Ubisoft says "Get Comforable not owning video games"

[Dust2dust]

Where is the continued(!) environmental pollution by the 1000s of physical discs three meters in front of me? They are here. They don't do anything. Passive material, operable since decades.

I used to think the same way you do. If my collection of physical games are sitting on my shelf, they are not polluting the environment. But then I realized, if I look further in the future, this will not be true anymore. What will happen of your 1000s of discs, let's say 50 years from now? Or maybe 100 years from now? Do you think your descendants will be interested in preserving your collection in their home? Probably not. More than likely, your thousands of discs will end up in a landfill. Probably close to 95% of stuff that has been manufactured ends up in a landfill, given enough time has passed. That's why I think digital distribution is better. It's not perfect by any means, but it's still better. You might say "I don't care, I won't be there anymore." But this would be pretty egocentric. The earth and environment will still exist, long after you die.

 

[M7L7NK7]

I know I'm not going to make any friends with this statement, but environmentally, it's good for the planet, this shift to digital distribution only. All those game cartridges, CDs, DVDs, not to mention the jewel cases and plastic boxes to protect those discs, all this e-waste is a disaster waiting to happen for the environment. Digital only is much better for us and for future generations. But piracy is also fine with digital distribution, so I'm all for it.

There's much bigger environmental problems to fix, that wouldn't make a difference lol

 

[Chary]

No one is noticing the same guy's quote earlier in the article:

The point is not to force users to go down one route or another," he explains. "We offer purchase, we offer subscription, and it's the gamer's preference that is important here.

The headline quote is regarding his thoughts on why streaming game services haven't caught on as fast as Ubisoft initially predicted it would.

Ubisoft is NOT actively trying to take your games away from you. Yet. He's also not wrong in that EVERY other entertainment medium has switched over to digital/streaming except for gaming, so to him, it makes sense that it will, eventually.

What he's missing is that gamers will absolutely die on the hill of owning their own games, but more and more we've seen companies slowly push back against consumer's rights. Xbox Game Pass is an absolute juggernaut, and a great service for gamers, but it's also bait to force the industry towards the digital push that all these big companies want, without actively advertising that aspect.

Is he absolutely wrong? Yeah. But he might not be, in 10 years time.

 

[nWo]

I understand your point of view, but if all we do, as a community, is blame the big guys for all the problems with pollution, then continue on our merry way to pollute with all these small e-waste, the situation is never going to improve, it will just keep deteriorating. If everyone does his part, it can only help improve things faster.

Trust me, I have made my part since I was a kid. I keep doing it now as a head of a family, and try to teach my kids the same. But nothing has changed. It doesn´t make sense if I recycle, lets say, a couple of bags of trash, when a company fucks up the eart with TONS of shit. Just one company. It's like trying to kill a fire with a glass of water. Still, I am doing what I can, but deep inside I know it doesn't make a change, if even my neighbors don't give a shit. Imagine what the big companies think about the contributions one person makes, to save the planet.

 

[Xzi]

Xbox Game Pass is an absolute juggernaut, and a great service for gamers, but it's also bait to force the industry towards the digital push that all these big companies want, without actively advertising that aspect.

Is he absolutely wrong? Yeah. But he might not be, in 10 years time.

I was surprised to find out that subscription services across all platforms only account for 10% of video game spending. Game Pass is a good deal right now because Microsoft understands that they're decades behind something like Steam in terms of appeal, but I'd expect the library to shrink and the price to grow if they ever find themselves in a semi-dominant market position again.

 

[Ryab]

https://insider-gaming.com/ubisoft-not-owning-games-comfortable/


Ubisoft thinks there's going to be shift like how we used to "own" DVDs and now we stream our content.

What are your thoughts on this?

EDIT: damn just noticed typo on title

Then I hope Ubisoft can get comfortable with me not playing their products they call "games"

 

[boot3]

Ubisoft is shutting down the online servers for The Crew in March, and now they're saying this shit. If that isn't a fuck you to preservation, then I don't know what is.

 

[SylverReZ]

Ubisoft better get comfortable with being pirated.

Ubisoft already stole no-CD cracks before for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Say that to a poor person

 

[SylverReZ]

Say that to a poor person

Ubisoft probably hires a bunch of twats to outlandishly say that all gamers suck, and that they're the problem. Which is what vibe I'm getting this from.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Ubisoft probably hires a bunch of twats to outlandishly say that all gamers suck, and that they're the problem. Which is what vibe I'm getting this from.

Game creators hiding the fact their games suck

 

[SylverReZ]

Game creators hiding the fact their games suck

I've noticed a shear number of new games that come out, often have tons of bugs and criticism. Bet the programmers that were hired to do this job, aren't so knowledgeable at fixing bugs.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Bet the programmers that were hired to do this job, aren't so knowledgeable at fixing bugs.

Or they only have like 5 minutes to code the entire game

 

[Taleweaver]

Meh... I'm already pretty comfortable not owning ubisoft games since they still sold software.

I just hope they're getting comfortable only holding people's money and not owning it.

 

[The Catboy]

Ha ha ha ha! I already pirate all of their games! They best get comfortable never seeing a dime from me!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Ubisoft can fuck off and die in a fire. They're already hated and this is just one more reason to hate them.

You pay a fixed monthly fee for music/video streaming. There's a big difference between paying a fixed monthly fee and not owning the content, and outright buying individual games and still not owning them.
And I think people were more okay with not owning CDs/DVDs because most people never had a large collection of them to begin with, they were largely overpriced, and what you got access to through free radio channels and the TV subscription you were already paying for, combined with watching a movie in the cinema every now and then was good enough for most people. That is especially true for movies/TV shows, which came out in cinemas or on TV first anyway, so you probably would have seen anything you were interested enough in by the time they came out on DVD and it would only be worth buying the DVDs of your favorites at that point.

The fact that games you buy from an online storefront can be removed at any time, or the storefront shutting down with the result that you lose access to your game(s) unless you already had them downloaded (or maybe lose access to them completely, if they require online checks) is something that should NEVER be acceptable. This simply can't be compared to music/video streaming because with that it's clear that you are renting access from the get go. When you pay full retail price for a game the expectation is that you own that game, and it can't be taken away from you.

The only "games as a service" subscription that comes even close to music/video streaming in the way it works and how well it works, is Xbox Game Pass. And Xbox Game Pass is pretty damn good, I don't think anybody would argue with that. The only problem is that any publisher who has their own game subscription service won't allow their games on Xbox Game Pass and all the other game subscription services suck ass by comparison. So companies are going to have to step up their game and actually offer a service that makes people want to subscribe if they want "games as a service" to have any chance at becoming the defacto standard.

Also, while Xbox Game Pass is fine and a great example of how to do games as a service right, for games you want to have access to permanently so you can come back to it any time you like, there is no substitute for owning. TV/movies constantly get removed from subscription services due to licensing issues, the same has also been happening to Geforce Now for a long time. There's just no way to be sure you'll still be able to access your favorite games a year from now other than owning (or pirating) them. That is a much bigger deal for games than other forms of media, because of the high replay value of many of them.

 

[hippy dave]

I just hope they're getting comfortable only holding people's money and not owning it.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Then make it a subscription only, no paying full MSRP.