When it rains

 

Even given my time stepping back from the forefront of the news cycle to literally do anything else, somehow I find myself constantly faced with the sheer insanity of the daily goings-ons in this fair industry of ours. And wouldn't you know it- somehow Ubisoft have remained the centre of my ire even after all this time? I should rename the blog into 'The Ubisoft hate circle' for the amount of times they appear on the pages- but I guess I just can't help the fact that, for some insane reason, their management is determined to make themselves a cancer upon the industry. I'm talking- genuine danger to the health of gaming as an artform- that seems to be their biggest goal in life; beyond even making a profit. I don't even know if EA were ever this bad. Or at least, EA did a better job at hiding their active disdain for games and those who buy them.

Of course I'm referring to the recent rumour popping about (big underline with the 'rumour' part of this, the source is unnamed and i've yet to see anyone reputable back this up- it just happens to fit the Ubisoft MO so horrifically well.) Star Wars Outlaws. Apparently Ubisoft have acknowledged the flop internally and expressed a desire, alongside some other unnamed accomplices, (I imagine Sony must be one) to pressure Steam into restricting their API access. Basically they want strict provisions put around the data that the public have access to so that they can keep figures such as Player Numbers private- to what end? All this would achieve is giving Ubisoft the anonymity to gussy up a flop in front of investors- essentially giving them the authority to white lie when they want to. Which is illegal so I'm not accusing them explicitly of lying to investors- just that they happen to want to pursue the very tools that would facilitate such lying.

And I want to impress just how largely useless such a move would be. I know that companies like Ubisoft are so desperate to divest themselves of responsibility for any mistake they'll accept any old scape goat that flies through their window- but it takes a special kind of delusional to think that the observation of player numbers would drive people away from a single player open world game. A multiplayer title? Sure. I'll bet that at least some people considered buying Concord only to see it on the path to crashing and burning and decided against that purchase. Outlaws? Not a chance. More likely they saw the developer, weighed their reputation up and decided to wait for a sale. That's pretty much how I think of Ubisoft- that developer who puts out games that are never worth their RRP. And, well... that's the kind of reputation which is pretty well earned!

But that's not the only story of the day. How about FromSoftware, kings of the Souls-like, currently being hunted by Sony for an acquisition. Oh good lord, why do the horror stories never end. Sony have proven themselves ill partners in the modern age of the live service order, which has already documented at least two strictly single player studios having their arm pulled into spitting out live service prototypes- both of which proved not interesting enough to be developed to launch. FromSoft have their art nailed down to perfection, they've managed to iterate upon their own greatness and reach ridiculous heights- and they seem to be one of the only modern respected studios building themselves to be generational, so that when the current guard inevitably move on- the studio will retain that sparkling standard with the next generation. (take note Bioware.) They don't need Sony stepping on their back.

Now as far as we're aware the Sony acquisition is not entirely their own volition. They're being called to the role, as if they're saviours bearing down from up high. But that doesn't change the fact that their proven track record has been atrocious, they have themselves a FromSoftware game they've bitterly refused to work in the slightest. Not porting it to their newest consoles, let alone to other platforms, the same as with Metal Gear Solid 4 which has been trapped on it's release platform since release. (Although in fairness that one is just as much due to Konami being mean.) I don't want Playstation standing guardian over who gets to play game this big. Heck, it's been under a Sony exclusivity deal that the once biggest JRPG in the world, Final Fantasy, has floundered and failed to make the cultural impact that it- following my actually playing FFXVI- fully deserves to. That game slaps! Sony just aren't the partners they need to be right now.

And the last point of this dying embers of the year is hardly a revelation but deserves mentioning all the same. Bethesdsa just really don't seem to get any of the heat that has fallen their way. Now obviously I really liked Starfield for what it was, not for what people wanted to be or even what I hoped it was going to be. (Although to be fair, I gave up on my hopes years before launch the very second they made it clear the game wasn't going to be 'fun' sci-fi. So maybe that's just low expectations going in.) But the game honestly isn't a patch upon it's predecessors and it has nothing to do with it being a new IP that goes in a new direction that fans aren't sure about. Metaphor Refantazio dropped this very year from a pedigree that mainlined Shin Megami Tensei and Persona for decades beforehand and it might just be the single most complete, thematic strong, relatively lean and mean JRPG of all time. What's the difference? ATLUS gets it. Bethesda don't.

From the absolute barest of the bare faced peep- sure, we can look at the fan dissatisfaction with Shattered Space and conclude that people would have been happier if the game saved up some of it's free releases and dropped them with the DLC (As Todd Howard was said to to have proposed during a chat with Phil Spencer). I objectively believe that would have been partially true, even if buggies actually don't gel well with the DLC's environments specifically. But that wouldn't have been real satisfaction. That wouldn't have been solving a problem. That would be like sticking a pacifier in the mouth of a screaming child- give something to focus on for the next few minutes but not actually addressing the route issue. That issue? Shattered Space just wasn't very good. It lacked a core thesis, I don't know if they even know what sort of fantasy they were working towards providing, I personally think it's visual palette was frightfully uninspired and dull, (which is a hot take, apparently) and it stands as perhaps the least engaging full-blown DLC's that Bethesda has released for one of their mainline games ever. That should be a significant wake-up call. And it hasn't been.

Now at the tail-end of all this is a reminder that no- this hasn't been the end of everything this culture has to offer. This has been such a solid year for games that I genuinely have a dissociative moment whenever I see anyone claim otherwise. If you haven't managed to find at least one game that released in 2024 that hasn't scratched at your best-of sensibilities then I have to be honest- that is a skill issue. Unless you're a sports game fan but those folk should be used to disappointment by now. (Actually, they did get their College Football madden-style game they waited 10 years for- so even that crowd should be pleased.) But it's important to take the lumps with the porridge. To not let compliancy cloud what could be improved, what might not be going the way it should and how next year might grow to even greater heights. And man, for the companies mentioned here today (sans Ubisoft) I sincerely hope that they do. They deserve it all.