Ubisoft Isn't Bad...

How could someone possibly make this claim? 

Ubisoft so obviously sucks! 

From the obscene monetization of every single one of their games to the never ending bugs, and cookie cutter content that's been copy pasted, also, into every single one of their games.

I don't deny that for one moment.

I've made videos about it…

Thing is, if we all know Ubisoft sucks this feverishly… why do we keep saying it?

Why do we keep buying their games?

Why do I keep playing their games?

Many will say it's the dissonance between general audiences and the minority online with megaphones, but I really don't think that's the case.

I so often see friends, colleagues, and big name critics not just theorizing or talking about the latest Ubisoft game, but playing them, buying them, and sometimes, even 100% completing them… before saying Ubisoft sucks.

Why?

Playing Far Cry 6 recently confirmed why for me.

This goddamn game, I'm changing my mind about it sometimes as little as five minutes.

In one moment, I'll watch a cutscene that's lit, shot, voiced, animated, paced, and told like a great piece of Film or Television, with drama I'm genuinely invested in, even if the build up toward this moment didn't catch my attention in the slightest…

Then it'll lead into an escort mission where the AI tasked with leading me to the objective is waddling at a snail's pace, only reaching the end with seconds to spare.

I'll wingsuit around one of the most gorgeous game worlds ever realized into a battlefield so I can hijack a tank and… drive around for minutes trying to find where the last two enemies are because they won't leave their spawn location.

A mission begins with an intriguing exchange between Dani, our protagonist, and a support character they're trying to win over, before witnessing a horrible death in-front of them that forces them to run to the end of an Island… then the other side… then back to the previous side.

I'll save up all my resources to head over camp and build a base that just nets me the exact same bonus and stats from the third game in a more obtuse manner.

I also bought Riders Republic.

The POV cam might be the best sense of speed I've ever experienced in video-game, the BMX is insane, and the chill vibe of going from event to event with friends collecting gear both for play and style is a unique one that's hard to satisfy in this modern industry…

Then the game spams my map with notifications that it takes control from me to show, before playing a narration from a character I can't skip, triggering a cutscene I can skip, leading into an animation I can't!

A development team at Ubisoft managed to pitch to executives that the best direction for the next Far Cry game to go in was 10,000 BC with one of the most beautifully crafted historical games ever created… and release it as a boring total conversion mod of Far Cry 4.

Ubisoft don't make bad games, they make frustrating games, and they're frustrating because there's enormous quality and creativity in almost all of them, beaten and buried into the ground.

Whether it's by executives, development leads, or just the realities of deadlines, I don't know, but, I suspect that Ubisoft wouldn't be discussed so much if there games were worse.

If they were making the equivalents of Metal Gear Survive, Anthem, Dark Alliance, or GTA: Definitive, they'd be laughed out of a room and forgotten about the week after they were released.

Like… how many people do you know have actually played the XIII Remake? Or F&F Crossroads? Or Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5?

Meanwhile, I'm sure lots of your friends have played the latest Assassin's Creed, or Far Cry, or Tom Clancy game, while saying it sucks, and I don't blame them, those games all have so many things about them that do suck! And it's infuriating because they're almost always accompanied by such undeniable quality, that it means we can't just write it off and be done with it.

Nobody else would've funded Rainbow Six Siege, Far Cry Primal, Watch Dogs Legion, For Honor, Steep, Rocksmith, Hyper Scape, etc…

It's not even fair to call them the purgatory of gaming publishers.

Purgatory gives nothing to feel.