Over the years we’ve all come to love and loathe certain publishers. It’s easy to feel aggrieved when a game doesn’t turn quite how you expected it to, or there are problems which you’re certain have been caused by the higher ups and the suits. The publishers are the cash and the glitzy advertising, trying to sell an experience to as many people as they can for as little cash as possible, as often as they can get away with it. This is all publishers to a certain degree, it’s how the fundamentals of business work. Where they often differ, however, is how they treat us - the gamers.
It’s a bit of a low hanging fruit, but let’s take Ubisoft as an example. Around about 2 or 3 years ago the French publisher was universally beloved. The ensuing years have made Ubisoft a whole stack of cash, but their journey has been rife with controversy, disappointment, and distrust. We’ve had some greats, like South Park: The Stick of Truth and Far Cry 4, but these have been overshadowed by unoptimised performance and downgraded graphics in Assassin's Creed Unity and Watch Dogs.
By now plenty of us probably expect a Ubisoft game to release unfinished or incomplete. Looking at its upcoming line-up you’d have to be a braver man than I to predict Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, The Division, or For Honor being met with rapturous receptions on PC. I don't want to be picking on Ubisoft here, this is just one example of many. Whether it be Activision's yearly Call of Dutys, EA with SimCity and the Battlefield 4 launch, or perhaps even Paradox annoys you with its heavy reliance on DLC.
To that end, does a publisher’s previous actions put you off purchasing further games, or do you place your faith in the development studios? Are there any publishers which you trust completely, knowing they won’t put out a disappointing experience? Let us know!
Login or Register to join the debate
PC Specs
Yeah I have had about enough of Ubisoft & EA. Going forward I will be very picky about which games from those publishers I will buy. At this time the only game from either that I am even looking at is Star Wars Battlefront, & I am on the fence about it because of the lack of single player.
PC Specs
Cough Cough UBISOFT Cough Cough
PC Specs
This
PC Specs
To me it's EA dude...
PC Specs
Seriously, i say not bothered.
If i like the game on forehand, the change that i will buy this game eventually but maybe long after release, that same change is almost 100 out of 100 i think
PC Specs
I couldn't care any less who the publisher is. If I like the game, I'll buy it. Sure, it may not be well optimized or something, but they'll eventually get it running better. I think it helps push the hardware market anyways, more people buying higher end equipment means devs making higher end games imo.
PC Specs
... I think it's stubborn to not buy a game that you know you'll like, just because it's put out for a company that you've got a hate on for.
PC Specs
Damn, looking at the downvotes I guess I must be the only gamer that feels this way
PC Specs
I agree with you in a way. But don't forget in the end we all play the games we like. We just don't buy it and wait for a cracked version and use a torrent. That's today's world. xD I'll up vote you though so it won't look bad cause I understand from where you're coming from. xD
PC Specs
you wot mates
PC Specs
It is not the hate buddy. No gamer would hate developing and publishing companies(Except for the PS and Xbox fanboys, though they don't hate each other either). The problem is you pay for that game to have some great experience when you are not busy with your life. And you won't emerse in the game universe until it is optimised good( I am not asking for perfect optimisation, just playable with stable fps). And it is not pushing the hardware. Even if you buy the high end the game would still struggle(remember AC U).
PC Specs
So in the end, the publishers need to understand that they can't treat PC gamers like ****. Yes, peopl would buy games witb good gameplay and story but a little unoptimised but you can't stand average gameplay and story and poor optimisation. So they should probably take some time and do some work on the optimisation so that we gamers can feel the storyline without any lags or glitches. Though we gamers would still buy our favourite games but devs and publishers should respect that and make good games.
PC Specs
I do care who's the publisher because then I know what to expect, for example tw warhammer sounds like it will be an awesome game but the publisher is CA so I know that it will be badly optimised, have a bunch of dlc's and have horrible AI.
PC Specs
...which means I am not paying 50 bucks for an obvious disappointment and I sure as hell am not preordering it lol
PC Specs
As of now I think EA pulled some nasty stunts with there only-online games, DRM and there philosophy on gaming. I just hate the feeling when someone takes me for stupid and with the delays and stupid statements they make that's exactly how I feel. It's not accident they don't make NHL for PC anymore. They're greedy.
PC Specs
Yes but even tho i think some devs would do things better in the end they are in the same boat so its not always black and white area.
1- EA
2- WB
3- Ubisoft
4- Konami
5- Activision
Also i refuse to support any game that uses always online drm for single-player games and Denuvo ofc, that cr4p is evil !
PC Specs
Creative Assembly "ring" "ring" :D
PC Specs
why is WB in there?
PC Specs
Well EA are in my bad books for making the new Need for Speed an always online game, i hate always online
PC Specs
It depends, if a company was ever found using child labor or something else pretty bad, then I'd likely not buy their games and would discourage others from supporting said company. Otherwise in the case of kojima I might not support certain series of games.
PC Specs
whoa slow down man.child labour?ubisoft's not that bad.we're talking about bad optimization of games here.of course we'd never buy a game if it were that bad.nobody would.
PC Specs
Well let's be real here, I'm sure at least one major publisher is into some shady business. Maybe child labor was pushing it though.
PC Specs
I hate Ubisoft,Konami,EA and Bioware but that doesn't mean I won't buy their games anymore.That's just stupid.I mean yes they're bad and it makes you distrust them but you can't stop buying their games.And yes I always take a cautious approach to their titles in case the optimization's really bad.
PC Specs
Which is the reason why Publishers like CD Projekt Red,Nintendo and Square Enix(well most of the time) are much beloved as compared to these ones.
PC Specs
Where's Konami? they fired the talented artists who made the company succefull, treat their best franchises, their respective fans and even their employee with no respect and constantly try to censor bad press
PC Specs
They cancelled the Silent Hills project that was going to have legendary horror comic artist Junji Ito, legendary video game creator Hideo Kojima, acclaimed movie director Guillermo del Toro and award winning, Walking Dead, actor Norman Reedus. It could have been the best horror game ever made. Only Konami could screw that up.
PC Specs
I was told that I would be participating in the Rainbow Six: Seige beta and then was never sent a code. That was my very first interaction with Ubisoft. Had I played and enjoyed the game, I probably would've pre-ordered it. Not exactly a great start.
PC Specs
Wait til you try uPlay.....
PC Specs
I've heard the horror stories. :(
PC Specs
And the Tug of war between Graphics and optimization. I liked what CD projekt red did, because they allowed us to get better graphics than ultra as they showed off in trailors(Witcher 3 ini file). I think ubi should do that also.
PC Specs
I have one major beef with Ubisoft, the optimization of their games(in the last 2-3 years). AC3 is still unplayed. I can't score more then 20 frames in the large cities(doesn't matter the settings) with my current rig. AC4 was no walk in the park either. Also a little thought, bring back demos. Offer a safety net for the customers, nobody wants to throw money out the window!
PC Specs
I completely agree, demos gave us a great idea of how well we will be able to run the game, and even decide whether or not it will be our type of game or not, instead of buying a game and then finding you don't even really like it. I remember playing Prince of Persia 1 demo, and I was thinking "I Must have this game!!"
PC Specs
I stopped buying anything from activision, EA, Ubisoft, Bioware (I know they are apart of EA), and Konami (I don't even need to explain this one).
PC Specs
although this all bad, I'd say I am not biased against any publisher to completely ignore games they sell,
afterall it's about developers who create the game - yes publisher can screw the development with silly deadlines and requirements, but it's always about developers at first place, and they ALL have my respect they make games in nowadays uneasy times when hardware advances so quickly they cannot afford to ignore new tech or hardware manufacturer...
PC Specs
Finally someone who shares my opinion about developers..those poor guys indeed :3
PC Specs
I believe us gamers are an easy target to game developers. They publish trailers and videos that seem amazing and wonderful and make us want to buy the game, but on launch day people buy the game and sometimes feel they were lied to and betrayed. Demos are no longer existent or are very rare for this reason, people will realize the developers did not deliver to our expectations and so would not buy the game. So now we cant play a demo before actually buying the game. Even so, i found many games are over hyped, and we fall for it nearly ever time. Games now come with plenty of DLC, where in the
PC Specs
past you either bought the expansion pack (which was usually worth it) or you unlocked items which made playing the game over enjoyable. I feel games don't reach their potential as much as they used to. Games seem to be repetitive, just a copy + paste with a different story line, even the bugs and problems come are copied over. Sadly, many people fall for these tricks and there are very little consequences to the developers. Never mind the games that are launched that would be considered incomplete by our standards. Gaming is a money making thing now, rather then fun and enjoy-ability.
PC Specs
"I feel games don't reach their potential as much as they used to."
you just hit the spot, major budget is allocated to ingame visuals, and promo (trailers, launch campaign and so on) and fairly little money remains for well-thought storyline, innovative gameplay elements, level design originality and bugtracking
PC Specs
True words bro
PC Specs
surprise me Ubisoft, i dare you to surprise me.
PC Specs
I usually hold no grudges towards any company or publishers. What decides a game for me is the reviews and its reception from the players. Let's take the same example of Ubisoft. Yeah we should all be wary of Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Which I am waiting for) and we all see that The Division was downgraded. I am not going to discuss downgrades since there is enough talk about them on the internet and it got nothing to do with evil schemes to get players to preorder a game, it's all for technical reasons. Back to topic, Ubisoft has a history for delivering great games in the years before 2014 and 2013 and specially 2014.
PC Specs
In my opinion, Ubisoft is quite daring when it comes to the scope of its games and how they offer new things such as Watch Dogs, For Honor and The Division (Let's hope the two latter bring a joyous experience). Right now, their history and almost every publisher's history is a mix of good and bad, so why distrust them forever? Give them the benefit of doubt and let's see how a certain product turns out to be instead of judging all products by the failures of the past.
PC Specs
Wonder which company made you make this article.. I bet its name starts with U and a b follows
PC Specs
I don't see why this guy got so many downs for
PC Specs
I still can't get over the stupidity of Square Enix for their ridiculous proposal regarding preorder bonuses in the upcoming Deus Ex