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.
So Larian is calling attention to predatory employment practices, as they have done before, and this time they’re doing it by comparing the situation to predatory sales practices, and criticizing them in the comparison
Still confusing as hell.
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.
I hope they go start up indie studios. Fuck Ubisoft.
it was time to unionize a decade or two ago
Indie ftw. Could developers negotiate for % of royalty/subs income?
Of all the problems the industry has.
Needing to make ALL THE MONEY POSSIBLE, which make pretty much all sales look like they are underperformingLol, lmao they deserve it for saying such asinine shit.
it’s not the devs saying it, but it’s the devs who are punished
Never said the devs did. Ubisoft execs said it and they deserve it.
the quote is literally “developers must get used to not having jobs”
execs aren’t the ones losing jobs with layoffs
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.
The Larian guy isn’t saying the quote seriously. He’s saying it’s the natural conclusion of the Ubisoft strategy and that it’s bad for everyone, so Ubisoft better change their strategy.
Execs are the ones ordering the layoffs. The devs can make a worker co-op since they are the ones that actually produce shit.
note that even in your fantasy the execs aren’t losing out
Losing all their employees is not losing out, right.
correct, because they’ll just wriggle off to another company
you know you can just admit you read the title wrong and said something stupid, rather than doubling down? rather than pretending you meant something completely different
