This headline is… well, not great. Here’s the entire quote from Larian Studios’ publishing director:
The last notable game on their platform was arguably Far Cry 6 in 2021. The Crew, Mirage and Avatar came in 2023 and didn’t perform, so you can assume subscriptions were at a lull when PoP released by 2024. Which means people wouldn’t be launching their store all too much.
If it had released on Steam not only would it have been a market success, but there would likely be a sequel because the team are so strong. It’s such a broken strategy. The hardest thing is to make a 85+ game — it is much, much easier to release one. It just shouldn’t be done as it was. If the statement “gamers should get used to not owning their games” is true because of a specific release strategy (sub above sales), then the statement “developers must get used to not having jobs if they make a critically acclaimed game” (platform strategy above title sales) is also true, and that just isn’t sensible — even from a business perspective.
I dunno. That’s hopefully less misleading and confusing? The article really doesn’t bring much to the table imo.
Anyways, fuck Ubisoft.
I hope they go start up indie studios. Fuck Ubisoft.
it was time to unionize a decade or two ago
The size of some of these game dev teams are ridiculous. Better games can be made with less than half the people working on it. Also, screw gaming subscriptions. Greedy fuckers.
Indie ftw. Could developers negotiate for % of royalty/subs income?
