destiny where you could park and just shoot infinitely spawning enemies to try and actually get some good loot. Devs would patch them out within a day or two but leave other crazy bugs like the damage reduction multiplier being 1.x instead of 0.x and stacking on gear so you would take increased damage and not know wtf was going on. Made their initial raid a mess because people thought they had geared up for it.

Destiny 2, players would have the same initial complaints about itemization and basically just get told to piss off.

Anthem, the issues were detailed above.

Division 2, when the devs could have learned their lesson from all of the previous games out there including their own, they went the opposite direction.

Diablo 4, went back to not having high level loot worth a shit and being next to impossible to find. You'd get a legendary while leveling up, so it would be useless once you hit the level crap, good luck ever finding one again.

Now Anthem obviously fucks with the silly pattern of game devs being hostile to their playerbase having fun if the game has a D in the game. The reality is it's all a symptom of being a live service game and coming up with a loot system that attempts to maximize player engagement, in other words keep people playing 6 hours a day 5 days a week for months at a time and people won't do that if they get loot in a live service looter game(they believe anyway) because they'll get loot, complete the content and move on to another game(which they end up doing anyway because they get bored of not getting shit).

 

[moocow]

where's the shrinkwrap of my digital copy?
iirc the only reason they put it there in the first place was showing before/during installation is too late (but I'd have to look up the court ruling).

Note that you've already paid for the game prior to being shown the EULA. It's only because of semi-recent grumblings about "lol no refunds" that you can even ask Steam for a refund in the first place. So technically yes, you can reject the EULA and refund the product, you still have to spend your cash to even see the EULA. And we all know how "fast" refunds get processed.

Between that and companies increasingly demanding binding arbitration while "forbidding" in-court litigation (that's being mostly upheld in courts, btw), your options are narrowing.

 

[East_Clintwood]

In a way I'm glad Ubisoft put another studio in chage of the game after Massive moved to Avatar, otherwise we would still have random crash-to-desktop on PC. Fuck Massive.

I've (rightfully IMO) shit on the new devs a lot for their many and varied fuckups since taking over, but finally figuring out the cause of the CTD bug and bringing in people to fix it is an absolute W on their part.

It always surprised me when after they started to develop for it again it and put it on the Steam Store it has never been that cheap again.

I dunno, kinda makes sense to me that now they're actively developing the game again that it goes on sale a bit, but not at the absolute firesale price that games that have reached end of support do to eke out every last dollar possible tend to do.

Speaking of Division 2, after announcing the new DLC they also dropped a new PTS, with no notice as per, and it's kind of a mess. Even moreso than the DLC, the seasonal shit on the PTS is basically just Division 1 'member berries. Member firearms/stamina/electronics? Member Link skills? Member Final Measure? Member nimble? Member Pakhan? Member Alphabridge etc etc.

They added a new weapon talent that is broken, both in the "not working as intended" and "hilariously fucking OP and will fuck balance in the ass" sense. They have an exotic mask that is a knockoff of AlphaBridge from Div 1, and despite the description saying it doesn't work with Named weapons is absolutely does, leading to some absolutely busted combos (seriously is their internal testing so lacking they can't even test the literal most basic functionality of new stuff?) There's a new brandset that has increased threat generation (even though this game doesn't have actualaggro/tanking mechanics) while also having one of the Named items for that brandset having a decreased threat special roll.

Perhaps most importantly they confirmed they're getting of SHD muling for resources, and points will now be account wide instead of character specific, although they have also announced that they'll be refunding everyone's spent points up to that point (so remember to use them all up before the DLC drops). Of course since they've announced this, but no further details of any of the planned economy changes, or the new materials farming events they've hinted at, the community could charitably be described as losing their absolute shit right now.

I know they have people who are responsible for Community management , and they just brought all those creators to Sweden to shill from then, could they not between them have realised that half assing this announcement was a bad fucking idea (especially after the seasonal characters shitshow) and have had all the info ready to go as damage control when the news dropped?

 

[Oliver Onions]

@p1138 Marvel's Avengers also belongs on that list, they had a lot of similar fuckery. Terrible endgame with nothing to do but run raids that were copy-pasted gauntlet sections from campaign missions with no new enemies, just the same enemies from the main game but buffed to the point you couldn't beat them unless you broke your character's build (amusingly this lead to Black Widow being the most OP character in the game).

There was also an anti-fun patch put out by Crystal Dynamics after players discovered they could travel to different hubs to get extra dailies from the mission vendors there. After the patch it was changed so that once you accepted a daily in one hub the same type of mission was unavailable from all other vendors, meaning you had to grind much more to finish the battle pass (unless you paid for it like a good goy, of course).

 

[p1138]

@p1138 Marvel's Avengers also belongs on that list, they had a lot of similar fuckery. Terrible endgame with nothing to do but run raids that were copy-pasted gauntlet sections from campaign missions with no new enemies, just the same enemies from the main game but buffed to the point you couldn't beat them unless you broke your character's build (amusingly this lead to Black Widow being the most OP character in the game).

There was also an anti-fun patch put out by Crystal Dynamics after players discovered they could travel to different hubs to get extra dailies from the mission vendors there. After the patch it was changed so that once you accepted a daily in one hub the same type of mission was unavailable from all other vendors, meaning you had to grind much more to finish the battle pass (unless you paid for it like a good goy, of course).

Right, there was also a patch right before the first battlepass characters were added to the game that massively increased the amount of xp required to grind to max level as well.

GTA5 also added a fucking subscription service a couple years back, and put vehicles and shit behind it as a paywall that had previously been available in game if you hadn't already bought them, and it's not even a looter shooter.

Fallout 76 devs banned a player for fucking hoarding ammo because they assumed he must have been cheating, yet they left in a dev cheat room with the only NPC in the game and then went on a player banning spree for that while people figured out how to launder items between accounts to evade bans.

Outriders, which I recall was a Destiny style knock off was also nerfed to absolute shit right after launch to prevent people from repeating quests to try and get more loot.

Helldivers 2 which wasn't really a looter game, had the devs spend the first 6 months of the game nerfing every gun that players gravitated towards instead of buffing the other shit, even though the game was PvE only.

It really is ridiculous how it comes off as "oh no, the players found something fun, NERF IT NOW!" in so many fucking games.

 

[Oliver Onions]

Outriders, which I recall was a Destiny style knock off was also nerfed to absolute shit right after launch to prevent people from repeating quests to try and get more loot.

I think I stopped playing Outriders just before the new DLC expansion was about to drop (something about a witch or a queen I think) and one thing I will say in the game's favour is it probably had the best scrapping system I've ever seen in one of these games because it let you keep the perks and buffs as consumables you could then apply to any other weapon.

It was a great solution to the problem games like Destiny 2 have where you get stuck using a weapon you're not really fond of because it was one really good perk you can't afford to let go.

 

[p1138]

I think I stopped playing Outriders just before the new DLC expansion was about to drop (something about a witch or a queen I think) and one thing I will say in the game's favour is it probably had the best scrapping system I've ever seen in one of these games because it let you keep the perks and buffs as consumables you could then apply to any other weapon.

It was a great solution to the problem games like Destiny 2 have where you get stuck using a weapon you're not really fond of because it was one really good perk you can't afford to let go.

Darktide and some other games have done that as well in the past, but Darktide also had its own problems shipping as an incomplete game that needed its crafting system revamped twice in a year(and their last iteration broke it so badly that I just uninstalled it because I had been collecting higher end weapon perks ignoring the lower tier versions because they were pointless, but with the last update it reset all of my progress to 0 based on the number of perks I had not the quality so all I had available was the lower tier shit needing to grind the higher tier perks again.

 

[East_Clintwood]

In a lolcow x lolcompany crossover Ubisoft have apparently flown former Kotaku shill Alyssa Mercante to Rome for an Anno 117 event. Personally I'd consider her an odd choice given she no longer has a proper writing gig and less than two weeks ago was posting about how she'd had to start picking up restaurant shifts to make ends meet.

 

[moocow]

View attachment 7292477
In a lolcow x lolcompany crossover Ubisoft have apparently flown former Kotaku shill Alyssa Mercante to Rome for an Anno 117 event. Personally I'd consider her an odd choice given she no longer has a proper writing gig and less than two weeks ago was posting about how she'd had to start picking up restaurant shifts to make ends meet.

Imagine not qualifying for a weekend "yachting" trip to Dubai and having to settle for Rome instead.

 

[Kane Lives]

View attachment 7292477
In a lolcow x lolcompany crossover Ubisoft have apparently flown former Kotaku shill Alyssa Mercante to Rome for an Anno 117 event. Personally I'd consider her an odd choice given she no longer has a proper writing gig and less than two weeks ago was posting about how she'd had to start picking up restaurant shifts to make ends meet.

Fucking free BlueByte from this French faggotry already. They might be German but even they dont deserve to be under Ubisoft.

 

[Oliver Onions]

In a lolcow x lolcompany crossover Ubisoft have apparently flown former Kotaku shill Alyssa Mercante to Rome for an Anno 117 event.

Is there any evidence Ubisoft is footing the bill for Alyssa's bender in Rome?

In other news, this is a bit tangential but since Clair Obscur is getting a lot of buzz right now I wanted to check out the numbers on SteamDB.

2x Shadows peak on a debut game and brand new IP from a new studio. I know they're completely different types of game but it's still funny to me.

 

[Miller]

Is there any evidence Ubisoft is footing the bill for Alyssa's bender in Rome?

I know Ubisoft pays for the flight and the hotel for the influencers, so it's no doubt the same for the "journos".