Ubisoft endured a review-bombing campaign, then made $1 million from Black Flag Resynced's controversial DLC

[midian182]

WTF?! Want to know why Ubisoft was willing to endure so much hate and a temporarily negative Steam rating by including $85 worth of day-one DLC with Black Flag Resynced? The fact it made the company an extra $1 million probably explains it.

Ubisoft has a reputation for the amount of paid-for cosmetic and so-called time-saving extra content it adds to its titles, but making the combined cost of the DLC higher than the price of the game itself was a step too far for many Black Flag buyers. It caused the remake to be review-bombed on release, landing it a Mostly Negative score before climbing to the current Very Positive rating of 80%.

Ubisoft emphasized that the DLC is optional – the majority is made up of cosmetic items – and the resource/money packs and map packs are there for anyone who wants to speed things along, not offer gameplay advantages.

Ubisoft later emphasized that the standard edition of Black Flag Resynced offers the full complete experience, with every mission, island, and part of the story included.

According to Alinea Analytics, quite a lot of people purchased those fancy skins, extra resources, and map pack: the DLC brought in an extra $1 million on Steam alone.

That's a lot of money, but it still represents just 2.8% of the game's $35.1 million Steam revenue across the first four days after release.

The $4.99 Map Pack, which is the cheapest of these items, has a 6.34% Steam attach rate, so around 1 in 15 people bought it. The cosmetic packs' attachment rate was around 2%, meaning around 1 in 50 players bought them. It seems a lot of people don't want to find the Mayan stelae, shanties, treasure maps, letters, special chests, and Animus Keys the traditional way.

Following that initial backlash, Black Flag Resynced has become a huge hit, breaking the series' concurrent Steam player record by almost 40,000. Even the always-online requirement hasn't deterred people.

But while Ubisoft has been celebrating, attention has been drawn to the more than 380 people the company is laying off, announced before the game released. Fifty-one of them were from Ubisoft Barcelona and created all of Black Flag Resynced's underwater sections.

Permalink to story:

Ubisoft endured a review-bombing campaign, then made $1 million from Black Flag Resynced's controversial DLC

 

[ScottSoapbox]

That tracks with shortsighted thinking, trading reputation and goodwill for 3% more revenue today.

 

[BlackyNoir]

That tracks with shortsighted thinking, trading reputation and goodwill for 3% more revenue today.

And they don't know how many people skipped the purchase because of that shitty business endeavor, either now or in past games, and/or because of the bad review score.

That may well very be much higher than a measly single million dollars.

Cyberpunk 2077 sold 40 millions unit, despite one of the worst launch of all time, and despite being a new IP (for almost all press and gamers, who didn't know about the original old tabletop game). We'll see how much this one sell, for a remake of the most known and appreciated game in a very large and valuable IP, I'm willing to bet nowhere close to that.

(and, side note, "despite" not having Denuvo or any DRM for that matter... cough cough).

 

[BlackyNoir]

Ubisoft emphasized that the DLC is optional – the majority is made up of cosmetic items – and the resource/money packs and map packs are there for anyone who wants to speed things along, not offer gameplay advantages.

It would have been nice to have a modicum of journalism applied here. Sure the sentence say "Ubisoft emphasized", but no pushback? At all? No reality check from the Techspot writer that it's obviously a lie and "speed things up" is absolutely, definitely, pay to win (with all the issues with it, starting with game design made for money extraction instead of product quality).

 

[The Talking Tech]

This new generation of gamers with their Compulsive Buying and their Fears Of Missing Out are the reasons why companies like Ubisoft would never go bankrupt happily using their predatory business practices.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

This new generation of gamers with their Compulsive Buying and their Fears Of Missing Out are the reasons why companies like Ubisoft would never go bankrupt happily using their predatory business practices.

You old generation of gamers fed into FOMO for decades. You compulsively pre ordered games and paid out the arse for micro transactions.

Don't try to push this on the youngins when you have a decade of horse armor to answer for.

 

[Anton Longshot]

I like how well "Ubisoft" and "Black Flag" go together.

Ubisoft will take all your stuff and then sink your ship with you on it. ☠

Makes me wonder if they bury their booty in a secret place.

The people who run Ubi probably all have peg legs, hooks and eye patches. And parrots. And say "YARRR!" a lot.

 

[Kirby1]

It would have been nice to have a modicum of journalism applied here. Sure the sentence say "Ubisoft emphasized", but no pushback? At all? No reality check from the Techspot writer that it's obviously a lie and "speed things up" is absolutely, definitely, pay to win (with all the issues with it, starting with game design made for money extraction instead of product quality).

Lol.

Pay to win for a single player game?

I am playing this game. It hasn't pushed me towards the DLC once. I'm playing on the hardest difficult settings and the game is very easy. I can't imagine why anyone would feel like they need to buy something to make the game easier.

Lots of games launch with cosmetic DLC but if Ubisoft does it, it's a mortal sin.

 

[The Talking Tech]

You old generation of gamers fed into FOMO for decades. You compulsively pre ordered games and paid out the arse for micro transactions.

Don't try to push this on the youngins when you have a decade of horse armor to answer for.

That's Millennials doing...I'm Gen X the generation that believes in ownership.

 

[NumberNine]

If Ubisoft worked as hard on the games as they do the business they might be in a better situation.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

That's Millennials doing...I'm Gen X the generation that believes in ownership.

You mean the generation that wouldnt stop whining about boomers and is currently in charge of the corporations that are trying their damnest to remove ownership? THOSE gen X?

Yeah OK bud.

And no, horse armor was YOUR doing. Gamers in their 30s have long made up the majority of video game purchases going back to the early 90s. Last I checked, the oldest millennial was born in 1984, meaning that when the horse armor came out in 2006, the oldest millennials were....22. So most of them were either in college or high school, famously not high earning categories of the workforce.

Hmmm....which gen made up all those mid 30s gamers buying up all the DLC and microtransactions and season passes then eh? I know its hard for Gen X, but stop blaming other generations for your mistakes for once.

 

[ZedRM]

Who is still buying the trash Ubisoft dumps on the market? That's insane.

 

[ZedRM]

You old generation of gamers fed into FOMO for decades. You compulsively pre ordered games and paid out the arse for micro transactions.

Who are you calling old? You are lumping an entire group of people together in class a lot them don't belong too. That's not just wrong, it's bigoted. Check yourself old man.

That's Millennials doing...I'm Gen X the generation that believes in ownership.

This would be more accurate, but still not exactly right. In reality, clueless people of all ages and walks of life fall into the FOMO, preorder and micro-transaction crowd, who also don't value or understand the concept of ownership. They're clueless and can't be bothered to get a clue.