Baldur's Gate 3 Publishing Director Says Ubisoft's 'Sub Above Sales' Strategy 'Isn't Sensible'

ign.com:

Following Ubisoft's widely criticized disbanding of the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown team, the publishing director of Baldur's Gate 3 has taken to X/Twitter to add his view, saying that Ubisoft's publishing strategy "just isn't sensible."

In a post spotted by PC Gamer, Michael Douse said of Ubisoft that the last "notable game" on its platform (the Ubisoft store) was "arguably Far Cry 6 in 2021."

"The Crew, Mirage and Avatar came in 2023 and didn’t perform, so you can assume subscriptions were at a lull when PoP released by 2024. Which means people wouldn’t be launching their store all too much.

"If it had released on Steam not only would it have been a market success, but there would likely be a sequel because the team are so strong. It’s such a broken strategy. The hardest thing is to make a 85+ [review score] game — it is much, much easier to release one. It just shouldn’t be done as it was."

The last notable game on their platform was arguably Far Cry 6 in 2021. The Crew, Mirage and Avatar came in 2023 and didn’t perform, so you can assume subscriptions were at a lull when PoP released by 2024. Which means people wouldn’t be launching their store all too much.

If it… https://t.co/uiC167uxGG

Douse is likely referring here to the fact that at launch, The Lost Crown required players to have a Ubisoft Connect account to play it on most platforms. Though there are workarounds, Ubisoft has pushed its own account, launcher, store, and subscription service fairly heavily over the last several years. What's more, on PC, The Lost Crown was only available at launch through the Ubisoft store or through the Epic Games Store. It didn't make it to Steam until eight months later.

As for the performance of The Crew Motorfest, Assassin's Creed: Mirage, and Avatar: Frontier of Pandora, Douse may well be right. Ubisoft has been remarkably quiet and vague as to how well those three games have done since their launches, and third-party reports indicate none of the three were the smash