this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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Assassin's Creed is a "forever brand" because Ubisoft supported huge risks with it, ex director says: "Whereas, say, EA, you get these awful execs and they never made games and they came from toothpas (www.gamesradar.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Agent_Karyo@piefed.world to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 1 points 22 minutes ago

I really liked the first AC game but when I played Odyssey I was disappointed. Beautiful game, fun mini-games, nice subsystems like upgrading the ship and whatnot. After the initial couple of hours I started to feel like everything is a chore.

Need a map? No way to buy, you have to run/ride and climb the chore tower.

Want to use equipment? Grind chore for the XP to meet the level requirement.

Want to beat a quest handed to you early? Grind XP

Want to complete side quests? All of the boilerplate fetch/kill quests.

Just please, give me a starting weapon that's good enough and I can just stealth kill my way through the main quest. Also, just allow me to buy the map.

[–] zecg@lemmy.world 1 points 37 minutes ago

Sure, it's a forever brand, can't wait for it to be forever shelved after someone buys it as a piece of Ubisoft's corpse.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago

Ubisoft took one risk back in the mid-late 2000s and have been riding that safety wave ever since with asscreed. They're not the last people who should be pointing fingers at other publishers for playing it too safe and releasing formulaic games, but damn if they aren't next-in-line for that honor.

[–] amol@piefed.social 40 points 22 hours ago

Ubisoft has practically only produced confusing Open World games of the same IPs for the past decade. My definition of risk and innovation is slightly different 😅

And that’s just because Open World games are easy to mass produce. You just change assets and few minor things and reuse more or less the whole game

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

They came from toothpas?

[–] Damage@feddit.it 2 points 2 hours ago

C'est frainçaise

[–] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 13 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Looks like the title got cut off.

"Whereas, say, EA, you get these awful execs and they never made games and they came from toothpaste companies"

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 6 points 17 hours ago

And the title should have been much shorter.

[–] Visstix@lemmy.world 73 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"The Assassin's Creed franchise evolved into the household name it is thanks to rare, or at least rare-among-AAA, support for risk-taking at Ubisoft"

Fucking lol.

[–] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 30 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

"No, no, hear me out. It's exactly the same game. The same thing we make every single time. But this time, it's in... Egypt."

"Holy shit! What a maverick! Who is that guy? I like the way he thinks. Give him a corner office and the same budget we gave the Greece one!"

[–] med@sh.itjust.works 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

You know what I would buy? Hitman set in ancient Egypt.

Infiltrating a workgang forced to build a pyramid, putting a spitting cobra into a nasty enforcer's chamber pot because he owes the Potiphar some serious myrrh?

Sign me up.

[–] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly, not a bad idea. Synthesizing and iterating, taking things out of context, combining elements you haven't before - that's how you get something interesting.

Ubi's problem is that their gameplay loops are completely stale. There just isn't enough new and different, the stories are trite, the dialogue is shit, and everything is boring and predictable.

I somewhat enjoyed the first Assassin's Creed, but was a little bitter it wasn't the Prince of Persia game they'd intended the engine for. I didn't find "walking slowly to blend in with a crowd" to be as fun as the intense combat and tight platforming of Sands of Time. But I cannot for the life of me understand how the series blew up into a juggernaut of a dozen releases over two decades.

I'm actually playing The Lost Crown now and - not that I'm the first to observe this - but I feel like it's the best thing Ubi has done since The Two Thrones twenty years ago. This is the kind of risk that Ubi should be taking. Modest games, smaller budgets, new genres. Diversify and let the creatives create. Let small projects succeed and give them a sequel. If small projects fail, it doesn't break the bank. But for christ's sake stop releasing the same three giant boring games over and over.

[–] Uruanna@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I'm still sad they killed the 2008 Prince of Persia after the DLC, top of my list from them. (Lost Crown isn't far)

Also TBF, Origins isn't the best example to blame them for making a stale loop, since that's precisely the game where they updated the AC formula to make it a lot more RPG.

But I cannot for the life of me understand how the series blew up into a juggernaut of a dozen releases over two decades.

Heavily historical setting fairly accurate about settings that a lot of people are interested about. Nothing easier. You can literally throw a dart at a map and a timeline and make something interesting with a shit story. People will buy a million of them, doesn't matter if they're all the same game. It's a goddamn mystery that no one is doing anything like that with their own engine, absolute lack of imagination.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

The Egypt one was definitely one where they changed it a lot. So much so that I no longer enjoyed playing them.

[–] NoForwardslashS@sopuli.xyz 93 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"Forever brand" really has "forever chemicals" vibes.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

That and the risktaking bit give the headline two rofl’s

[–] ObamaBinLaden@lemmy.world 44 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Assassin's Creed's shift to open-world RPGs would never have happened at many companies, Alex Hutchinson says

Literally everyone and their mother could have expected this change. It's literally the one single way AAA studios have been padding gameplay and time for a decade and a half now.

[–] dukemirage@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ubisoft codified a certain style of open world design that many other AAA releases were using as a template. He's right, you can't deny the impact the franchise had.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Oh yeah, climbing a tower to unlock a part of the map is so innovative, especially after the 15th fucking time they used it.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 14 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve always felt the tower thing was unfair.

It WAS a good idea when first used. And, when imported across to Far Cry, they also tried to come up with new forms of climbing and even puzzles to get you up. Then, simply because the internet made memes about it through repeat emphasis (repeating an old mechanic alone isn’t necessarily a bad thing) they responded, took the system out, and even lampshaded it in Far Cry 5 - WHILE other devs as far as Nintendo/Zelda were copying it.

Theres a lot to condemn Ubisoft for, but the towers thing always irked me. Call open worlds as a whole boring, but it suggests it’s not the sort of game to keep your interest anyway.

[–] Kaldo@fedia.io 6 points 20 hours ago

You say that and I can kinda agree with it, and I can see them agreeing with it... but I recently got FC5 on a discount and despite it all - it still felt like the exact same game as every previous one. So artificially gamey and forced in some interactions, so predictable in its plot and map exploration structure...

I don't think it ends up feeling that different at all. Maybe you zipline up the towers today and they just discover POIs instead of removing map fog, but it's still the same crap, just served differently

[–] dukemirage@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

Ii didn't use the word innovative, mind you

[–] Cybersteel@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Even From and Zelda went open world.

[–] brendansimms@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago

Zelda is classically open world though - since the og nintendo

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 52 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Oh yeah, these terrible execs from other companies who veto female protagonists on principle, insist on implementing the same list of a thousand terrible features in all games regardless of genre, and harass their employees while being protected by HR and the CEO.

Wait, no, those are not the bad ones. You know the bad ones because they've worked for toothpaste companies.

[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The Assassin's Creed franchise nowadays seems more like one of those slushy machines at the mall that perpetually move the same ingredients around in a neverending cycle of despair and stagnation.

[–] 1.ceramics926@kopitalk.net 2 points 14 hours ago

Poetic and miserable, I may not be able to bear looking at a slushy machine the same way.

[–] itkovian@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Assassin's Creed is about equivalent to Colgate, I guess.

[–] lukalix98@programming.dev 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm clueless, what happened to Colgate?

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Some scandal. A Colgategate, if you will.

[–] yunglucifer@lemmings.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Weird, Assassin's Creed died with 2 when they fired the creator.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Okay but Black Flag slapped. Maybe not as an AC game per se, but Black Flag was still a greater game.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago

Black Flag was a mediocre Assassin's Creed game, at best. It was a phenomenal pirate game

[–] Senseless@feddit.org 6 points 22 hours ago

Agreed. Black Flag was awesome. Never finished the story though. Just sailing, singing shanties.

[–] ricdeh@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

And Rogue. I rarely hear Rogue mentioned but it's my favourite. I find the story the most appealing, and it comes with so much moral ambiguity.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

Gameplay-wise, Rogue is even better than Black Flag. Narratively, Rogue is a disaster fueled by Shay being painfully stupid.

[–] eRac@lemmings.world 2 points 21 hours ago

Being released at the same time as the significantly more modern (and unpopular) Unity didn't do Rogue any favors.

[–] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Controversial opinion: I like comfort games these days.

The first AC came out when I was in high school, and my one of my favourite bands for a good few years released their first album around then as well. I may not have as much time or love for either now, but I still get a nice buzz when I engage with a new release - especially when it does something a bit different (even if not revolutionary) compared to previous ones.

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 14 points 21 hours ago

Life's too short to avoid something you actually enjoy just because other people told you it's not good enough.

[–] nullpotential@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Toothpas?

[–] afaix@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

Like gamepass, but tooth

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Most self-aware Ubisoft employee quoted in post title

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago

You know how in tv shows or movies in the 90s, there were always a pair of villains or goons that worked for the main villain and were comic relief? Like the Jessie & James pair in Pokemon or the two guys in power rangers or whatever I'm thinking of.

Remember how occasionally, like if it were two guys, they'd fight between the two of them, on-screen?

I don't know why this memory popped up. Curious...

[–] mohab@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

🎶 Assassin's Creed is a good franchise 🎶