I’m glad Ghost Recon Breakpoint was a flop, Ubisoft deserved it

A reader takes pleasure in Ubisoft’s current financial woes and questions why it released Breakpoint and The Division 2 when it did.

[ActualWhiteMan]

I’ll be honest. They should have just expanded on Wildlands. Or remade Advanced Warfare.

[ilikestuff]

Yes and yes. They played themselves, the game could’ve been good. The trailers had me interested, the reviews changed my mind

[SkatterBrain]

if they had made it offline playable i woulda bought it i liked wildlands soo much i was ready to buy this until i heard it needed a constant internet connection

[Seraphim]

Wildlands was a blast and even better with a couple friends. Despite the usual Ubi fetch stuff/trophies for game time filler I enjoyed the game and getting the Platinum. Work on that trivial stuff alone and enjoy the campaign with friends. At first Breakpoint looked awesome. However the more and more I saw it the more I realized, for me, it just wasn't going to be worth buying. IMO they lost focus of why Wildlands was well received and sold well. Or just didn't care.

[Relientk77]

Yes, Ubisoft should have remade Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare lol

[CaptainFaisal]

I think he means Ghost Recon

[Profchaos]

Graw was before codaw

[jjb1981]

What even is this?

[porkChop]

Guys, he was joking. GRAW was Advanced Warfighter, not Warfare.

[Retroman]

I'LL be honest if "All" PS5 games have loot boxes and microtransaction I will not buy the system.

[sprinterboy]

If nxt gen with Ray racing, ryzen and all the specs were hearing leads to the continued BS of loot boxes, MT (full price games) and other such bs then nxt gen will be nothing but always online, gaas, BR etc. Yes we're still get the AAA 1st party sp games but that will be like watching paint dry.
All that power, physics, extra immersion and interaction with the worlds will all be wasted. All for nothing as the BS transitions into ps5/scarlett.
So easy to win nxt gen, just announce all nxt gen games for your system will not have loot boxes, MT and gaas model games will be either f2p (minor mt) or priced accordingly around £20/$20.
Say all that on stage and you win nxt gen. You might be minus a few game releases from some of the big company's but gamers will support you.

[DaGR8JIBRALTAR]

I 2nd that opinion...half ass games deserve half ass sales.

[shuvam09]

A few points to be noted though:

1. It's really according to Ubisoft that the game flopped, which means it musta sold pretty good...
2. It's a GaaS, and almost all of them start out shitty...

[nyu1]

It isn't just that though. This isn't about it being a half assed game. It isn't just that there are micro-transactions either.

By far the worst thing is that the DNA and creative vision of a game is f***ked over because of games as a service and monetization. Having a social hub, gear score and looter shooter elements ? In a Ghost Recon game ? Why ? Who the hell asked for this lol ? Some business suites decided that was necessary, because then you can monetize it.

Maybe even worse is when you think what Ubisoft studios could actually achieve if they didn't try homogenizing all their games to this extent. It's such a waste.

[Immagaiden]

Splinter Cell and Rayman go dormant while Ubisoft homogenizes the market with their live services

[Baza]

Greed kills

[sprinterboy]

Tom Clancy will be turning in his grave 😔

[REDGUM]

@ the title....
Thats a harsh statement.
No business deserves that.
There's alot of effort goes into building games, and I'm sure no company sets out to build a failure of a game.
I'm sure they'll go back to the drawing board and make some changes to make the next installment, franchise or IP.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

You can only fool people so many times, like what has been said earlier - it should have been an expansion.

Companies shouldn't be praised for mediocre games, maybe this is what Ubi needs to reassess the direction they've embraced.

I'd bet my left nut that if they could monetize Splinter Cell or Rayman we'd have a few more those this gen.

[TheColbertinator]

lol Got me chuckling with that left nut remark

[REDGUM]

And i agree with you oldboy, to the tee. I just have an issue with the term "Ubisoft deserved it".
It just sounds too harsh to me.
I haven't played it, nor the last installment. I've heard and read the game is mediocre at best too which I'm sure it itms. I'm not commenting on the game itself, just the title of the article.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

REDGUM - I can understand your dislike for the term 'Ubisoft deserved it' - but they've been really lazy and laser focused on fleecing consumers all gen.

This is the straw that broke the camel's back, people can be overly harsh when they feel duped by something.

My only hope is that the big players in gaming industry take a massive look at themselves and next gen is not a repeat of this one for many.

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

EA deserves it. Stop being a corporate shill

[REDGUM]

I'm not, far from it actually.

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

@REDGUM

Everyone that isn't a corporate shill would disagree

[Double_O_Revan]

"There's alot of effort goes into building games,"
I'm sure there was a lot of effort put into parts. But no one ever said that Bad Decisions couldn't also require a lot of work.

[jdaboss]

shut yo corporate bootlickin arse up.

[REDGUM]

I'm not sticking up for the company champ. Just taken back by the article's title.

[sprinterboy]

Let me guess, you bought fallout 76 1st (full year sub)
Am I right or am I right

[REDGUM]

Not a chance. I've never found interest in fallout games. Nothing wrong with them, they are just not my cup of tea.

[Donnie81]

I will never root for a game to fail. I love this hobby and games failing is really bad for it. Now it has failed though they need to stick with it and try to salvage it. Add more of the things that made wildlands great and back off on the micro transactions. Plenty of devs out there releasing good content that can make money over a period of time without attacking people’s wallets.

[RosweeSon]

I’ll never root for a game to fail but I’ll never support companies who produce yearly churned series all including season passes with content ripped from the games rather than extensions of the main game or a side spin off just blatant cash grab average bland 🤬🤬 Ubisoft got too many of them now assassins was getting rinsed far cry became yearly churn, they not alone ea got fifa battlefield etc and there’s also COD don’t buy any of those games anymore not for a few years If I do decide to buy fifa or this years COD it’ll be in a year or so once new ones here (12 months max) and the old one is going for peanuts. Not too bothered on all the online majority of the time.

[sprinterboy]

Not liked farcry since the 2nd one, totally different game from the 1st imo.
AC needs to die, had a good run but you can guarantee with the GoT sucker punch game success theyll he a AC:Japan again rinse and repeat.
Sad as I'm a fan of ubi over the years 80s/90s etc but they've lost there way this gen unfortunatly.
One thing ubi has going for them though there not scared to get things wrong and apologies and change unlike Bethesda, Activision and EA.
So there is a way back for ubi hopefully.

[Rachel_Alucard]

People rooting for a game to fail are doing it because of what the industry has been pushing and accepting as the norm. You don't hope a game fails unless there's some serious problem with what they want to do with it, such as predatory expenses and homogenization of the IP you used to love. This game and the others that pull this fully deserve this, because letting it do good is another way of acceptance towards it. Now that this has failed they can see what not to do.

[nyu1]

"I will never root for a game to fail. I love this hobby and games failing is really bad for it."

The game failing is good, because it discourages publishers to try the same thing in the future. If Ghost Recon Breakpoint was very successful, they would have doubled down on this nonsense. They would have continued ripping the soul out of every franchise to make it more monetization friendly. Who knows you'll end up with a looter shooter Prince Of Persia always online co-op shared world experience.

Ofcourse it sucks for the devs, but a game like this failing is GREAT for the industry. It tells everyone that this is not the way to go.

[sprinterboy]

Then your favourite devs will never listen, good companies out there will tell you bad customer complaints help them more than the good feedback they get.

[MAULxx]

They asked for it with always online & throwing the division stuff in. As I said before, I'm proud of GR fans on this one.

[Xaevi]

Netgear, Ubi and EA deserve what they get. Trying to push their shite business practices will continue blowing up in their faces. Nothing personal against the devs of course, they must not be enjoying being developers after these games come out. Unfortunate that the devs get all the flak for probably being pushed to do something they have no interest in

[Xaevi]

Not Netgear, I meant Bethesda… heh

[gokublack]

Another bandwagon snowflake begging for the attention of his bandwagon girlfriends

[MetroidFREAK21]

Yes they did deserve it

[CrimsonWing69]

What’s good is it’s a flop that needed to happen so that this isn’t the direction the industry goes into. I’m glad Ubisoft pushed back their games as to not phone it in with GaaS game design (assuming that’s why they delayed Watchdogs 3). Also, it gets tiring playing the same type of game with a different IP skin. Let your IPs have identities for chrissake.

It’s probably one of the laziest designs in gaming, honestly. Yes, I know MMORPG follow that blue print, but I don’t think every game from a dev/publisher needs to. It can be a genre of game, but not every game needs to be that genre.

[Thundercat77]

They will not get away with this. These companies want to make lots of money with average to low effort .

[Garethvk]

Very true. They are awful to many in the media. Demand coverage and then go silent come review time while they cherry pick those who will mainly give them positive reviews. They used to be really great to work with but the new p.r. team the last two years have been horrible to deal with.

[TheColbertinator]

I'm upset it was a flop actually. The MTs and Ubisoft's greedy practices were pathetic but to be fair we did want a respectable sequel to Wildlands. Though it had flaws, its best qualities clearly were impressive and Ubisoft clearly chose good developers for Wildlands. However, Breakpoint was a disaster that no one is eager to see fixed because gamers are moving on already to better polished experiences.

[--bienio--]

They’re needed to do a single Player games without that shity crap online !

[AK91]

Yes yes they did

[TargusX]

Totally agree. The series is a joke.

[Artemidorus]

Ubisoft are just lazy who demand more and more money.

[Edito]

I'm so happy...

[pootymcpoockle]

Same.

[KickSpinFilter]

Your an Ass.
Nice ten year age kid mentality ya got there.

[Cmoney007]

Fans: We want a new quality Splinter Cell game!

Ubisoft: No, you want a half version of Wildlands!

[MainstreamGamer]

It's time for a massive correction in the game industry. No one should hope for a game to fail but sometime the only way for certain companies to learn is to hit them in the pocketbook. Its time to throw out the baby with the bath water.