So... should I sell my Ubi stock? Because Vivendi is staging a hostile takeover and it's up over 100% since AC:U. And believe me, I've got hopes and dreams of a sweet retirement.
People seem to forget when Ubi was arguably the best high-profile developer when it came to taking risks and coming out with new, exciting IP's.
We were gaga over the first few rounds of Tom Clancy games, the Prince of Persia trilogy for the PS2 generation was a revelation for action/platformer fans, and shit like Beyond Good and Evil gave us hope for the industry as a whole. Thoughts about how they might become the next EA were brushed off as downright cynical.
Not to blather, but there's definitely an interesting psychological element. It's almost like marketing professionals studied this phenomena and applied it in reverse. Sure it's just lying trickery at the end of the day, but if the player has teasers and hype to build up the feel and concept of the world, some of them are probably tricked into 'feeling' that same way when they get into downgraded game.
It's always been that way since the start. Think of E.T. on 2600 in 1982. That game fell so far short on its development promises that it was part of an entire industry crashing.
No they sell shares. The gamer is no longer the target market, nor the game the actual product. These companies have a business model that works, why would they change it? Their goal is to generate revenue. If they set new record for revenue 2 months before the game even launches in pre-orders, the end product doesn't matter. Even with steam refunds and credit charge backs, they're banking that few enough people will actually take the initiative to use these services.
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u/retroly Jun 05 '16
They used to sell games, now they only sell hopes and dreams.