Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s launch was an incredibly sketchy one, what with its wide-spread performance problems across the board. In light of the game’s issues, Ubisoft has made it clear that it would delay future additions to the franchise should they be deemed not up to snuff for release.
In speaking with IGN, Ubisoft North America’s president, Laurent Detoc, inferred how much Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s launch damaged the Assassin’s Creed brand, and that that’s something the developer is looking to prevent when going further down the line. Detoc also acknowledged that if something fresh is going to be brought with a new Assassin’s Creed game, the quality of said game would also have to be brought up as well.
“ If we think we’ve ended up with a 70 percent Assassin’s Creed game, we’re not going to ship it. That damages the brand. I’m not going to give you the names of products, because you know them as well as I do, but if you start to make games at 70 percent, even with a big brand, eventually people are going to change their mind about that brand. They won’t want it anymore, ” Detoc told IGN.
Last year, to pick a round number, we had about 10 million people playing Assassin’s Creed . When we come up with an Assassin’s Creed the next year, there’s another 10 million brand new people who might be interested in the new setting, because of the new history, or the new naval battles and the pirates. It’s a variation on gameplay from even last year.”
You bring something fresh, but you have to bring quality too. There’s a lot of people who can play your game. We have fans who come back to the franchise and we’re very thankful for them, because we think we’re giving them a good game to play, and they give back to us when they buy it. But there’s a lot more people out there who we can sell games to. ”
Following Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s release, Ubisoft’s stock has reportedly dropped by as much as 12.8% since the game’s launch in North America on Tuesday, November 11. What didn’t help matters, some may feel, was that reviews of the game were embargoed until several hours after the game’s release, reportedly leaving many early buyers and at-launch buyers biting the bullet without otherwise knowing what the game was like outside of Ubisoft’s marketing. The release of a day-one patch also didn’t fix much of Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s problems.
In a nutshell, Ubisoft isn’t in the good books of some people right now, even from media outlets such as Polygon and GameSpot. However, in response to Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s backlash, Ubisoft will be adapting its approach on how the studio works with reviewers, as well as also offering consumers early access to some games.
We’ll bring you more news on Ubisoft should further information reach our ears. Assassin’s Creed: Unity is now available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
[ Source(s): IGN ]