An interview with Ubisoft’s chief creative officer has revealed that he believes the gaming industry currently has “no soul” and that gaming is “not about entertainment” but “learning”, perhaps not so subtly implying the doubling down is about to continue.
The recent interview has Ubisoft’s chief creative officer Serge Hascoet claiming that the game industry – despite all its advancements and achievements over the years – needs to “find its soul”, which he thinks can only be achieved if the game teaches the player something that they can apply to their real life (or not to include in it, if their speech bans are any indication):
“You know what is missing in this industry? A soul. Video games are about gaming, and gaming is not about entertainment, it’s about learning. When you learn, you have fun. But when we are just entertainment we are losing something. I question the team about what real benefits the player will take away from the game for their real life. Right now, we don’t do enough in this area. This is what excites me, how to make something that lets you have the most fun while also having something beneficial for your life.”
Knowing the kind of people latter day games development attracts, just what they consider beneficial for gamers to be made to believe can probably be imagined.
I don’t know about the rest of you but when I played AC: Origins I learned a valuable lesson: if I want to be the best, all I need to do is pay more money.
Seriously, f♥♥k you Ubisoft.
Well, Ubi$oft teaching you a valuable life lesson here then…
“If you want to win in life, all you gotta do is pay more Money!”
That’s literally what he just said.
I would say… most of current game developers don’t have any soul. Broken, unfinished, full of dlc’s and micro-transactions, bad story, etc. games tells you a lot about their creators. When you want to criticize someone or something… start with yourself first… Ubisoft. I’ve learned a lot from a games in the past, but only from the good ones, not brainless like many games Ubisoft keeps making lately.
Fellow Sankakuite you know which game has a ton of soul, it’s spectacularly good, has an anime look and is not from Ubisoft?
Dragon Quest XI. Get cracking on this gem!
DQ XI is so good, i just started playing it and already am in awe of how magnificent it is.
“Sankakuite”
Sankaku-JIN!
baka gaijin go home.
DQXI is also complete with no DLC or microtransactions whatsoever.
most current game developrs?
more like triple a game developers, stop trying to undermine the actual indie companies trying to make a difference in this shitty time
It’s not the developers. The product managers are the ones in charge of how the product is sold and released. The concept and content are not from the developers too.
I’m learning to avoid Ubisoft. So much fun!
i havent bought a game from the big publishers in years.
I pirate their games once the DLC stops flowing. Only way to get the full game without costing you three months worth of meal
I haven’t in decades.
I just pirate, and use cracks.
If I happen to get a virus, then It’ll truly be the Ubisoft experience!
I never have
kekekeke
I have, but they were all more or less indie games just with big publishers, like child of light or ori
I learned to avoid Ubisoft years ago. They’re one of the companies on my shitlist. And yes, the Evil Empire (apparently known as EA to some) has the dubious honor of first place for life. I don’t buy games either developed by them (they don’t deserve my money) or published by them (the studio should have known better).
Not playing the Devil’s advocate, but they’re getting better and actually learning from past s♥♥t. They’re re-learning what a full game at launch means. They still have plenty of soul-less and generic games, but it’s not getting any worse. On the other side, EA…
They did for a time, but unfortunately, they stopped learning from their past s♥♥t. See Rainbow Six: Siege. Game started off rocky, but the devs looked like they sincerely cared about it, so people started playing it a lot. One of the few games that grew in player-base rather than drop off after release. My friends and I played the s♥♥t out of it for literally 2 years. Then they suddenly throw in loot boxes and censorship this year. We all dropped it. Ubi lost their chance of redemption.
That line of thinking sure did wonders for the comic book industry.
Well, he’s not entirely wrong, he’s just overfocused on the learning part, you’re not supposed to learn that much from a game, just some trivia, maybe 1 or 2 cool facts. In Tekken for example, most of the martial arts used are real and most of the moves exist irl too (like 80% or something), which is cool. It’s the closest thing we have to a martial arts simulator, but that wouldn’t be any fun see? So they use arcade level physics so people can jump unrealistically high or get punched into the air, also yoshimitsu and his helicopter move. Because the entertainment value was always their focus.
Then there’s beyond good and evil, it doesn’t really have any specific trivia, but the overall theme of the game teaches you to question what the news try to tell you, not buy into propaganda and not be overly trusting of governmental entities.
Morrowind teaches you the awesomeness of road signs and the value of journaling things when you have a large goal (quest). Kerbeal space program teaches you a lot about rockets and how they work, learning is the primary element of that game and it can be used as an example of a game where learning works as a major game component. But everyone played it because it’s fun to build a couple million dollar rockets and watch them explode or fall apart on their way into the atmosphere or the plethora of other things that can go wrong with rocketry.
Ubisoft, disconnected from reality once more.
No one like education games.
just like most attempts to launch their games. disconnected from server/reality