Ubisoft posts "New Plan" for SH and other series

Sacrilege · 03-09-10, 10:49 AM

So I shorted the hell out of Ubisoft shares yesterday after I realized what was going on with the servers (worked well, made a nice round $624 this morning after I covered) but I came across something interesting (read: downright infuriating) in their shareholder report that I thought I would share with the community:

Note: read the italic bold part

Source: third quarter investor report: http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/gallery_.../1042/2184.pdf

Quote:

Update on the strategic plan rollout

High-end games strategy

In line with the announcement January 13 announcement, Ubisoft continues to refocus its high-end games strategy by concentrating on more regular releases for its major franchises. These refocusing measures also comprise a reduction in new creations investments, which will enable Ubisoft to rebalance its existing resources on a constant headcount basis. This strategy will provide heightened visibility and profitability with a lower level of risk, thereby accelerating the generation of cash flow.

Seems their new goal is to pump out more games, faster, with less development and investment in the games themselves. As an investor, that makes great sense.....too bad I think you guys know, as a gamer, how I feel about this.

I've been a loyal SH fan for almost a decade now,and I've never seen a reason to get worked up enough to post on forums before this. It's downright sad to see a favorite series move in such a manner; let's hope something changes in Ubisoft before SH VI, VII, VIII. I have faith in them to do the right thing; they have done well by me with this series, in my opinion. I've just never seen good things from a game company that endorses "more names with less development".

Time will tell.

OakGroove · 03-09-10, 11:01 AM

No news really, and I have a feeling they won't stop until the whole thing is up to its neck in quicksand, given their recent CRM issues.

bigboywooly · 03-09-10, 11:12 AM

Ubisoft has a history of releasing unfinshed games anyway so wont be any difference there
What does it mean for SH
DLC is my guess
And lots of it
Before a quick SH6
And the merry go round continues

Welcome aboard too

kylania · 03-09-10, 11:14 AM

We should at least be thankful that Silent Hunter is a good enough "major franchise" for UbiSoft to continue developing it.

SteamWake · 03-09-10, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kylania

We should at least be thankful that Silent Hunter is a good enough "major franchise" for UbiSoft to continue developing it.

Not sure how you reached that conclusion.

I read it to be quite the contrary.

Iron Budokan · 03-09-10, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Not sure how you reached that conclusion.

I read it to be quite the contrary.

Same here.

pythos · 03-09-10, 02:28 PM

http://www.nyse.com/press/1224497730781.html

Sent to me from my brother.

He also says there may be action taken to severely limit short selling.

Here is another one, I found

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1..._short_selling

And The Daily show (I know hardly a news source...even though it is) has a terrific piece concerning this.

To The OP, you doing that alone won't do to much damage. Think of you doing that like a popped weld on a pressure hull. But if enough people do that, it can mean doom for UBI, or other companies that face this practice. It is tantamount, to a bunch of welds giving away all at once. IF enough companies face this then one will fail after the other, in a worst case scenerio. Remember the purpose of a corporation is to make proffit. Selling stocks does not make profit for the company, so what do the execs do? They cut production, cheapen production costs....lay people off. The more people laid off, the less people can buy, the less is produced, and we enter a vicious spiral.

It is also a practice of sheer unadulterated greed. People making huge stacks of money (perhaps you don't but many do), and as a whole produce not one thing.

The way it is implemented is indeed new, due to the advent of technology that allows on the minute tracking of stocks. It is also one of the major issues in the economic atmosphere.

kylania · 03-09-10, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron Budokan

Same here.

SH5 exists and is one of the few PC games currently produced by UbiSoft.

Is there a new Tom Clancy game coming out? Ghost Recon 3? Hero's of Might and Magic VI? IL3?

I mean, sure there's http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=7900 but a lot of good other games aren't coming out anymore, but we did get SH5.

Gammelpreusse · 03-09-10, 11:22 AM

Interesting. Given that games today usually stay "longer" on a PC and the trends going into supporting a game for some time, this policy kinda sounds a bit counterproductive.

Especially the SH series requires lot of patches and mods, which at times takes years. SH3 only came to maturity years after it's release.

So I am not sure regular new parts of the game series will have such a positive effect, the more so given the publisher already lost all passion for games and is driven by mere shareholder value nowadays, which shows in the quality levels of newly released products.

We already lost GWX 4 due to that.

thyro · 03-09-10, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gammelpreusse

Interesting. Given that games today usually stay "longer" on a PC and the trends going into supporting a game for some time, this policy kinda sounds a bit counterproductive.

Especially the SH series requires lot of patches and mods, which at times takes years. SH3 only came to maturity years after it's release.

So I am not sure regular new parts of the game series will have such a positive effect, the more so given the publisher already lost all passion for games and is driven by mere shareholder value nowadays, which shows in the quality levels of newly released products.

We already lost GWX 4 due to that.

Just lets see if SH5 with this DRM retards remains active after SH6 is released... I reckon UBI will close the door and force all that bought SH5 to get SH6. Time will tell if UBI survives this DRM debacle

abbysinthe · 03-09-10, 11:38 AM

The Bobby Kotick show (Activision) is taking the same strategy, and it already bit them in the bum with the GH series.

Over saturating the market with current IP's is going to end up in disaster all around. This has already been done and failed time and time again, not just with video games either.

I shutter to imagine a SH6 with only a year of dev time. *IF* SH is included in the grand scheme.

Goatman455 · 03-09-10, 11:51 AM

" As an investor, that makes great sense.....too bad I think you guys know, as a gamer, how I feel about this."

This shouldn't be good for an investor. The only reason it is good is because people will inevitably buy the games no matter how crappy they are. We as the customer need to start putting our collective foot down when early releases happen so we don't make a quantity over quality strategy effective for these guys.

Fmilk · 03-09-10, 02:07 PM

Quote:

In line with the announcement January 13 announcement, Ubisoft continues to refocus its high-end games strategy by concentrating on more regular releases for its major franchises. These refocusing measures also comprise a reduction in new creations investments, which will enable Ubisoft to rebalance its existing resources on a constant headcount basis. This strategy will provide heightened visibility and profitability with a lower level of risk, thereby accelerating the generation of cash flow.

Sounds like EA story. Fortunately, after almost a decade of "concentrating on more regular releases for its major franchises", EA seem to understand what they've done to themselves, to the market, to the games, and to the players, and are now returning to production of higher quality products.
Too bad Ubisoft didn't learn anything from them.

pythos · 03-09-10, 02:15 PM

Selling shares does not crash the economy. Short selling does. Look it up. It is a fairly new thing, and has been wreaking havok on the market.

floundericiousWA · 03-09-10, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pythos

Selling shares does not crash the economy. Short selling does. Look it up. It is a fairly new thing, and has been wreaking havok on the market.

Short selling is NOT new

The degree to which investors can leverage their short sales may be new and is likely what causes a single bad short sale to gash the marketplace since the investor's ineptitude/bad luck is now multiplied by a factor of several million times.

03-09-10, 11:01 AM	#2
OakGroove 中国水兵 Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Germany Posts: 275 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	No news really, and I have a feeling they won't stop until the whole thing is up to its neck in quicksand, given their recent CRM issues. __________________ The idea that a company with more negotiating power over its customers will cut them a better deal is just bizarre. Mad Science spawns Evil Fiend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkTZTzsYoZs

03-09-10, 11:12 AM	#3
bigboywooly Rear Admiral Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Swindon, England Posts: 10,151 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	Ubisoft has a history of releasing unfinshed games anyway so wont be any difference there What does it mean for SH DLC is my guess And lots of it Before a quick SH6 And the merry go round continues Welcome aboard too __________________ My mediafire page http://www.mediafire.com/?11eoq19bq9r41

03-09-10, 11:14 AM	#4
kylania Silent Hunter Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 3,528 Downloads: 118 Uploads: 0	We should at least be thankful that Silent Hunter is a good enough "major franchise" for UbiSoft to continue developing it. __________________

03-09-10, 02:28 PM	#7
pythos Grey Wolf Join Date: May 2005 Location: Somewhere over there Posts: 834 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	http://www.nyse.com/press/1224497730781.html Sent to me from my brother. He also says there may be action taken to severely limit short selling. Here is another one, I found http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1..._short_selling And The Daily show (I know hardly a news source...even though it is) has a terrific piece concerning this. To The OP, you doing that alone won't do to much damage. Think of you doing that like a popped weld on a pressure hull. But if enough people do that, it can mean doom for UBI, or other companies that face this practice. It is tantamount, to a bunch of welds giving away all at once. IF enough companies face this then one will fail after the other, in a worst case scenerio. Remember the purpose of a corporation is to make proffit. Selling stocks does not make profit for the company, so what do the execs do? They cut production, cheapen production costs....lay people off. The more people laid off, the less people can buy, the less is produced, and we enter a vicious spiral. It is also a practice of sheer unadulterated greed. People making huge stacks of money (perhaps you don't but many do), and as a whole produce not one thing. The way it is implemented is indeed new, due to the advent of technology that allows on the minute tracking of stocks. It is also one of the major issues in the economic atmosphere. Last edited by pythos; 03-09-10 at 02:41 PM.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

03-09-10, 11:22 AM	#9
Gammelpreusse Planesman Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 191 Downloads: 90 Uploads: 0	Interesting. Given that games today usually stay "longer" on a PC and the trends going into supporting a game for some time, this policy kinda sounds a bit counterproductive. Especially the SH series requires lot of patches and mods, which at times takes years. SH3 only came to maturity years after it's release. So I am not sure regular new parts of the game series will have such a positive effect, the more so given the publisher already lost all passion for games and is driven by mere shareholder value nowadays, which shows in the quality levels of newly released products. We already lost GWX 4 due to that.

03-09-10, 11:38 AM	#11
abbysinthe Swabbie Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 11 Downloads: 56 Uploads: 0	The Bobby Kotick show (Activision) is taking the same strategy, and it already bit them in the bum with the GH series. Over saturating the market with current IP's is going to end up in disaster all around. This has already been done and failed time and time again, not just with video games either. I shutter to imagine a SH6 with only a year of dev time. IF SH is included in the grand scheme.

03-09-10, 11:51 AM	#12
Goatman455 Mate Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 56 Downloads: 58 Uploads: 0	" As an investor, that makes great sense.....too bad I think you guys know, as a gamer, how I feel about this." This shouldn't be good for an investor. The only reason it is good is because people will inevitably buy the games no matter how crappy they are. We as the customer need to start putting our collective foot down when early releases happen so we don't make a quantity over quality strategy effective for these guys.

03-09-10, 02:15 PM	#14
pythos Grey Wolf Join Date: May 2005 Location: Somewhere over there Posts: 834 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	Selling shares does not crash the economy. Short selling does. Look it up. It is a fairly new thing, and has been wreaking havok on the market.