There was a time when you could say that “video game companies are a business more than anything else,” and people wouldn’t really believe you, as the point of those companies was to make great video games, and the business elements were really second to that. However, in more recent times, the “business side” is all that certain companies seem to focus on, and those groups are paying the price for it, both literally and metaphorically. In the case of Ubisoft, it’s feeling the “price of business” go up and down, as they’re trying to spend more to make games while losing a lot of money in their stocks.
As noted by Tech4Gamers, the company has had a record drop of 45% in stock value over the last year, which isn’t good for a company that’s trying to not just stay afloat but remain one of the top-tier 3rd party developers out there. It also should be noted that this is just the latest in a “long fall” for the company, as over the last five years, the company’s stocks have fallen by an incredible 79%! That’s insane to think about, but it’s easy to point out why this happened.
First and foremost, the “focus” of Ubisoft has been incredibly off in the last few years. The company has been focused on making “big games” without exactly caring about the quality of those titles. That’s what led to certain games almost being rushed out before they were ready, or dropping games and then getting huge backlash from fans about what should’ve been added, taken out, and so on.
Then, there was the fact that the company kept “hyping up” certain big titles that were coming out in 2023 and 2024, with basically none of them living up to expectations and a certain pirate title being a complete disaster. Oh, and that pirate title was labeled by the company’s CEO to be a “AAAA game,” and as of now, there are barely 400 people playing it on Steam.
Another issue is the culture of the company, which has repeatedly attacked gamers for “not being games” or “not knowing what they want,” when gamers emphatically know what they want: they want great games! Yet, from the CEO to others in the company, they’ve released statements blaming gamers for their woes, when Ubisoft itself has had massive layoffs, strikes against certain branches of the company, and more.
All this and more leads to many wondering if the publisher will be bought out or declare bankruptcy before too long.
