Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has shared a direct response to the Stop Killing Games movement.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Guillemot was asked in a recent financial meeting, though it isn’t clear if the alleged ‘aggressive questioner’ was one of Ubisoft’s investors. We know of at least one investor unhappy enough with the current management at Ubisoft to demand they sell the company to TenCent instead of making a subsidiary. So we can’t be entirely sure if this person was a real supporter of Stop Killing Games.
Nonetheless, Ubisoft is especially targeted by the movement. When they cancelled online services for The Crew, tantamount to making the game unplayable anywhere, two California customers took Ubisoft to court over it. Ubisoft filed a motion to dismiss the case, laying out the argument that they made clear explanations of the game’s limited license. This passed the bar set by the California court, but the court of public opinion never forgave them for it.
Guillemot was asked about the petition, and also about The Crew’s cancellation itself.
Guillemot said this:
Regarding the petition, we operate in a market. And, whenever we release a game, we provide a lot of support for that game. We also provide a lot of services to make sure that the game is accessible and remains playable 24/7.
Guillemot went on to detail the specific ways that they notify players about how their games are provided as a service, including notice that they can be cancelled.
But this time, Guillemot, speaking for Ubisoft, shared a more conciliatory statement about the issue. He said:
So this is an issue that we’ve been dealing with. But this kind of issue is not specific to Ubisoft. All video game publishers are faced with that issue.
You provide a service, but nothing is written in stone and at some point, the service may be discontinued. Nothing is eternal. And we are doing our best to make sure that things go well for all players and buyers, because obviously support for all games cannot last forever.
But that’s an issue that we’re working on. That’s something that the industry at large is working on, to minimize impact on players. But clearly that’s something you need to factor in.
Obviously, this isn’t a real answer to everything that gamers want an answer for. Guillemot didn’t even talk about possibly reviving The Crew in offline form, which would be meeting a baseline for what the Stop Killing Games movement is looking for. But it’s possible that Ubisoft and other developers may no longer get to decide on if they want to ‘be nice’ and offer offline voluntarily. EU politicians are now expressing support for Stop Killing Games, suggesting that the movement has stronger chances there than they had in the UK and US.
But as to whether Stop Killing Games becomes a success, and whether it will prove to be a boon or bane for the industry, we will have to wait and see how it all plays out.
