PC surpasses Xbox One in Ubisoft's record Q1 financials

[WYP]

Nintendo's Switch is also making huge gains.



Read more about PC sales surpassing Xbox One in Ubisoft's latest quarter.

 

[MacLeod]

It's this line that bothers me the most:

thanks primarily to growth in PRI (Player Recurring Investment), which consists of DLC, season passes, subscriptions and in-game item/currency purchases

That means they're thinking to themselves, why bother making good single player games when we can just make more games like Fortnite and with tons of day 1 DLC and microtransactions.

I'm usually not very negative but I am starting to think the days of the AAA single player games like Batman, Mass Effect and so on are a dying breed and Fortnite is the future.

 

[demonking]

It's this line that bothers me the most:



That means they're thinking to themselves, why bother making good single player games when we can just make more games like Fortnite and with tons of day 1 DLC and microtransactions.

I'm usually not very negative but I am starting to think the days of the AAA single player games like Batman, Mass Effect and so on are a dying breed and Fortnite is the future.

I sort of agree. I don't think they will die but I think we are either going to be charged a fortune or we are going to see a lot more "chapters" for single player games. by the full game in 9 £30 chunks.....

 

[MacLeod]

I sort of agree. I don't think they will die but I think we are either going to be charged a fortune or we are going to see a lot more "chapters" for single player games. by the full game in 9 £30 chunks.....

Yeah, "dying" might be too strong a word. I've been playing video games since pretty much they came out and have heard "PC gaming is dying" since the Commodore 64 came out around 1981.

I do think that developers and publishers will start pouring more and more resources into Fortnite style games than AAA action single player games. I don't blame them financially as Fortnite makes like $200,000,000+ a month but I hate to see it happen.

I think we may have already lived through the golden age of single player gaming with big budgets, real actors and musicians writing the scores. Why spend $100,000,000 on a game that might make $200,000,000 in it's lifetime when you can spend $100,000 on Fortnite and make a billion dollars in a year?

 

[AlienALX]

It's this line that bothers me the most:



That means they're thinking to themselves, why bother making good single player games when we can just make more games like Fortnite and with tons of day 1 DLC and microtransactions.

I'm usually not very negative but I am starting to think the days of the AAA single player games like Batman, Mass Effect and so on are a dying breed and Fortnite is the future.

At some point you need to accept that the gaming industry is a business, and it exists solely to make money. It wasn't as bad before the big corporations took hold, but since then? yeah, it's been nothing but a simple equation.

Little as possible + quick as possible + biggest profit.

Every now and then we have a sort of newcomer come along and amaze us (Crytek with Crysis, Bethesda with FO3) but eventually they get swallowed up by a corporation and that's the end of that.

Games are no longer designed by game designers. They are designed by the head of a ruthless company, then created by game devs. All the time cracking the whip to get them out of the door and making money as fast as possible.

So you can expect this "less = more" to continue. This is why console sales and game sales are slowing and more and more people are just using their PC. There really aren't any major killer apps you absolutely must have any more. Simply because they cost too much to make, and even though they could be completely "successful" it is all gauged on how much profit they make.

Kinda like how candy bars are now about 30% of the size they used to be, at the same price. I know inflation blah blah etc but the simple fact is? I have totally stopped eating candy bars and potato chips (crisps over here). Not because I really care that much deep down, but simply because I thought they were a f*****g con. And I don't like being conned (or ripped off depending on where you reside).

That is how the world works now. Every single last penny is accounted for *and* wringed out of paying customers. I think the worst part is how blatant it all is. I mean, s**t man they don't even try and hide it. That is the arrogance of the world now.

Take this as an example, right. Last year when I split with my wife I needed house insurance. I phoned around, and after saying "I have never done this before" got sold a policy for £24 a month. Pretty high, going on reactions afterward.

Well, my insurance policy for the next year arrives. £480. It doubled. Now hang on, you would expect it to go down, right? nope. So I phoned the insurance company in question, and basically after doing some digging got her to say "yeah, maybe it is better you shop around a bit".

So I did. Cancelled the policy, now I am paying £18 a month for almost the same thing (IE - without things I didn't even need).

But they just didn't give a single f**k. Honestly, you could tell the woman on the phone really didn't give a flying monkeys.

Same with BT. I sign up for a year @ £46.99 a month. I am told at the end of the year it goes up to nearly £60. So what am I going to do? well I am obviously going to go elsewhere.

But that is how it is now. No one gives a crap, it's all blatantly just ripping people off.

 

[demonking]

Yeah, "dying" might be too strong a word. I've been playing video games since pretty much they came out and have heard "PC gaming is dying" since the Commodore 64 came out around 1981.

I do think that developers and publishers will start pouring more and more resources into Fortnite style games than AAA action single player games. I don't blame them financially as Fortnite makes like $200,000,000+ a month but I hate to see it happen.

I think we may have already lived through the golden age of single player gaming with big budgets, real actors and musicians writing the scores. Why spend $100,000,000 on a game that might make $200,000,000 in it's lifetime when you can spend $100,000 on Fortnite and make a billion dollars in a year?

What can we do except ride the storm , Only been into PC gaming since DK1 (guess im a bit younger than you lol) I remember that day, I had to choose between that and AOE1 lol.
Unfortunately anything that makes a lot of money attracts greedy people who simply look for more ways to make money out of it and the people who had the passion get bought out or they end up competing with multi-million/billion (insert currency here) companies and die out.
Glad to have been part of the Golden age of gaming, Kids will never know any different and we will sound like old men telling war stories. "When I was a boy we got the whole game for one price and had to unlock all the content in game....."
Mum what's grandad going on about?