Ditching Steam has done wonders for The Division 2, according to Ubisoft

Interesting to note- The sales on Ubisoft store have went up six times due to people AVOIDING it. Most of these will probably be from key-sites I imagine. Aside from Rayman, I generally wouldn't give a shit if they were off Steam.

Of course, this is Ubisoft, and Ubisoft could well be lying. Because it's Ubisoft.

Ditching Steam has done wonders for The Division 2, according to Ubisoft

Damien Mason 2 hours ago Featured Tech News

Ubisoft revealed last month that The Division 2 would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store and Uplay, ditching Steam entirely. While this have proven to be a controversial move among the most vocal of fans, CEO Yves Guillemot has revealed that its own platform has seen a boom in popularity as a result.

Given that the Epic Games Store takes a 12% cut instead of Steam’s hefty 30%, it’s easy to see why developers are driven to ditch Valve’s long-established platform. But according to Guillemot’s words in Ubisoft’s recent earnings call, it’s less about the extra revenue generated by this difference and more about how the decision has attracted a considerable amount of purchases on its own Uplay platform.

“With this deal, we saw an opportunity to increase player exposure to our own store while at the same time supporting a partner that greatly values our games and provides better terms,” said Guillemot. “Early indications are supportive, as PC pre-orders are higher than for the first Division, and pre-orders on the Ubisoft store are six times higher. We believe this deal is a long-term positive for Ubisoft.”

There are two main reasons that could be attributed to the uptick in Uplay sales. First is that Uplay is a requirement regardless of which platform Ubisoft games are purchased on. And secondly, PC gamers aren’t convinced that the Epic Games Store can stand up to the quality of Steam given its current lack of features. It seems as though prospective players simply want to cut out the middle-man in its entirety.

Unlike Metro Exodus, boycotting the move could be a lot more difficult for fans since Ubisoft has already entered a multi-game agreement to see more games ditch Steam in favour of Epic. And it seems as though Guillemot in particular is happy with the direction that the company is headed in.

“Ubisoft is building its organisational structure for the long term,” explained the CEO. “Leveraging the ownership of our IPs and studios, we are striving to provide a fulfilling working environment so that our talented people can realise their full potential and to deliver players beneficial experiences that go beyond pure entertainment. Therefore, we are confident in our ability to continue to grow and increase our profitability over the coming years.”

Overall, “Ubisoft delivered a solid performance in a quarter when, as expected, competition was particularly fierce.” This is particularly evident with the company exceeding its own $600 million estimate by taking $684.3 million in the third quarter, and Ubisoft’s PC net bookings up 24% over last year’s 15%.

Guillemot suggests that its Q4 sales will be up 29% in comparison to last year, with The Division 2, Far Cry: New Dawn, Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered and Trials Rising carrying the baton. The CEO assured that Ubisoft is also committed to making its staff feel secure in their position, a comment which follows Activision Blizzard shedding 8% of its workforce.

KitGuru Says: Although Ubisoft has been improving with its in-game practices, helping Rainbow Six Siege breach 45 million players as it enters its fourth year, this is sure to tarnish its image in the eyes of some fans. Personally, I see this as a testament towards players being open to competition on the market, but staunchly against platforms that lack features.

It's clever, take Epic's money, people rather buy from uplay than Epic's store so you take no cuts from uplay sales.

thats pretty funny

Uplay is marginally better than the Epic store but not by much

I think they might be a little deluded.

Epic should kind of have seen this coming... I mean the fans who wants to play have zero reason to use epic if they ain’t already there, instead of just going to Ubisoft which they have to use regardless... and doubt people ( or many anyway) are just browsing games on epic store, mainly because of the crappy interface and of course the lack of games...

Yeah I'd buy in on Uplay too if I wanted it.

Digital store fronts take years and years to mature enough to the point where they work well and offer all the services we're used to.

Epic store is currently buggy as hell and basically featureless.

Such a piece of shit store.

Lol so people would rather user uplay than epic store.

@uninspiredcup: Interesting that he forgets to mention that most Ubisoft games on steam direct you to Uplay anyways.

So, of course, people would much rather want to use the, for most already installed launcher, compared to using Tencent´s highly questionable launcher.

Uplay isn't half bad actually, they have some cool features.

"First is that Uplay is a requirement regardless of which platform Ubisoft games are purchased on."

It's been an absolute joy to watch "the master race" of pc gamers lose their minds over having to type in another web address to buy a game at another store.

It's just wow, I mean wow.

Shouldn't be surprising. Some of us have been registered with Steam for +15 years, that's legit half a lifetime, or more some folk.

Fine. Great. Well, I'll happily go on ignoring EGS indefinitely, but I have to say that 30% does sound like way too much of a cut for Valve to be taking.

Agreed too many PC gamers over react simply because they have to open up another program. It's so stupid. You're getting by far the best version of every online game - who cares.

Actually alot of PC ports both new and old are garbage without workarounds, something Steam helps with significantly.

Along with a bunch of other features, which people care about.

The real problem is can all of these digital stores co-exist? Can you imagine losing all their digital games when one store front closes? It's no wonder PC gamers are so resistant to any other store.

Well, they were the first to gladly say F-U to physical games. It's definitely a problem one that console gamers also share with their digital libraries.

Imagine of Ubisoft had complete control of digital distribution. How fucked would gamers be.

According to DF nearly all "PC ports" are better experienced on PC. Your opinion is not allowed.

lmao

Perhaps the sole game I don't care about leaving Steam.

That 30 % cut is pretty hefty for sure (even though Steam has adjusted it https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/3/18123649/valve-steam-revenue-sharing).

If the stores get a lesser cut that will lead to some cheaper prices. Mayhaps sales like they used to be on PC, wo-ho

Well yea, if you apply basic logic or history it quickly falls apart on closer inspection.

One of the reasons GOG is popular infact is (unlike Steam) they actually put work in fixing up bad ports and incomparable games.

Where as on Steam itself it's largely down the community through Steam Guides. Where Steam itself comes in helpful is through Steam Controller configuration with essentially farms user-configs with the top voted one button push away.

Stuff like this may sound frivolous, but if you're sitting with a 1000+ game library, it really isn't.

Over 90% of multiplatform titles on PC are better played on PC.

This is according to multiple tech sites doing side by side reviews and posting the data, like Digital Foundry.

You're lying.

Literally posts nothing. Vague "b..b..but digital foundry". Talking to someone with 1500+ digital pc games.

This is a major problem with pc gaming community, they prefer to go to a magical fairy land of make believe where everything is fine and dandy unwilling to see obvious flaws on the platform.

There are a shit ton of awful pc ports and outdated software.

Random random -

Legacy Of kain - Dreamcast version better

Earthworm Jim 1/2 - Genesis Version better

Rayman Legends/Forever - PS1 version better

Resident Evil 1/2/3 - Console version better

Rainbow Six - Won't start audio problem

Ghost Recon - Resolution problems

Final Fantasy 7/8 - Inferior audio

Sonic Adventure DX - Dreamcast version better

Panzer Dragoon - Won't start

etc...

Sorry for actually having sourcing and valid citation for my claims. I won the debate because of that.

Indeed there are. But there are even more awful console version of games. 9:1 ratio.

PC Gaming use to be great. Look at it now.

Last of a dying generation. Woe.

@Bread_or_Decide: yeah its fun to watch pc master race meltdown over launchers

Uhh, it's first place with it's widest margin win in SW history atm. This is library, hardware sales, software, sales user counts, developers, AAA games, Indy games, gamer count, etc.

Ah yes, the port boasting. Where previously exclusive, lead, objectively superior genres like FPS became port jobs from the larger, more supportive Xbox user-base.

*golf clap*

1. Xbox user base is a fraction of PC.....there are singular PC games with more users than all of XBL lmao.

2. "Port" uhh, not every game is a port. Several are made simultaneously. Many are made for PC first as well (like the biggest games on Earth atm). Even if they are a "port", they are better played on PC. Like most games. The most played fps games on PC atm are designed for PC btw.

You keep moving the goal post. Point is, PC gamers shouldn't whine about having to use multiple launchers the benefits are too large. Multiplats on consoles are shitty as ****, especially online ones.

As a true pc gamer I recognize the differences in services between the likes of Uplay and Steam, because I actually buy my games. Unlike these millions of pretend pc gamers who are the equivalent of a tick sucking a hosts blood.

Likewise, I take into account the sad state of pc gaming, where it once was the leading platforming or bleeding edge technoligy, it now has to sit back and see the likes of God Of War surpass it, as no Publisher in their right mind would invest in it.

Again, a tick like existence. Where once there was dignity, now all but gone, a cocoon wrapped in wretched denial. False egotism, padding the fragile psyche from reality. Embraced ever so tightly.

Pity, not jealously. A woeful existence, perhaps best not lived.

Nintendo's still pretty good though.

I'm pretty sure it's because the game was a giveaway for AMD products. And since GPU prices are down, many people have bought AMD cards instead of Nvidia's on the midend as they provide a lot more for the same price(RX 570 vs GTX 1050 Ti)

@zaryia: You should stick to what you're good at and that's talking about mobile phone games because you're out of your depth talking about something you don't own in a PC.

Meh, I wasn't interest in Division 2 anyways.

I've never talked about mobile phone games before. Nor do I play them.

Why lie?

PC is currently gfx king and has the best gfx and best new gfx features in general (top 10,20,30 are mostly PC games this gen as well), first place at MC and GS (most AAA titles, AA titles, and Indy titles), the most gamers, the most developers, first place in gaming software revenue, first place in gaming hardware revenue, first place in performance, and first place in e-sports and general online gaming. The top played games on the planet and all the new genre are designed for and best on PC.

Your opinions are appreciated, but I'm only bringing up facts.

I'm loving the complete failure of Epic's store and it backfiring in their faces hahaha.

I wonder: did they pay Ubisoft for semi-exclusivity?

Steam is still great, of course; honestly, I don't care if they lose big AAA publisher-developers, they will always have great games, new and old, for sale.

Yeah, it's entertaining.

Look at the above ^ it clearly demonstrates your lack of knowledge on the subject that is PC, and you don't own an XB1/PS4 or Switch so that only leaves mobile phone gaming unless there's something I forgot???

Let me rephrase that. People would rather buy from uplay than using the epic store. :) (Btw the epic store crashes on my mac so screw you epic.)

Everything I stated is a recorded fact....

We do not live in an alternative facts world, as Trump does.

I like Guillemot attitude here how he tries to spin it as a positive when he's basically saying "people will come to us because the service is even worse", trying to limit and direct where users can purchase from.

What a piece of shit. But Ubisoft, wouldn't have expected less.

A service like Steam (like Netflix) was supposed to eliminate the need to go elsewhere. It was supposed to be a platform for everyone to use to go and find the content they wanted. Then American corporate greed stepped in and ruined it for everyone.

You want one service to reign supreme? Zero options?

Is there any differences between launcher you use? Its still a pc game and Publisher makes money. Its win-win situation.

A single service with one fee, or single storefront that offers ALL the content? Abso-fucking-lutely buddy. I'd rather use JUST Steam than Steam, Epic, Uplay, Origin, Battle.net, GOG, etc. I was hoping that's what Netflix was going to be... now we've got over a dozen different services offering EXCLUSIVE content. It's complete bullshit. This is what digital distribution was supposed to break us away from.

@foxhound_fox: competition is whats best for consumers.

Competition is great, exclusive content is not. It should be competition between studios, not distribution services.

I hope the epic store does well, They only take 12% instead of 30% and if you make the game using the unreal engine you don't have to pay to use it either if you release on epic. Sounds like a better deal for indie developers.

It's still on PC, it's exclusive to a store front but not the platform.