Honestly the "laying people off after launch" speaks volumes of the teams that do the same; can you not work multiple projects and shift people to the other one until it's complete?

The layoffs seem more like "line must go up'" than any kind of "we can no longer afford you now the job is done".

I'm probably preaching to the choir.

Running AC4 on my modified Xbox console. 0 issues, 0 bucks paid for the game, 0 fucks given.

Ubisoft ruined one too many games. My beloved Rocksmith now is a useless microtransaction shell of its former power. I won't buy a single ubisoft game in the future. Time to lay rest to the cancer they brought into gaming.

• Immediately started laying off workers after launch.

Which is so fucking braindead - they could have just as easily leveraged that now-experienced team to get a Assassin’s Creed - Rogue remake out in good time, especially as that has more of the same Black Flag ship mechanics, and most players missed out due to the transition from PS3 > PS4.

Holy shit that was wilder than I expected

Patrux bullied and harassed others by violence and setting a colleague's beard on fire.

Somehow I had memory holed this. Just generally hate Ubisoft. But jesus fucking christ I remember this coming out. Yea fuck Ubisoft.

Ubi was a dev that I paid dearly,

Wey-hey bully in the alley,

And if they could they'd charge us all yearly,

Bully down on Shinbone Al'!

Same. At this point the only thing Ubisoft could possibly convince me to buy is another VR assassins creed but they already announced that they're done with VR because they hate fun.

I mean the microtransactions are one thing but the headline is also making it seem like the original was a perfectly ethical game which it absolutely wasn't.

Have you see the cash shop items though?

If you want to spend an extra $12 to parade through the pirate game with flaming armour and a molten skin for your boat be my guest I guess.

This is a nothing burger. It's had this shit for years, and nobody with taste is going to buy it, so fuck it, let the fools be separated from their cash.

I remember the original being pretty mid. Am I remembering wrong? Like it was interesting for a few days and then I don't remember ever playing it again....

It leaked a few days before launch

This is the way

Pretty sure there were weekly challenges as well. It would tell you global stats of how many ships destroyed or whatever.

Or you could just play it on PC.

Ok they can have one more chance and they better not ef it up this time. Jk fuck Ubisoft and all their ancestors

Can I join your reality? Seems nice to live somewhere where moronic choices produce tangible consequences to those that made them, but that's not how it works where I live.

Somehow, despite the scandals and one of the main family members dying, they are still going strong with their bullshit.

I can’t even really fault them for putting the time saver shit in for an extra cost. If you only have a limited amount of time available to play paying a few bucks to reduce the friction and make it more fun can be worth it. I’d be upset if it was included by default. I want to go follow the wind and see what adventures I find.

The problem with this opinion is that the friction exists in the game because of the cash shop. If they had decided not to have a cash shop at the design stage then they also wouldn't have implemented the friction that you get to skip by paying money.

So you can either pay money to make it more fun like you said, or Ubisoft could make a proper game and have it be fun without you having to pay for the game more than once.

If you only have a limited amount of time available to play paying a few bucks to reduce the friction and make it more fun can be worth it. I’d be upset if it was included by default. I want to go follow the wind and see what adventures I find.

Imagine if there existed something like an option to play the game more casually and increase drops/xp so people could play the game at their own pace. We could call them "Gameplay Options" and have the users select them before the game starts (and allow them to change them later too). Revolutionary, I know.

The original did have a cash shop as well. Having not played the remake, I understand that the cash shop now includes cosmetics, which the original did not iirc. The original cash shop had in game resources and bonuses.

Did paying a few bucks in the cash shop give you a sense of pride and accomplishment?