In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ubisoft’s head of subscription, Philippe Tremblay, shared some worrisome insights about the potential future of the gaming industry. Not only were some of the things he was predicting concerning for the consumer, more troubling was the way in which he tried to frame a loss of ownership due to the switch to streaming as a positive thing.
Tremblay was in the middle of promoting the rebranding of the Ubisoft+ subscription service, now called Ubisoft+ Premium. This new offering will apparently be available on Xbox, PC, and Amazon Luna for £14.99. It provides users access to a library of older titles, as well as access to every new Ubisoft game released on day one, much like what Xbox Game Pass does with first party Microsoft titles. For those looking for a cheaper option, there is the Ubisoft+ Classics service which gives access solely to Ubisoft’s older titles, for £6.99 a month.
Your games will not be your own for much longer if Ubisoft has its way
This new rebrand is the latest example in a long lasting trend of Ubisoft has renaming its online game hubs, with Uplay, Ubisoft Game Launcher, Ubisoft Connect, Uplay+, Uplay Passport, Ubisoft Club all being names used in the past decade. Despite the numerous name changes, the question remains; why would this appeal to anyone when Ubisoft only released five non-mobile games last year?
It is notable that the gaming community has been somewhat slow to embrace digital-only platforms compared to the music and movie industries, with subscription services like Game Pass and PS Plus possibly already hitting respective plateaus in terms of total subscriber numbers according to recent data.
These statements make Ubisoft sound so out of touch with its audience
However, Tremblay asserts that the demand for it is there, emphasizing that Ubisoft+ had its best month ever in October 2023. He boasted “millions” of subscribers and highlighted the statistic of “over half a billion hours” having been played via the service. Apparently, Tremblay sees a desire for a “consumer shift,” similar to the transition from CDs and DVDs to platforms like Spotify and Netflix. Ubisoft’s head of subscription envisions gamers moving away from owning physical copies and adopting digital subscriptions exclusively.
This notion might be unsettling for many who appreciate the benefits of owning a physical copy, but companies have been steering gamers towards digital content for a long time now – but it is apparently taking too long for publishers like Ubisoft. Given that most people are starting to get frustrated with streaming services like Netflix constantly raising their prices without providing quality content in return and getting rid of fan-favorite content, this is not the sort of thing most gamers want to hear at the moment.
It was once predicted that “you’ll own nothing and be happy,” and it is weird to hear someone say that something like this as if it is a good thing. The truth of the matter is that Ubisoft does not care about game preservation. All that the company cares about is extracting as much money from the consumer’s wallet as possible. Ubisoft is far from unique in this mindset, but the studio does not exactly hold a stellar reputation when it comes to respecting its audience.
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