What I do care about is everything that was uncovered about Ubisoft's toxic culture, it's protection of abusers over many years (at least one of whom was a close friend of Yves Guillemot) and how they tried to silence and/or ignore the victims of such abuse and harassment.
That's not okay with me, and despite all the platitudes and promises to address that culture, I'm not inclined to believe it. Ubisoft is a company that has lied many times in the past, and if sources within the company are to be believed, they've gone through this whole public song and dance before, and not really done anything to change.
We each have to draw a line in the sand about what we're willing to accept from game companies, and this is where I've drawn mine. I'll not be buying any more Ubisoft products in the future, especially while Yves Guillemot is head of the company. Yes, I know my decision will have zero impact on the company, and they won't care, but at least I will feel better about it. When I look at all the Ubisoft games I've bought over the years, I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
The game industry as a whole needs to address these issues, from harassment to exploitation of employees, to forced crunch periods during development that leaves people burned out and suffering from symptoms of PTSD, and all the rest of it. Learning about all of this over the years has made it harder and harder for me to continue with this hobby. I try to support those developers who seem to operate under fair practices, but who knows any more?
Gaming as a form of entertainment becomes more of a minefield year after year, unless you are someone who can lock away your conscience in a closet and turn a blind eye to the state of the industry. Personally, I can't do that any more.
Another behemoth enters the game-streaming market? Well, at least competition should be good for the end user, if these companies are in for the long haul.
My understanding is that MachineGames in collaboration with id Software makes the current Wolfenstein games, not Bethesda Game Studios. id Software makes Doom, not BGS. Bethesda SOFTWORKS is the publishing arm that distributes all of the games from the studios under the Zenimax umbrella, but doesn't develop anything. Maybe it's time to rename Bethesda Softworks to alleviate some of that confusion. I mean, now that it's owned by Microsoft, will they now switch to Microsoft Game Studios as the publisher?
I'm okay with developers not showing a game off until the year I can play it. Too many studios show trailers for games years and years before they're going to be ready. Some titles are even silently cancelled along the way.
We'll have to wait and see what this supposed 'engine overhaul' is going to do for Starfield. I just hope BGS has learned from their mistakes after Fallout 76 (not just the game itself, but how they mishandled everything around it). They need to return to form and win back a lot of trust.
Credit where credit is due. If a smaller developer like Tripwire Interactive can offer a free upgrade to next gen, along with ensuring that existing game saves work, the big publishers ought to be able to follow suit.
However, it seems that at least some of them can't be arsed, and just want to double-dip for next gen.
Gallowhand's comments