All is not well at Ubisoft. Since the start of 2024, its stock price has dropped by half. And in the last five years, it lost an astonishing 80% of its value.
And during that time, the company didn’t stop making AAA games and never went into obscurity. So what is making investors abandon ship? Fifteen years ago, Ubisoft basically reinvented the open world in gaming. Starting with Assassin’s Creed 2, they have created a distinctly ‘Ubisofty’ kind of an open world – vast, detailed, realistic, masterfully crafted, and littered with icons indicating different activities for the player.
In 2009, this felt fresh and amazing – open worlds were no longer barren, there was so much to do, so many places to go, things to discover, side quests to complete. The world was no longer just a backdrop, it was a character of its own, helping immerse you into the story. You might not remember many of the characters in Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry, but you sure remember the setting – Renaissance Florence of AC Brotherhood, the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy of AC Black Flag, or rural Montana besieged by religious fanatics of Far Cry 5.
Ubisoft games could be flawed, some were better than the others, but the world the game took place in never disappointed. No matter how good something is initially, it needs to evolve. And that is what Ubisoft’s games failed to do.
In 2024 you still do the same things you did in 2009 – you climb towers to reveal the map around them, yo.