Ubisoft: bad inside and out

 Never go full 'Konami'

I am always riding Ubisoft's behind for something or another, to the point where it's grown into more than just idle commentary. Were I treating a kid named Ubisoft like this during my primary school years you'd naturally assume I have a crush on them, but rather this animosity has grown and festered over years of poor choices and bad policies to the point where it's reached a true despair. And I do, I despair over the state of a games company with the potential, both in size and raw talent, to achieve truly great and industry changing things with the way they work and handle themselves. But they flounder. Everyday and in everyway. They wake up and choose to be less than what they could be at the detriment to themselves and the industry at large. Why? Who can really say, maybe it's just hard to care about anything at a human level after a certain point, all I know is that we're reaching a point where Ubisoft in in danger of spiralling off into absolute villain territory unless they clean themselves out with prejudice. (as, I guess, is the fate of any and all large creative entities nowadays.)

Typically my criticism around Ubisoft is formed around a few big talking points, and those points can be disseminated down to one universal one: Ubisoft have lost the ability to imagine. In a field driven by creative passion and the desire to dream where the form can go next, Ubisoft is ruled by the whims of those who simply observe the changing of the winds and tries to jump on, with an unhealthy degree of 'chasing old glories' sprinkled in there for good measure. The last time that Ubisoft had a strong and original IP idea it was for Rainbow Six Siege, and for all intents and purposes the success of that title was entirely unexpected by the Ubisoft 'creatives' department and they rode those coattails for so long that now they're even trying to water down that formula with the impending release of Rainbow Six Quarantine. (Which, as much as it pained me to learn, is not a true Rainbow Six game but a poxxy spin-off) Since then there was a little talk of Beyond Good and Evil 2 which promised a simply ludicrous amount of industry changing ideas and features, but that game has fallen off the wagon so hard that Ubisoft doesn't even mention it when talking about upcoming projects anymore.

But there is another aspect of Ubisoft so vile that it poisons both the company and the industry through means of proxy, and it's something that I can't half heartedly jibe at ol' Yves Guillemot for. Because he is complicit, alongside literally every single development head at Ubisoft who has sat back and did nothing as the working conditions at Ubisoft have bordered on oppressive to the point where I'm starting to make comparisons to Konami in my head. Now to be fair I think we can all agree that Konami is certainly worse to a significant degree for the time being, but having to even draw and contrast in general is a huge problem when we're talking about lives and conditions of the workers in your company. Ubisoft are a studio of such size that the way in which they make their games and treat their workers has a knock on effect towards all the smaller studios that want to emulate them, so bare in mind that with every policy they enforce (or pointedly ignore) their wake touches everyone.

With that in mind, do you recall that moment last year when Ubisoft's pathetic lack of creativity despite the powerhouse force behind it became sickeningly clear? It was following a expose wherein Tommy Francois was revealed to be a key executive, and alleged close friend of Guillemot's, who's general bad attitude affected both the company and the games they made. On one hand he was a barrier to development that all proposals had to scale, a dunce who creatives had to pitch to in order to get his approval to move forward presumably as a measure to ensure that only the best ideas were driven by the company, even though the idiot clearly had no idea what market trends are or how to take initiative and just spent his job days leaning on games that appealed to him. So if you're wondering why every Ubisoft game sucked for the same reasons, remember that they all had to be twisted to appeal to some bottom feeding waste-of-flesh in a business suit with no taste. Might clear a few things up.

Of course, that was just one aspect of what he did. On the otherhand, he was also apparently an unpleasant pig to female employees, a tyrannical worm over various department heads, and a detestable dragon hoarding as much power and wealth over the company as he could. He instituted several close friends over various positions in the company in order to ensure his policies and way of doing things was widely accepted and he did all of this in full sight of Yves Guillemot, who simply ignored everything and feigned total innocence when it was all bought to light. Tommy may now be gone from the company, good riddance, but his various cronies still have positions and after several months of hard core investigations that were all handled internally- the single most predictable result possible has landed; nothing has changed. No wrong doings were discovered and it's business as usual making hack games at Ubisoft.

People seem genuinely surprised by this, and thus I can only assume that comes from a vested misunderstanding of what exactly it is institutions like HR and Internal review teams exist for. Firstly, yes HR were told about many of the workplace infractions that occurred within Ubisoft, but they didn't do nothing about them. What they did was go over potential legal ramifications and weighed up what backlash could occur if this went public, then tried to talk down the complainer, or if that failed than straight-up threaten them, to make them shut up. HR doesn't exist to help employees, it exists to manage human resources and ensure they're not causing a problem to the wider company. (I thought this was common knowledge, I don't know where the mix-up definition comes from.) Secondly, of course the internal investigation turned up nothing; it was an internal investigation. What do you- what do you think they hold those for? Again, it's about keeping the bottom line running and, in some cases, doing a little performative art for the public's case. Ubisoft isn't going to hold it's own feet to the fire; that's everybody else's job.

So what is the solution? At this point the way forward for those that want to see a better turn for the industry should be clear; go after the money men. (Wait, I mean that in the way of 'appeal to the money men', not 'attack in the streets'.) This is actually the way people have been trending, through the recent rise of a movement to hold Ubisoft accountable, but that is just a speck in the ocean compared to what could be done. Don't buy the next Ubisoft blockbuster, and make sure that Ubisoft know exactly why you aren't buying it, because the way they've treated their staff and their creation process is unacceptable. At this point, with the way the company is, the only way to really know when headway is made and that pressure can be relented, is when Yves resigns. And I hate to say that, I love typing and saying the name 'Yves', but the man simply has to go for the failed job he has done as a leader in literally all senses. Under his recent leadership internal conditions have deteriorated drastically and external growth has begun stunting; get rid of him, make Ubisoft a better place inside and out.

 At the end of the day, though, it's easier to say what should be done than actually acting upon it. Saying that I personally won't be buying Ubisoft games is pointless, I don't buy them anyway and if I do it's always second hand. (And years after anytime where may purchase could be touted under sales figures) It'll take the ordinary fan standing up and realising that they don't only deserve better for their money, but that the employees at Ubisoft deserve better for their talents, before something might be done. As it stands Ubisoft is the biggest game's developer in Europe, and cleaning them out of pollution will certainly knock onto every single smaller studio across this entire continent, and that's got to be worth the sacrifice for day one bragging rights, no? But then again maybe I'm just overestimating the desire for positive change from the everyday consumer; that's the sort of riddle we can't answer until Ubisoft's next big move. I just hope everything they've done up until now doesn't get instantly forgotten by the public the very second that they start shooting fireworks into the crowd like it almost always does.