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00:00We have taken significant steps to remove or sanction those who violated our values
00:07and code of conduct.
00:08Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we are looking at the biggest controversies surrounding Ubisoft,
00:15which has unfortunately seen a lot of them in recent years.
00:19There's a certain yearning in your eyes, I've seen the same glint in others before.
00:24But before we dive into it, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe
00:30and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:33Unity's buggy launch
00:43It's already been a decade, but players will still never forget the state that Assassin's
00:49Creed Unity launched in.
00:50The game was chock full of various performance and connectivity issues, as well as bugs and
00:57glitches, the most famous being a terrifying one that removed the skin from characters'
01:04faces.
01:08Needless to say, fans were not happy.
01:11Ubisoft apologized and stopped selling the Season Pass, as well as gave out the DLC Dead
01:16Kings for free.
01:18For those who bought the Season Pass, they were also given one of several games for free,
01:22with the caveat that they not sue Ubisoft.
01:26This launch was so bad that it affected sales of the next game, 2015's Syndicate, and caused
01:32the studio to re-evaluate how it developed the series moving forward.
01:41Downgraded visuals for Watch Dogs
01:50When Watch Dogs was revealed at E3 2012, it caught a lot of players' attention.
01:55The focus on hacking and sleek visuals made it seem like a big step in open world games.
02:00However, when the game was released in 2014, it was hit with accusations that those same
02:06visuals had been downgraded.
02:08A PR rep from Ubisoft stated this was false and there was no downgrade, but you could
02:13clearly see it in side-by-side comparisons.
02:17Ubisoft would later own up to it, with producer Dominic Guay stating it was due to the reveal
02:21happening before there was any information on next-gen consoles.
02:25The final game didn't even look that bad, but the lie and doubling down didn't do Ubisoft
02:31any favors.
02:40The Subscription Model
02:47It seems every company offers their own subscription service these days, though they don't always
02:51all need one.
02:53Announced in 2019, Ubisoft Plus gives subscribers access to a variety of the studio's titles.
02:58While the service included Ubisoft's newest games initially, it grew to include a lot
03:03of older titles, too.
03:05When it was launched on PC in January of 2024, Ubisoft Plus Classics became its own standalone
03:11service for a cheaper price.
03:18Philip Tremblay, director of subscriptions, spoke a lot about the benefits of separating
03:23the older titles, but he also expressed a mentality of getting players, quote, feeling
03:29comfortable with not owning your game, end quote.
03:33Game preservation has become an important issue during the subscription era, so this
03:37understandably rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
03:48Shutting Down The Crew
03:49Unfortunately, Ubisoft has made good on the whole not-owning-your-games thing, but in
04:02more dire ways than you would think.
04:04In late 2023, The Crew was delisted from digital stores and microtransactions came to a halt,
04:10with servers set to shut down on March 31st, 2024.
04:15Well, it's an older game, maintaining servers and music licenses for a game that has sequels
04:20with their own updates would be needlessly expensive.
04:26However, Ubisoft then revoked licenses of the game from players, essentially stealing
04:35their copies and making The Crew unplayable.
04:38It offered no refunds despite the fact that many had actually purchased the game.
04:42Pretty much everyone agreed this was another anti-consumer, anti-preservation move from
04:47Ubisoft.
04:54All In On NFTs
05:03From concerns over actual ownership of them to the detrimental damage they can cause to
05:08the environment, NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, seem to be an all-around bad idea.
05:15And yet, multiple celebrities and companies have tried selling them to you over the past
05:19few years.
05:24In late 2021, Ubisoft announced Quartz, a platform for buying, using, and selling NFTs
05:31across its different games.
05:33Despite claims that their blockchain was environmentally safe, the announcement was met with severe
05:39backlash.
05:40Nicolas Poirot, vice president of the company's Strategic Innovations Lab, would later claim
05:46that gamers just didn't understand their NFTs, which of course did not work out well
05:51for Ubisoft.
05:52Quartz hasn't been that profitable, as you can imagine.
06:02One and the Same
06:09This one is more of a gradual controversy, more than one that strikes hot and fast.
06:15At a certain point, Ubisoft began following the same formula for many of its games.
06:19They're all open world, they've all got a billion completion checklists, and they're
06:25all very grindy.
06:26From Far Cry to Assassin's Creed, from Avatar to Watch Dogs, this has been met with wide
06:33criticism, as well as diminishing interest and sales.
06:41Still as bored as that has caused many players to feel, it isn't as bad as Ubisoft following
06:47the exact same release formula for every game, too.
06:50Want to get ahead of some early grinding?
06:52Well, better dish out some money for pre-order bonuses, or better yet, some extra dough on
06:57special editions.
06:59There's also always DLC or a season pass, making base games just feel incomplete.
07:11Partnering with Tencent
07:18For any unfamiliar, Tencent is a Chinese conglomerate with a laundry list of controversies in its
07:24own right.
07:25Tencent has also invested in multiple video game studios, causing it to become the largest
07:29company in the industry to the mass unease of players.
07:33In 2018, Tencent purchased 5% of all shares of Ubisoft.
07:38This, admittedly, was not Ubisoft's fault.
07:41It came from a failed purchase of the company by Vivendi, which sold Tencent the shares.
07:47However, since then, Ubisoft has grown pretty comfortable with giving Tencent power.
07:52In 2022, it invested more money into Ubisoft, with the studio claiming it would help bring
07:57their games to China, as well as pay off debt.
08:01But giving Tencent control in your company has not proven to go well in the past.
08:11Shadow of a Doubt
08:19No matter how you look at it, the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows has been surrounded
08:24by controversy.
08:25First, some players were upset over the use of Yasuke, a historical figure and black samurai,
08:31as one of two protagonists over the inclusion of a Japanese one.
08:42But the way Ubisoft has marketed the game has also brought criticism.
08:46It used the flag of a battle reenactment group in concept art and marketing materials
08:51without asking.
08:52A figurine of the two protagonists amid a one-leg Tori gate was also met with negativity,
08:58as it's very similar to the actual one damaged by the atomic bomb that hit Nagasaki in World
09:03War II.
09:04Then there's the fact that Ubisoft abruptly cancelled press reviews at the Tokyo Game
09:08Show before delaying the game to 2025.
09:12Yeah, things are not going well.
09:23Blaming Employees
09:33When Ubisoft didn't meet sales expectations for 2022, it delayed Skull & Bones yet again
09:40while cancelling three unannounced titles.
09:42However, the company's CEO, Yves Guillemot, also sent an email to his employees which
09:47got a pretty big reaction, and certainly not a good one.
09:51Among requests that they all be frugal with their spending, he stated,
09:55The ball was in their court to deliver games on time and at an expected level of quality.
10:00This rightfully upset staff over the implication that Ubisoft's failures were their fault.
10:06Anticipating the CEO's words to signal loss of their own livelihood, Ubisoft Paris
10:11went on strike with several demands, including a 10% increase to salaries, which reportedly
10:17had not kept up with inflation.
10:28Workplace Misconduct Allegations
10:30In 2020, in the wake of the Me Too movement, Ubisoft was hit by massive allegations of
10:45sexual harassment and discrimination.
10:48These claims were leveled at multiple higher-ups at the company, the severity of which ranged
10:52from person to person.
10:54This was found across several studios, meaning it stemmed from Ubisoft's main management,
10:59and in many cases, claims stretched back for years.
11:13Ubisoft's HR department did little to nothing to fix any issues, with many witnesses and
11:18victims equating it to an unchecked fraternity house.
11:21The people responsible were let go, and Yves Guillemot issued a half-hearted apology, which
11:27not a lot of people bought.
11:29There are many business practices of Ubisoft that have drawn criticism, but this was the
11:34point where many fans lost faith in the publisher.
11:47Do you think Ubisoft has a chance of returning to its glory days?
11:50Share your thoughts down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for
11:53more great gaming videos every day!