Players Need To Start "Feeling Comfortable" With Not Owning Games, Says Ubisoft Subs Boss

Ubisoft needs to start "Feeling Comfortable" with their games being pirated. :^)

Ubisoft need to start feeling comfortable not getting any money from me then.

While tempting even xbox game pass with it's low monthly cost would have me spend more money on pc games than I do yearly. And yeah, I wouldn't own it forever.

The older I get, the more I'm okay with this. Can't take em with me and my kids don't want to deal with my ***** I leave behind. 😬

Sounds like something the director of subscriptions would say.

The subscription model might seem great at first but it does have it's flaws. Certain kinds of games will eventually be prioritized as they may be a better fit for the subscription model and while there are lots of games being made for the services now, soon the company will need to cap how much it will make in relation to the subscribers it's bringing in.

I’m probably one of the oldest gamers on here and grown up with physical media of all types more than most.
But when CDs and Blu rays went I embraced it and love digital, so easy and convenient.
All my three consoles are all digital right now and I would never want to go back to physical for any of my media.
I thought being an old person it would be me rebelling against all digital but overtime I’ve come to embrace

I mean do we ever own our games to begin with? Physical games still have that EULA business and console manufacturers can totally still revoke access even if you have the disc or render a game unplayable without an update. You're paying for the license, not the actual game itself. Plus don't most Xbox and PS physical games require an installation anyway? Now pre-internet games, I'd say you would own those.

Not everyone got comfortable with not owning their music or movies, though. There’s still a market for CDs, vinyls, DVDS, blu-rays, etc. of course, it’s a much smaller market but it still exists. The convenience of streaming is nice, but tangibly owning something is still important to many people

Then players need to get comfortable with bankrupting companies that force that upon them and putting them out of business.

Let's start with Ubisoft.

@Zacklby Trust me when I say your kids will be thankful you leave them something down the line. I'm not just talking about books or games, they need a sense of ownership, something that they can claim is there's and when the world is making it harder for them to own stuff, what you give them will mean a whole lot more as a result.

all I can say is this is such a stupid take from ubisoft. Though not surprising, Ubisoft in my eyes wasn't like the other AAA studios and was closer to the village idiot rather than a studio that was ruthlessly trying to Nicole and dime it's already existing user base with justifications that were as flimsy as cardboard.

@TheBigK All things will expire if given enough time yet our right to own and preserve those things must exist.

Not only games, if I buy anything, I want it to be accessible and available to me when I want it. Why would anyone willingly say this when we know game prices are supposedly on the rise next gen. Yeah, let me pay even more but then not have it be mine.
At least offer a way for us to back the game up ourselves or put it onto media for future availability for ourselves or something. What a load of c**p from Ubisoft.

You know when you buy any item in this world, let's say a boardgame, you are free to sell that to anyone that want to buy that. I think any company would like to sell things (not consume_able) wich the buyer can't sell anymore, it will generate even more money. But, thank god, we are free to sell whatever we want, without refilling their pockets.

Ubisoft asking that I should feel comfortable not owning games?

@TheBigK while games do require installs majority of games on ps4, ps5, Xone and XSX are fully there on the physical disc and don’t require an update or patch to be played at all (despite what twitter and most pc gamers will tell you).

Ubisoft needs to start getting comfortable with me shoving my foot up their ***. Ain’t no way that f***er just said that.

Now that's what I want to see

No more putting wool over our eyes, just pure, uncensored shot in Ubisoft's own knee with a double barreled shotgun

Ubisoft loved making itself a catastrophe for 20 years now, might as well speed this up

That's like when companies started forcing self-check out around here: better expect theft.

i wonder if ubisoft is "comfortable" with me never buying their games, starting ages ago.

People need to get used to not owning anything. Rent your home, subscribe to entertainment. Be good little consumers and give the large corporations a continuous revenue stream.

Thank you.

YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY ABOUT IT

A lot of store chains already removed physicals in recent years.
Almost everyone prefer digital over physical.

Blame everyone who went digital for this. It's not a UBI thing.

Owning digital games yeah. Subscribing, NO!

Physical games are going away too, which I don't really care for. Most young people buy digital anyway. Physical is for old heads as they say.

Nope, no, see, I subscribe to Nintendo Online with the Expansion, and it's so annoying how the first time you launch each of the emulation apps it checks online for your subscription, limiting where and when you can play them if you haven't in the past week! It's nice we get all these games included, but the online requirements get to be annoying, especially on a portable console I often play on my commutes without any internet. Same goes for the Mario Kart DLC, which I'm tempted to buy outright just so my Mario Kart 8 doesn't also have to dial in and check every week before it launches. It's much better to own the game, especially physically, and have it work fully offline. Then I can share it with friends or family too.

I’ve been extremely comfortable with not owning any Ubisoft games for a while now. If they take themselves out of the physical pie, that means a bigger slice for publishers that continue to provide something that consumers want.

Ubisoft - U be better off without them.

No ownership means no repurcussions to lost content. Like the Just Dance content that you had to subscribe to but can’t anymore (or the content they removed due a week after launch), or the Ubisoft+ DLC that is no longer accessible or anyone who wants to access their Hyper Scape file.

I’m ok with subscribing to games, the amount of games I’ve beaten and regularly play through Nintendo Switch Online and Apple Arcade, its the most feasible option if you commit to it. But it comes with the risk that it can and will go away one day (in Apple Arcade’s case, much sooner, judging by the amount of games lost already and Rayman Mini is likely to be out of the picture this year as well).

@Toastmaster I'm too lazy to go in store now lol. Plus I like having space in my apartment.

...Did he really just say that?

"That's the consumer shift that needs to happen"

No, that's just what the company wants to happen. We as consumers don't "need" to do anything and we don't owe these companies anything.

This is the kind of stupid company-brained logic you run into when each company is expected to make record profits every single year while simultaneously not giving their employees yearly raises.

This would be a big deal if it came from CDPR, Bethesda, or Larian, but Ubi only produces bargain bin games as of late, so who cares.

@TheBigK Good luck to revoke access to a Switch cart on a switch that was never connected to the internet.

I think people are misinterpreting what he’s saying. I also don’t think what he’s saying is something new. We already have Gamepass, PS+ and Nintendo Switch Online. Those are all services where we don’t own the games. It’s no different than video streaming or music streaming. Now, is that the future of gaming? Who knows. It’ll probably be like movies and music where both coexist. That’s my guess.

I feel very comfortable not owning any ubisoft games so I’m ready

With comments like these, it's tough to recommend any future Ubisoft game to anyone now. No matter how good it is.

Ubisoft is their own worst enemy.

We don’t make art. We make ‘content’.

Ha he also needs to get use to players not using his service too. I know I won't. Most us don't subscribe to every live service under the moon, instead we share password and any service we don't like we cancelled it out of existence forever. I myself play GameFly, Luna, GForce Now, Ouya, Stadia, and OnLive for free and never subscribe to any of them, once the trial period ends, I jump ship and just let them sink.

@Solomon_Rambling I agree. Best case scenario is to have both. We kind of already do with stuff like Gamepass or PS+. Even Nintendo Switch Online lets people access certain dlc or buy it to own if they wish.

I think a lot of us here like owning stuff, but there are plenty of gamers who are content with only playing a game for a week and moving on. I mean back in the day, renting games was really popular. So I think having both options, streaming and buying to own, is the best. That’s how it is with movies and music right now anyway.

If buying isn't owning then pirating isn't steeling so this suits me fine.

@Godzil This is a good point about Ubi games on Switch.

Even though Ubi's policy is usually very anti-consumer for PC and other consoles (Must connect to internet and/or create uPlay account), the Switch versions of the Assassin's Creed games are thankfully free of all that nonsense and you can play offline with no issues.

We probably have Nintendo to thank for that more than Ubi, but it's still a nice loophole.

That is NOT the future I want.

‘You’ll own nothing and be happy!’

I’m happy to stream for convenience but I fundamentally believe in ownership of media as an option. If that right is removed then I’ll keep my money.

I mean change happens. That's the march of progress...buuuuuuut you don't have to be so arrogant about it. Consumers will decide in their own time if subs are what the market wants. You can't tell a market when to choose, and you have to be prepared for backlash if you force the market to choose before it is ready.

Will games have an all digital future eventually? Most likely, but the tech just isn't there yet to make it convenient. I doubt people are going to have shelves of games or movies 200 years from now. So if ubisoft wants to push that, then they need to be pushing tech forward... not the consumers.

I like owning games for the simple reason that subscription services don’t last forever, and even when they are running long, they can remove a game at ANY time.

And if that’s a game you’ve sunk time and money into and it’s taken from you… we’ll, that feels like some form of robbery

Yes, I want to own my games forever…however, I see the shift happening, and probably sooner rather than later.

This is beyond physical vs. digital. Digital distribution has had many problems in its short existence. Things are delisted without notice in many cases. There have been cases of things being removed from people's libraries despite being purchased. And I know it's not considered "owning" it, but they are happy to make it seem like it up front. For gaming, one major reason they want this subscription model is it lets them find yet more ways to monetize games with digital "items" and such. As far as distribution, I think digital makes a lot of sense for games because of how many games are incomplete, even on disc, and how many updates there are. In my experience Steam and GOG have been very good platforms for distribution and are a good example in that regard. I know DRM-free isn't appealing to big companies like Ubisoft.

I was open to the idea of digital distribution of shows and movies early on. The idea of not having to deal with the clutter was appealing. Once I saw the sudden delisting and other shenanigans, I decided to change course. I now buy more physical media than ever before, though much of it used(another reason companies love the subscription model).

Lastly, these comments by this Ubi guy is a good demonstration of what not to do when it comes to PR. Telling people what they need to be doing, which has far more benefit to the company selling them a subscription service, is tone deaf and arrogant. Reluctance on the part of consumers is likely because they have observed the downsides of digital content services and the fact that the fees often get jacked up down the road once the alternatives are gone.

@Noxide I already said elsewhere that this is what got me "used to not owning the games I play" for over a decade. Why would I have any more qualms about someday torrenting the image of a game I actually paid for? And if the answer to that is to tie ALL the games to finite lifespan servers like The Crew, it will hurt nothing but some people's motivation to invest in and start a journey they have no conidence in finishing at their chosen pace.

Then developers need to get comfortable charging about 1/10 of what they do now because there’s no way I’m spending the same amount of money on games I don’t even own.

«"That's the consumer shift that needs to happen"»
Ha! Nope! Never! Also, we need to remind them that we are customers, not consumers. *uck Ubisoft.

I'm starting to feel really comfortable not buying any games from Ubisoft.

I love the subscription model and don't see the fuss about owning games.
I paid for a month of Ubisoft+ and got to play Avatar and AC Mirage for £15 rather than having to pay over £100.
Do you guys still buy DVD's rather than watch movies on Prime or Netflix?

This is not the selling point they seem to think it is. With an attitude like this, I'm quite frankly surprised they still offer physical games to begin with

he needs to get comfortable with shutting the whole fk up

@Chaotic_Neutral yes, when i want to actually own it, support the filmmakers more substantially, and not have my access to it dictated by the whims of the distributor.

I am feeling comfortable not owning THEIR games 😙✨

I will be looking for a new hobby when it happens ♥️

Sounds like a great time to boycott Ubisoft.

I hate what he just said. I hate it I hate it I hate it

Having read the original interview, I think the title here is misleading. Tremblay was saying for people who want to subscribe for services like this they need to be comfortable not owning the games on it, not that everyone needs to only play games on subscription and never buy them again.

All the more reason I argue having a physical game is better. When companies get comfortable giving us digital only, we may start to see them disappear from our gaming libraries. I’d hate to see the industry turn this route but it very well may happen. I do prefer digital on my Xbox as I have more storage so it’s nice to not have to load up games in the switch over but for switch I like having those cartridges. Discs have a tendency of getting smudges and scratches that I don’t worry about with the carts.

I don’t like the thought of paying a subscription fee to access a growing library of games. At face value that sounds like a weird thing to say. But considering I play games slowly, for multiple hundreds of hours, a subscription would feel like I’m paying hundreds of dollars per game rather than the $30-60 that I willingly pay now. For example I play Splatoon 3 almost daily, I whittle away at Zelda BOTW every few days (will eventually get to TOTK in a year or so), every so often I pop into Sparks of Hope, NSMBU, etc. I keep a rotation going, it keeps me happy. I buy many of my games on sale including TOTK. They sit till I get to them. They are a sunken fixed cost. Sparks of Hope will only ever cost me $20, BOTW $35, TOTK $45, Splatoon 3 $47, NSMBU $35 and so on. I can play these games as slowly as I please and repeatedly play them again and again.

But with a subscription service I would feel like I am paying many times more to play my rotation of games.

I’ve had an Apple Music subscription for half a year now and I am questioning it. I already own a lot of music that I have enjoyed listening to over the last 20 years. There is not enough new music to justify the monthly subscription. As I see it, I’m repeatedly paying to listen to the same rotation of music each month (whether it be new or old favorites).

The same feeling will occur with a gaming subscription. I like to pay once and enjoy perpetually.

Here’s me though, f*** off mate

I also prefer to buy a copy and own my games. I don’t think films on DVD are a good comparison. The mediums are too different, regarding replay value among other aspects.

I’m just getting more and more comfortable not spending money on Ubisoft games.

I already feel extremely comfortable with not owning any Ubisoft games.

He might want to check himself before he talks. One, not everyone has access to a great internet connection. Two, DVD's and CD's were considerable cheaper that a AAA game. Finally, gamers have every right to fear these game companies changing the way they do business because they have in the past.

How many times have we had to repurchase Super Mario Bros.?

Yea right .. I'm actually starting the process of going back to physical media when i realized I couldn't take my digital movies and put them on stuff... Also sick and tired of streaming services raising prices for subpar content i only watch the same stuff over anyways so I figure I'll get me a bluray burner copy all my physical movies and shows and put them on my devices like fire stick and tablet... So yea F this guy and the whole industry... Microsoft pushing gamepass as the future is a joke... Streaming has already proven how hard it is to actually pay people for their work while the fat cats on top get rich

In my eyes Spotify, Amazon Prime and Netflix work for me as I pay (relatively) little for a huge selection of music, TV, films, podcasts etc. However, I can't afford anymore streaming services outside of these; however, I still also buy CD'S/Vinyl and DVDs for things that mean something to me. So for games to work in a similar fashion a lot of the publishers would have to work together or I will be missing out a lot!!

i completely against of a fully digital world, i want my physical media for me or to lend to my cousin

@lacaras4 thank you for that clarity this article was misleading

@Noxide,

They will factor this in with the pricing, and savings with all the logistical costs saved, and of course the media, packaging and production costs.

Just having to create a Ubisoft Account to play their games was enough for me to not buy another Ubisoft Game

"You will own nothing, and be happy"

Consider a theoretical Nintendo subscription service of $20/month, $240/year. Over the course of a year if I were to play Zelda TOTK, Splatoon 3, Mario Wonder, and Pokémon Scarlet, it would be $240/4 games = $60 per game. Sounds like normal pricing, but what if my life gets busy and I can only manage TOTK and Splatoon for the entire year, now both games cost $120 each. Or what if I want to return to Luigi’s Mansion 3? Well I would have already payed subscription to play it when it came out and pay again to play it again years later. Therefore, for gamers like me that play just a few games per year and sometimes over the course of several years (BOTW, Animal Crossing, Splatoon), the games cost would add up to be far more than $60 per game. Extrapolate this out 5-10 years, revisiting a classic you love. How comfortable would you feel sinking more cost into a game just to replay it versus just paying once and only once.

Subscription services are evil. We will charge you $1 everyday to have access to viewing the sunset, but what if I don’t look at it, we still charge you for the access rights.

If this becomes the standard my days of gaming will be limited to older games

Heha, this is funny. Love the title. Perfect for what the future will be. And people wonder why physical media is dieing.

@sanderev ding ding ding! 👍

I dont feel comfortable buying something for 70 dollars and not owning it.

@Tyranexx this push for all-digital is such a pain for rural gamers

Whobisoft?

@Noxide reading this on the anniversary of my own fathers passing was incredibly insightful. Thank you for the perspective. I have about 5 things from my dad (nothing huge) that mean the world to me. 😊

The phrase "The customer is always right" seems to fall on deaf ears to some corporations...

Not even reading the other comments before I post mine. The day gaming becomes streaming subscription only will be the day I stop buying new games. I will not "get comfortable not owning my games" so any model predicated on that happening is a nonstarter for me. To each their own, but this reinforces my drive to ensure my physical collection and hardware stay functional. If a game is only available via subscription, I'll be skipping it, up to and including exiting the gaming market altogether. Read the comments Ubisoft and other greedy corporatists. This is not a winning strategy, and since he references TV streaming, there's strong evidence that people are getting sick of that paradigm too. Don't do it gaming companies.

He needs to become comfortable with a boot up something or other.

"Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved an all-digital future."

I think there is a place for streaming services in gaming…but I don’t know exactly what it is yet. But I do know what it isn’t…a company or publisher charges monthly fees for only their games. Ubisoft hasn’t put out a “must play” game (to me anyway) in over a decade, but I’ve purchased some of their games, physically, for sure in that time. If they of all companies moved to a subscription only service to play their games, they would never get another dollar from me. And that’s not me being a jerk, I just don’t think they’d offer anything worthwhile to me.

Add to that the idea that your progress will never be “lost”…well is that with only having an active subscription? Can we start and stop whenever and our save files will remain? If we take a break from AC for a few months and pause our subscription, will our save files remain when we come back? Or are we required to pay all the months we’ve played other games (or just gotten busy with life) in order to have the privilege of them keeping our files safe?

I do realize too that as I age I have far less time for gaming and perhaps this hobby has passed me by in its current (and rapidly approaching new) form. I have a backlog that could take me the rest of my life to get through, so maybe that’s just the course my enjoyment of this hobby will take. We shall see.

So many questions.

I am comfortable not owning any Ubisoft games )))

It's important to note that it's Ubisoft's "Director of subscriptions" saying this, so he's just promoting his own gig, like a fishmonger telling people "You should eat more fish!"

We're going to have both. He can posture all he wants just like people can throw fits all they want like here. It's obvious with the market how it is for all media that we're going to have a mix so long as consumers are split on the question which they surely will be.

My knee-jerk reaction was to say, as others before me have, "Ubisoft needs to become comfortable with not getting my money," but I quickly remembered that there's another reason why Ubisoft already hasn't gotten my money in several years:

Ubisoft needs to become comfortable with neither allowing nor covering up sexual harassment within its company.

Ah yes, the company that turned a blind eye to sexual misconduct in the workplace, among other allegations, is exactly who needs to be telling us what to get comfortable with.

Another day another company destroying itself with bad decision

I’m sure consumers love being told what to do

"Games-as-service" already sucks and this aims to make things even worse...

HAS HE FORGOT the uproar the xbox one caused when microsoft said the console HAD TO BE always online, you COULDN'T play secondhand games and the kinect WAS ALWAYS on?
Gamers back then COMPLETELY REJECTED those notions and xbox SUFFERED for it.
If we gamers unite once again, we can tell ubisoft and the rest where to go.

@burninmylight Nice, making fun of my weight. Fit and healthy btw.

Ubisoft can take that statement and shove it where the sun don't shine. I hope they go out of business.

@Noxide Ha! Good one Noxide.

This is bizarre that companies keep saying ***** like this in the open. We all know all the game companies want this but its biazarre that they think they wont recieve backlash for saying this publically. Why would company executives talk about there evil plans in public? It only can damage them no?

@GrailUK
NSO already feels way ahead in that area since its the only way to play games like Mario world, Golden sun, earthbound etc on your switch.

Though in terms of major new releases im hoping that the whole xbox one debacle showed that people aren't happy with this kind of thing. i mean, digital has its flaws but it at least has a lot more "safety net"'s when it comes to playing your games, where's with something like streaming or a service based model then simply accessing your games is dependant on an online service, if the service ends or a game is delisted then you are SOL.

dont have a problem with services as an option, something like gamepass did things pretty well since you can buy the games on it, its just when its the ONLY way to play a game on a console in which im really not a fan.

@Noxide Couldn't have put it better myself.

I'm ok with Ubisoft going all digital, makes one less company I would support.

@OldGamer999 Yeah but a digital library is still one you own. Subscription means they can change the catalog at any time. Like with Netflix etc, it's fine and has a place – but there are some films I want to be available to watch without being at the mercy of a corporations tickle and fancy – or changes in regional availability. I'm an old gamer too at nearly 50 – but I'm somewhere in the middle of this.

On one hand I like digital very much and no longer wish to have a wall of plastic boxes gathering dust, but taking Nintendo as an example, I've many, many digital games from older Systems that I've paid good money for, but not only are they often absent from the latest console, if you do wish to replay them your expected to pay a subscription. I must own Super Metroid about four times over. The way games companies expect you to abandon your library each time there is a new generation console has basically become tantamount to stealing imo. Really, I'm sick of it, and I'm taking matters into my own hands. I'm going to emulation the heck out of all my digital Switch games in the future (probably on a SteamDeck 2 or whatever, Since at least Steam doesn't do the one generation then it's gone BS), because I can't trust first-party companies with my many purchases. Apple even just wipes them from the App Store whenever they feel like it. So anyway, I'll balance the new way with a slice of the old.

It's all about money for these companies in the end. They save money by not having to print games. End of story.

And nobody is complaining because we, once again, are just going with the convenience of it. We don't care that we're losing actual ownership for our money spent.

@rallydefault A good chunk of the comment section is complaining about it. Except for the boot licking shills.

@Tempestryke
Yea, but again, the whole internet thing - we're the minority of a minority. Most people who buy games will just roll with this kind of stuff.

@rallydefault No we're not. A lot of people don't want to lose ownership of things they bought.

Ubisoft needs to be comfortable with me not giving them another dime after that hot take. I have nothing against live service games… some of my favorite games are live service games, but I will always prefer to own the games I play than rely upon a digital first model.

@brunojenso
Yes that is correct I’m digital but I own or have converted my old cd collection to digital, personnel use only.
The only subscription I have is game pass for what you mentioned.

Is also very interesting what happens when you pass away even if you have say 20 switch digital games you own. Do they go to your estate and in the will. Also if you have left your estate to someone how do they get hold of the digital games and make them legally their own.

It wouldn’t surprise if the whole legal system in the UK is way behind working all this out.

I mean if it’s a bank account with money in it, you show probate and death certificate and then you get the money in the account.

Ubisoft need to start feeling comfortable with writing "An Ubisoft Original" instead of writing "A Ubisoft Original" before I would consider buying one of their boring games.

Only joking, I don't care what they write. I have zero interest in them or their games regardless.

Oh yeah, because stuff never dissapears from any subscription service.

As Claus swab said " you will own nothing and be happy"
I am happy with my physical stuff.

@OldGamer999 Well, since you bring up our impermanence, I guess we should chill about all this really (telling myself). I'll preserve what I can for now, so that I can enjoy the games I've got for who-knows-ho-long, and maybe my gamer Nieces' will want my eShop account when I'm gone. But in general I guess it's helpful to remember it'll all disappear – as will Ubisoft and all it's employees. That way we can just enjoy playing games more than collecting them. Just curious btw – with you tag – are you happy to say roughly your age? I always find it reassuring that oldies still enjoy this articular pastime.

I have been an avid gaming enthusiast since the Atari 2600, owning most major platforms and thousands of games over that span, and the day I have to pay a subscription to be able to access my games is the day I will walk away from the hobby forever.

THIS RIGHT HERE is what all the EULAs, "Always Online", "live service games", and more recently XBox Game Pass, Playstation NOW, and Nintendo Switch Online have always been truly about: training gamers to surrender our most basic consumer rights in being able to claim ownership of content we legally paid for, to create a throwaway culture that constantly casts aside whatever isn't bringing in the most profit with no attempt at game preservation whatsoever, and to gate, monitor, and control everything you can do and access in your games (one can certainly argue that was the entire point of online functionality to begin with from an industry standpoint). If you really love this hobby I believe you'll say "NO" to any subscription model; speaking for myself I will NEVER support them. These higher-ups at Ubisoft, Square Enix, and others who claim to know "what's best for us" can go take a flying leap where I'm concerned.

Hope this guy is prepared to "get comfortable" watching Ubisoft's shares plummet after gamers get wind of his little remark and avoid anything to do with their content.

Streaming isn’t a far reaching viable option. Physical will always be king.

I could agree, if they didn't sell.

Sounds familiar. "You will own nothing and be happy." A certain someone who said this around a year ago. I'm sensing a theme, of sorts.🤔

@brunojenso
I’m 54 this month and still really enjoying gaming and a bit of a tech head in the entertainment audio video front. The daft uncle that always gets asked to set things up for family and friends. 😂

I'm pretty comfortable with never playing their ***** again.

Sounds like Ubisoft…

Streaming games is harder than other media for multiple reasons that have already been discussed a lot. Plus, the business model for sub services is yet to be proved successful for anyone without deep pockets.

I do believe streaming is an option in the distant future, but it's more likely that we'll still buy individual games instead of simply having a sub.

This is an especially awful take from a company famous for them, but I do think physical will not disappear entirely. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole industry moved the way music did, and we ended up with more boutique consoles like the Evercade popping up in response to this, like we now have with indie record labels publishing lots of physical media that is accessible directly to the general public (instead of only gatekept through retailers as in the past).

I'm personally strongly in favor of physical media, and will be interested to see where this goes.

"As people embrace that [streaming] model, they will see that these games will exist, the service will continue, and you'll be able to access them when you feel like. That's reassuring."

You mean, as reassuring as Netflix removing movies from its service and increasing its monthly cost? Or as reassuring as Ubisoft making "The Crew" permanently unplayable because they couldn't be arsed to implement an offline mode?

Nice try, Ubisoft.

@Tempestryke
We are an outspoken group of people on a semi-niche internet website.

We're a minority of a minority.

Most people who buy video games will roll with whatever the market gives them.

@OldGamer999 Yeah that pretty much me too.

@brunojenso
Glad to know I’m not the only one 😂

@Noxide they will be like "dad left me all these boxes of old games I can already play in an instant with my neural implant"

Games, movies, TV, anime, etc. If you really love something you probably want to own a copy of it. Especially if you replay/re-watch it often. This is best with physical media, not a license.

I also buy digital music, TV, and movies. Generally, I do so through Amazon

What a load of cr@p.
There’s no reason why physical releases can’t coexist with digital. This glorious shift to no ownership, no consumer choice need not happen.
May it never happen.

The fact that Ubisoft claims that "We need to" just tells me how dumb they are. No wonder they lose money.

The fact that Ubisoft put out their most critically acclaimed game in a decade and then immediately managed to put me right off buying it is actually impressive.

Any game dev that wants us to pay for something we can’t own is crazy and if they release such a game, I will happily refuse to buy any of their games. This writes Ubisoft off for me!

If things could ever get to a point where everything is available all the time, and guaranteed to not be taken down, that is when I will truly embrace an online only gaming world. Right now there are too many restrictions that legally gate me from a playing whatever I want to play, past or present. I know in the end ultimately this model will win out but it won't stop me from pirating if I am left with no other choice.

@Teksetter True, having digital and no physical is just lame when both could still exist with one another and does good business together. Having digital but no physical is like if we only had planes but no cars cause plane could both run and fly. Some people just don't like to fly just like how some people don't like digital.

I came here with my pitchfork, but I understand his reasoning: that this has happened with music before, like you can see in the case of Spotify. BUT, and it is a huge BUT, NO MUSIC COMPANY HAS EVER DELETED THEIR MUSIC OR BLOCKED ACCESS TO IT. These moneygrabbers like Ubisoft don't have any type of incentive to not EVER delete your favorite game, and hence, your access to it. A lot of people who enjoyed different live-service games who can fully function on single-player, have had their wishes crushed because the company simply put don't want the game to be playable anymore. So no, we all should own our games forever. You can't trust these companies.

I remember when steam first appeared many years back and that had me worried for the PC gaming market as I did enjoy some of the amazing physical games back then (combat flight sim 2 and the mammoth manual comes to mind) but I’ve now accepted and am comfortable with steam. I think the industry will head this way as a whole as we’ve got Spotify, Netflix, Gamepass, Office 365 all offering services or media via subscription now. It will take time, and don’t get me wrong I’ll be sad to see physical games go, but I do feel change will eventually come. It will make me treasure my current physicals that much more.

@FishyS Well said! As a software engineer myself (albeit in a different industry than games), I understand the desire to move towards a more continuous and reliable revenue model, but video games - really games - are not the same thing as movies and music. My consumption models for these are extremely different, and games - especially those that aren't story-driven affairs - are meant to be played again and again, with the goal being different outcomes. In this way, video games are closer in analogy to sports than to movies - the goal is still to "win", but the path for each player can involve different decisions and interim goals that mean certain parts of the experience differs wildly between those players.

Perhaps it is that upon reflection, rather than buy a game for $70, I'd be willing to pay $17 for a month to play one game to completion (considering it a long-term rental) ... but as someone who has been gaming for 40 years now and has kids and a job, I don't really have time to think through turning on/off subscriptions just to play one game, and I am happy to pay the $70 once so that I know I at least have a digital copy of the game whenever I want it.

A subscription service, to me, is the "buffet" model of dining - so much to consume, and a lot of it questionable - and I'm just not that hungry anymore for this kind of thing.

Read the market, Philippe Tremblay. Renting is great for companies but people want to own media.

Did they just assume I don't still collect films physically?

I already will never buy a ubisoft game again due to their workplace culture but now it is set in stone. This cannot be enabled

@Toastmaster If you read the article, this isn't about digital games. This is about services like Gamepass.

Subscription models can work, but as it stands, most of the current models really do not work. Give us reasons and incentives to subscribe and we will. Otherwise, Ubisoft better get comfortable with continuing to print physical media and sell digital copies or they won’t be alive for much longer.

@Shepdawg1 Even with incentives, I probably wouldn't sub. I don't want to be at the mercy of a company telling me when I can and can't play certain games. Its already bad enough when companies like Disney have full control over what shows they'll be able to remove on their own tv streaming services. Gaming companies don't need to have this same thing.

Ubisoft needs to be comfortable with going out of business. I’m not participating in the game industry anymore if it’s all digital. No one will ever change my mind on that.

I love this site, and these poll results hearten me as a physical media proponent, but this is still some disingenuous or at least sloppy reporting. The statement was not a normative one whereby he is condemning gamers' attitudes or consumption habits. It was in the context of what future trends this service's flourishing relies upon or anticipates. It was a descriptive empirical statement and not a prescriptive shaming one.

As a consumer, stand your ground and make supply meet demand. Don't meet supply. That's how business works on a macroscopic level. One reason I'm a Nintendo stan is they best cater to us old school types who want a physical finished game without tons of patches, DLC, and "seasons" (whatever that means). Other first party companies feel like they're overachieving if they package you a boot disc.

UBI Soft needs to feel comfortable with me playing the bajillion games I already own and none of their new ones, then.

Ubi soft has already shown what they’ll do if they have an continued influence over a game you supposedly have. For anyone who enjoyed the original 2 Rayman mobile runner games, they pulled support and disabled them, probably to assure that people would instead go sign up for Apple Arcade to get access to Rayman mini. Tough luck if you liked the first two, they’re just gone now.

And streaming services can’t claim to take the place of a physical DVD library, because I don’t have a monthly list of what discs will be leaving my shelves. But most streaming services shed movies and shows as regular function. Subscriptions and online access can be a great compliment to a physical library, but there’s too many shortcomings for it to be a complete replacement of it.

I know the studios and companies that control games and video and music would love to keep us on the streaming leash, but how do they hope to do that by offering us less than we already have?

The problem I have with the subscription model is that when gamers start switching we will see the same problems in the TV streaming market. Every publisher will want their own subscription. And you will need a half dozen different subscriptions to play all the games you want. Or you will have to constantly cancel subscriptions and start other subscriptions. Or you just buy the individual games that you want to play.

Well I mean ubisoft games are meant to be played once and then never again...

If games ever go full subscription, I will actually stop gaming. Full stop.

@stache13 Also the current model where you have to sell copies of the game you make are what leads to quality games Like Zelda and such. It is not sustainable to spend 6 years meticulously crafting a Zelda game just to release it to a service everyone is already subscribed to anyway. A Zelda game selling millions of copies makes that model viable though.

Ubisoft needs to be ok with having no customers.

Bold move sparky!

It's been heading this way for about 10+ years now. Cloud gaming so we can revoke it or hike the price when it get's popular. One day you're playing, the next its gone.

Meanwhile: it's my birthday and I truly have no idea what to ask people anymore! 😂🤣
My books are digital, my games are digital, my music and movies are digital!.... A stack of gift cards under the Christmas tree, wheeeeee!! 🥳🥳🤣🤣

And we're not even talking about the fun of going to conventions and finding a rare or forgotten game! Or trading and lending it to friends. (These are the main 2 reasons they want you to go digital after all.)

That is why i buy them on Gog or crack them.
Nintendo and Sony showed that they don't care to preserve digital Goods from their Stores, so i will avoid them in the Future

This is hilarious because, if gaming was like a streaming service, then Ubisoft would be in trouble. I’m not saying they don’t make any good games, but people can generally only justify or afford a handful of subscriptions. Like Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, maybe Paramount, maybe Apple, HBO, Crunchyroll…

In this analogy, Ubisoft is Starz.

@CharlieZee
Well that’s part of why this is happening, Gamepass is Microsoft’s new vision of having the total control they wanted back in 2013 and their goal right now is using consolidation to suck everything in the industry into it and goad publishers to attempt copycats which will hurt them due to the model being unsustainable so MS can swoop in and consolidate them until eventually they can force that model to be the dominant in the industry as they take total control.

It can work with music because songs are short, you can listen to a lot of them and have them on in the background and such. It can work for films because you typically watch the whole thing in one sitting. It doesn't necessarily work for games though.

It's worse for games because that game you're playing could be pulled from the system for many different reasons. The current systems (mostly) allow you to redownload a game you bought, even if it's been de-listed, but new players still can't play it.

Publisher issues, developer issues, licensing issues and more can result in a game going "poof!", the same thing happens all the time with TV/film streaming services.

Game preservation is already disastrously undervalued and I worry that this may make it even worse in some ways.

I use my Switch as both a home console and a portable, what happens if I can't connect to the internet? Or if my internet goes down? Can you still access the games you've been playing?

As long as Ubisoft heads start feeling comfortable with not owning their luxury homes, I'm in.

I can already savor the 20+ minute-long video from James Stephanie Sterling.

People like him need to shut up. The day I don’t have the option of owning a game I buy is the day I leave a company, or this whole industry, behind. We’re entitled to own something we’ve chosen to pay for.

I actually have trended back towards ownership of my cds. I am tired of subscriptions as a consumer, and am proud of games for holding the line

@Sensible "A Ubisoft Original" is correct, though. You put "n" when the next word starts with a vowel sound, not a vowel. Ubisoft sounds like "Yubisoft", so the "n" shouldn't be there.

He can say this all he want's but there has been a massive increase in people going out and buying preowned goods.
In my local town not 1 but 3 preowned shop's have opened up and a large portion of them shop's are selling old video games,dvds,cds,vinyl and cassettes . Guess what these shop's are packed with people, also the charity shops are packed . The other day I walked out with Bridget jones diary set and some action film's such as Joker for like £3.

Subscriptions have pretty much reached their peak and the downfall begins, I personally do not subscribe to any of them because what they show 90% of the time is not in my interest as I don't watch and play the same things the flock of sheep do.

The last game i played on game-pass was Viva pinata ,before that Lost in Random and these games are very few , so I unsubscribed.

I recently brought my partner a Wii and with a few hack's we are online again, we play animal crossing and currently Zelda skyward sword on the wii as it's got and get this Dungeons, it's not watered down crap like breath of the wild.
I don't need to pay for a remake version when the old version is the same game and with a wii2hdmi its got a good enough picture.

We went to see Busted Live in October , we brought Cd's and get this the first Cassette I've brought in year's. I phoned my Dad to check if I still have a valid bank account with him after all these years and his buying me a Cassette player. So excited to receive it and the thought of going out the house to hunt down Cassettes is exciting, it's like the 90's are back. My partner found this funny and did similar with her Dad for a Portable Cd player.

We turned the smart phone off, it was hard but now after a few weeks we are free from it. It's like my cloudy brain fog has cleared up. Even my imagination is returning back to me, which drives my hobby which is Art. Now we are looking to buy dumb phones,cameras and even a map of London for when we visit.

What fueled all this was recent news, x amount of our movies would go bye bye, no thanks we have now woke up.

I recommend people put the new tech away, and try a lifestyle close to that of the 90's. It don't mean you need old devices but live closer to a older style such as play a dvd on your xbox series x etc.

Physical for ever, it's better.

So… I got rid of all the dvds I had of my favourite shows because they were all on Netflix. Then, all of a sudden, they weren’t anymore.

A few were on Disney. Some were on Amazon. I have to have multiple monthly subs to keep access to the old shows I watch for fun? Well, quite a few of my favourite shows are just gone from any streamer now.

So for now, it’s off to the high seas, me hearties!

Ubisoft (as with all publicly traded publishers) have no interest in its legacy content until it can continue to draw a profit from it into the future.

@Zacklby. They might when your kids realize that some games might be worth some serious bank.

Being an Old School Gamer and the proud owner of dozens of legacy systems and games, there is something to be said about ownership. However, Software (or Games) as A Service is a thing that companies like Ubisoft have been pushing since the first online "verification" server. "Owning" a physical game means nothing if it needs an ACTIVE internet connection to "verify it" with a server that will eventually be decommissioned by said Gaming Company. Give me my backlog of physical Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision, SNES, PS2, GameCube games (to name a few) any day. Bonus: Most are worth $$$ to collectors and the like.

No..bye………(random text)

@Noxide Right On! When purchase no longer guarantees ownership, piracy is no longer theft, but preservation.

In every possible way imaginable, Ubisoft sucks.

@DiggleDog It's almost as if Ubi Soft made a good game by mistake...

haahahahahahaha no.

Companies are supposed to meet consumer demand, not the other way around.

I think Ubisoft views their consumers like "Just Dance" characters 🤷‍♂️

Joke's on them: they're the character 🤪

Well no more Ubisoft games for me lol.

I chose "other". Here's why:

I stopped looking at games as something I need physically many many years ago. I don't collect games. I play games for an experience similar to going to the movies. When I spend my money on a game, I question if the time I intend to invest will be worth the price. I knew I would probably spend about 20-30 hours on Mario Wonder. That would be about $2-$3 per hour for entertainment. Yep, sounds good, buy. Going to a 2 hour movie cost about $15-$20. Going to a concert or sporting event cost significantly more money per hour. So I don't mind not owning a game, but I'm not sure I want to have another subscription in my life either. My problem with Ubisoft is that I'll need to keep a subscription active in order to finish a game. That I have a problem with.

Just to add more to my thought process, about subscriptions. I think they're intended to keep consumers hooked and guarantee a constant flow of money coming in. When the board isn't seeing profits, they just up the price a few dollars.

I haven't bought or played an Ubisoft or Activision game since PS3 and I'm just fine. I like to stick to console exclusives because they show the most promise. I also have a large collection of roms and isos and that will continue. Haven't had a video ge subscription since the Sega Channel.

This comment section should be a lesson on why it's important to read the article being referenced. I'm usually reserved in my criticism of Nintendo Life. But the site knew what it was doing in its headline and how it framed what was being said.

Wow, judging by that poll, the shift’s not happening anytime soon.

Can’t wait for their stupid Assassin’s Creed service to fail miserably. I know Mirage was the last time I gave it a chance.

@JagGentlemann thanks for the English lesson there lad. I appreciate ur assistance.

See below. Note the part at approximately 1:40 from Yves himself.
He states you can pronounce it how you like in English. They completely ruined that by making their games "A Ubisoft Original."

https://youtu.be/IU61WkEVFWY?si=8BjiBKF7wfLDT9h6

Enjoy teaching English tomorrow, I wish your pupils all the best with their exams.

I don't know what they're trying to to pull with a plus plus premium ultra service but I'm fine buying games digitally. Not renting them like with NSO or whatever this is. Mostly because paying 3 - 20x the price for the game (it's about the memories playing. not the boxart) just so I can shove another piece of plastic on my shelf is absurd.

Hm on one hand I see the argument I mean that’s the direction that movies and tv shows went but they are different mediums by far. A season of tv takes what 8 hours tops to watch. A game can take up to 60 hours. If you have limited free time it legitimately makes more sense to just buy what you want compared to other mediums.

I really feel this part should read

you'll be able to access them when we feel like. That's reassuring.

And this is exactly why I’ll just pirate/emulate their games and certainly won’t be giving them any more of my money. And why the ?!&& does everything have to have a “+” after it these days?!!

I sometimes buy digital, sometimes physical, depending on how much I value a game. I'd like to continue doing that, having a choice with what I get to own.

What Ubisoft is suggesting here is straight up Orwellian, and it's sad that they either don't seem to realize it, or they do but don't care.

I'm already comfortable with not owning any more Ubisoft games. Period. Thanks for making my decision easier

I own WAY more games than I'll play. Physically, and especially digitally.
For many, it would make no difference if I just had subscription access, and suddenly didn't have it anymore.

For the ones I'm actually playing though, it makes no sense to me that I'd have to keep paying every month, even when I WASN'T playing.

It's not that I really care about "owning" digital copies. Because I don't. I can't resell them. It's just that I don't want to have to think about not having access to my games if I stopped paying.

And if anyone at Ubi wants to talk about what "needs" to happen, then I'd suggest they start making interesting games again, and stop greenlighting projects they're going to cancel anyway.

You will own nothing... and you will be happy about it...

Gaming is such a different experience form music and video... They hold our memories, our experiences, our childhoods. If I can't watch a movie, whatever thats 2 hours ill miss out on but If I can't play games like paper mario because it's online only I would be so upset. That game is so near and dear to me.

I will not feel comfortable subscribing to any gaming subscription service ever, but will continue to happily own some of my games digitally, and others physically. I will be the one to decide which is which.

@JohnnyMind yes, it is correct that you would not place an before a Y sound.
No one disputed that.

ubisoft needs to get comfortable with all their games being pirated from here on out.

@TheBigK Yes, obviously we do own them. Please show me real documented examples of when a gaming corporation has come to people's houses, and snatched all their games back once the systems had been retired. We both know you can't. Once a game, movie, album, or book is yours, it's yours for as long as you like.

@The_DuckWitch That's awesome!