Ubisoft Director Claims That Gamers Will Become “Comfortable With Not Owning Their Game(s)”

Ubisoft

“That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.”

Ubisoft’s Philippe Tremblay managed to kick the hornet’s nest earlier this week. How, you might ask? Well, he essentially claimed that owning the games you paid for is not the future of the gaming market.

More specifically, he asserts that subscription services like Ubisoft+ and Game Pass are the future in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. His claim being that gamers will become more comfortable with not owning games over time.

There are many issues with M. Tremblay’s assertions. However, I think I’ll start with the most prevalent, easily observable one. Because we have spent the past two years watching film/television streaming subscription services taking some of the most massive fucking L’s possibly imaginable. Not only do all of them alter content in a way that compromises the original artistic integrity of the work, they’ll happily remove content as they see fit. And in some cases, you’re unlikely to ever see it again; Warner Bros. Discovery spent the past couple of years writing off movies and shows they owned for tax cuts (see: Megas XLR; I dig giant robots).

Second, one of the nice things about media you own locally (physically and, as much as I don’t like the model, digitally) is that you don’t need a goddamn internet connection to play or watch it. Personally, I feel a bit more comfortable having my favorites ready to go at any time. Because sometimes, you can’t watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on Paramount+.

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As for Ubisoft+, it’s considerably more expensive, and offers much less, than Game Pass, even accounting for changes since launch versus now. So you have to look deep inside yourself and ask “How many Ubisoft games do I really want to play?”

Oh, and game streaming is one of those things that basically has zero margin and is a nice way to hemorrhage venture capital. I don’t know why he went on about you getting to keep your save, when not being able to play that game anymore means said save is worthless.

Needless to say, there was a sizeable number of people online that immediately dunked on him. And some of those were actually developers. Larian’s (Baldur’s Gate 3) director of publishing Michael Douse being one of them.

For what it’s worth, M. Tremblay did go on to say the following:

I don’t know about you, but I can mostly live without the majority of Ubisoft’s upcoming oeuvre. If that’s the future they want though, well, I wasn’t really buying that many of their games to begin with. Someone is, though; there’s no other way to account for all the Assassin’s Creed sequels they make otherwise. And it’s worth remembering that there’s only so many subscriptions a person is going to be willing to have before they start making choices.

Source: PC Gamer

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B. Simmons

Based out of Glendale California, Bryan is a GAMbIT's resident gaming contributor. Specializing in PC and portable gaming, you can find Bryan on his 3DS playing Monster Hunter or at one of the various conventions throughout the state.

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