Ubisoft Forward Digital Event

[one-armed dwarf]

Some of the WD stuff has a weird energy now. Almost feels like another era that game was shown

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[Maf]

There’s another one of these tonight at 8pm, I think. Supposed to focus on this Prince of Persia remake and Fenyx Immortals 

[Maryokutai]

Looking forward to Immortals, I could see myself enjoying that one.

[mmmark]

3 hours ago, Maf said:

There’s another one of these tonight at 8pm, I think.

What makes you think that? ?

 

Spoiler

 

[Maf]

Dunno. Just a hunch. 

[AndyKurosaki]

I’m super happy that Scott Pilgrim is finally getting a re-release. Bloody love that game, and the soundtrack kicks arse.

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[mmmark]

 

They appear to have failed so here it is:

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[mmmark]

Ubisoft has reportedly made minimal changes following abuse allegations

 

Quote

Since the wave of accusations targeting Ubisoft's toxic culture, which also pointed at serious dysfunction in its HR departments, the company has attempted to make changes, but the impact of these changes seems to have been minimal so far, the publication reported.

 

..an elected representative from Ubisoft's social and economic committee said they don't "expect anything to come out of these appointments" as the HR staff who covered the harassment issues are still in position.

 

Some of the men at the heart of the harassment accusations are also still in their jobs, such as Florent Castelnérac, who heads Ubisoft-owned Nadeo and who was accused of harassment by a dozen employees. A union representative said management is "protecting him."
 

Or Ubisoft Singapore director Hugues Ricour, who stepped down in November but still works at Ubisoft in a different role according to his Linkedin profile.

 

In Canada, "nothing has changed" since the appointment of Christophe Derennes (who happens to be Yves Guillemot's cousin) in July 2020, a source told Le Télégramme.

 

What's more, new harassment cases have been reported since, but those who reported the issues were sidelined in December 2020. 

 

Initiatives were put forward by employees groups to try and help solve the crisis, including measures of positive action to make sure more women are hired at Ubisoft. But the idea was not addressed by management.

 

[HandsomeDead]

It's not a HR dysfunction as it's there to protect the interests of the company and its so rotten from the top so of course it's going to do nothing meaningful.

 

Ubisoft is a lost cause.  Fuck it.

[Jimboxy]

I for one will continue to passively boycott Unisoft games for the foreseeable future. By my estimations I must be coming up for ten years since I bought a Ubisoft game, what have you guys done?

[Maryokutai]

I'll still buy a game of theirs if it piques my interest. I get the point but I feel like if I don't buy, say, the next Rayman game I'm hurting the actual people who programmed it more than I do the corporate guys up top. But it's obviously not a black & white scenario and I have a couple of companies on my backlist as well so I can understand the sentiment.

[HandsomeDead]

I don't think I'd worry about that side of things.  It seems like there is so much freelance and temporary contracts (or just laying people off after a project is wrapped) in AAA development so as long as you're getting a salary and building a portfolio it's something.  Anyone employing a programmer on the basis of the game's sales rather than their work would be a bit of a dipshit.

 

It's not only about the morals of it as I don't think it's unreasonable to speculate that the reason so many of their games are homogeneous is because of toxic leadership really making sure things go their way.  It affects the end product at the end of the day.

[one-armed dwarf]

You don't even need to speculate on that, I think. 

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-21/ubisoft-sexual-misconduct-scandal-harassment-sexism-and-abuse

 

 

Quote

Developers say they were compelled to make big compromises to avoid changes from Hascoët that might be detrimental to their project or result in outright cancellation. For example, Hascoët openly expressed disdain for linear storytelling and cut scenes, the interstitial videos that exist between gameplay to advance the narrative. The writers had to find ways to keep his attention, and often that involved installing a strong male lead, the employees say.

By 2019, though, there were signs Hascoët was losing his creative magic. Ubisoft released two big flops: The Division 2, an online game that failed to meet sales expectations despite critical acclaim, and Ghost Recon Breakpoint, a tactical shooter that was widely panned. Ubisoft had developed a reputation, in large part because of Hascoët, for releasing games with similar tropes: large, open-world environments giving the player a list of tasks to accomplish and checkpoints to clear. By the end of last year, Ubisoft’s stock declined more than 40% from its high a year earlier.

As a result of these failures, the company overhauled the editorial department, elevating seven vice presidents reporting to Hascoët. The goal was to distribute Hascoët’s power and diversify the games, employees say. All seven vice presidents were men. Béland and François were among those promoted, despite a history of misconduct complaints.

 

And that is exactly what HR is, from my own interactions with toxic HR at my previous company trying to get an ergonomic setup as someone with a spinal abnormality. They really aren't interested in trying to understand, especially when it costs them to do their actual fucking job

 

I'll risk offending ppl typing that out probably but I really don't care tbh

[Maryokutai]

So this was the usual UbiSoft generic stuff all around except for Mario & Rabbids and this little surprise:

 

 

 

I think it was known that this was in development (?) but I definitely did not expect to see it here. Avatar as a movie was just overrated 3D-PR but the setting always had a certain videogame quality to it so I'm glad they give this another shot (the PS360 game was okay but forgettable). Also: current-gen exclusive, no cross-gen stuff, so there's a good chance this might look more or less like this trailer suggests.

 

Of course if it turns out to be another open world multiplayer live service thing I'm out.

[one-armed dwarf]

Any open world games with crafting systems and outposts to unlock further activities?

 

I guess a new Avatar film must be coming tho

[DisturbedSwan]

I loved Avatar, saw it at the cinema in 3D and it blew my tits off like a theme park ride. The game footage looked phenomenal. 
 

Whole show was a bit more muted than usual, not too much new and nothing much excited me really. Mario Rabbids was the highlight followed by the aforementioned Avatar game. Rainbow Six Extraction has a lot of promise but will have to see more. 

[mfnick]

Holy shit that was dull. Extraction in particular was so painfully boring to watch. Mario & Rabbids 2 should be good but the rest looked arse. Am I seeing the same Avatar game as you lot too? Graphically doesn’t look that good IMO.