Re: Kingdom Come Deliverance II Wins Big

On Mon, 17 Feb 2025 09:52:15 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 16/02/2025 17:55, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

I think a lot of the big studios have kinda painted themselves into a
corner as the big budgets that are expected leads to, as you say, a low
risk strategy. Then there's the issue of are they even capable of
developing a game that isn't based on an existing IP or just the same
type of mechanics they almost always have.
>
How long that is substantial for before people tastes start changing, I
don't know. Then you have live services, how many people have being
burnt by them and are now wary of pumping a reasonable amount of money
into a game only to find out that a year later the servers are shutting
down and no you don't get it refund.

It's definitely a problem. Even as Ubisoft is doubling down on 'more
of the same!', their financial reports are showing a significant drop
in revenue (31% for the year, 51% for the quarter!*). And yet, they
ignore reality and push forward regardless rather than stepping back
and re-evaluating their course.

Now, Ubisoft is a special case; it's a company that is largely owned
and led by the Guillemot family, and their struggles to maintain that
control is interfering with long-term planning. Right now the company
is in a 'do whatever it takes to post immediate increase in revenue',
which frequently happens when ownership of a corporation is at stake
(and is rarely good for the long term health of a company). It's why,
for instance, Ubisoft made a sudden return to Steam; millions of
potential new customers all for the fairly low cost of porting the
achievement code. Doubling down on open-world/live-service games is a
similar move; it might cost the company long-term, but those games are
still popular enough that it will probably return enough cash for the
Guillemots to maintain control of the company. And if there's one
group even more short-sighted than gamers, its the stock-market, so
short-term is all the Guillemots need. ;-)

But, like you said: tastes change and even hoi polloi eventually
abandon their darlings. And while the huge warchests of the triple-As
will likely keep them afloat long enough to transition to the new
favorites, it won't be without a lot of pain (sadly, mostly inflicted
on their employees; the c-levels are well protected by diamond-studded
golden parachutes). And a lot of this pain could be avoided if the
companies looked beyond one or two quarters, invested in new tech,
procedures and IPs, and stopped chasing the safest bet.












* the big drop is reported here
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ubisoft-revenues-decline-314-to-990m