Opinion on Ubisoft/Uplay (POLL)

**** the DRM. They still do some good games and some rancid crap, but I've had games on both PC and PS3 ruined by their attempts to include DRM.

I suspect that the general consensus on this forum will be focused against Ubisoft, almost solely from Uplay, which is unfortunate, as any game I've bought through Steam and had to play through it, it is very unobtrusive. My only problems with Ubisoft at the moment is that they, as well as other companies, have been producing some pretty crappy ports, and not fixing them, Watchdogs in particular has a well known lag that appears as you drive if the game has been running too long. (2+ hours).

4. Ubisoft is a good publisher, but they have fallen into the triple A gaming industry rut. They also milk their franchises too much, but everyone does these days. And as for Uplay, it really isn't all that bad. It is not perfect, but it works. Mostly. And they do (based off of what other people say) have really good support. They do come up with new ideas for games, they just do not focus on them enough. And the sequels that they do release, are frequently buggy and broken.

Here's my 2 cents

1. When it comes to AAA franchises, Ubi will milk that cow until no more profit can be made but you can't blame them. Hell, I'd do the same if I saw that the sales are great every single time.
2. Uplay is not the best platform out there, indeed, but it isn't the spawn of Satan, as some describe it. Yeah, the servers go down from time to time, that's true, and I blame them for not investing more in networking. Usually I steer clear of it just because I like all my games on one platform, that's all.
3. While they fuck up with some games (Unity, for example), they publish great games as well. I had so much fun playing Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, Trials Fusion, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, so on and so forth. But the internet is a cruel place and you'll rarely hear people come out and admit they enjoyed the game when the trend is to bash it down for every single bug.
4. Concering the last sentence in point 3: I work as a game tester. Most of the bugs of any game are found before launch but the black suits push the programmers to launch a game and fix the bugs afterwards. As long as people will buy games, they'll submit to their greed and launch unfinished games. Ubi isn't the first, nor the last to suffer from the guys in management.
5. Designers in Ubi have great ideas but they're always cut short due to the same guys in management. They cut down the budget and thus cut down the game. While trying to maximize profits, they force the developing team to release only a fraction of what they wished to add to a game.

I'm not a fan of their company policies but don't bash on Ubi so much. They may not be a shining star right now but I'd buy an Ubi game every day over a company that makes me buy a Redbull to unlock content.

With Ubisoft it's like this - their DRM isn't that bad unless they start tampering with games that require it. I don't hate Uplay, I play from time to time FC3 or Watch Dogs and no problems so far. But I have a policy that what's from EA states on Origin, what's from Ubi stays on Uplay. I try not mixing it with Steam, apart from that one time when I bought FC franchise collection on steam which bit me in the ass with FC2 and additional content. When it comes to games it's not franchises they are milking, they milk whole game concepts, they put whole mechanic of one game into another and not only they do this in one franchise, they copy mechanics across franchises which is a clear statement that creative development in Ubi sucks balls. Deep. Sometimes they release a good game like Child of Light but on the other hand they broke a fucking TETRIS on PS4.

http://k46.kn3.net/taringa/0/0/6/9/8/5/popocho/D49.jpg

I don't think I've played anything but a few AC games from Ubisoft. I got the first one maybe 2-3 months after it was released with a bunch of other games when my uncle sent me a PS3, and I was really excited when I looked it up and saw that it had good reviews, but I never managed to finish it because it felt too repetitive. From that, I went straight to Brotherhood because I'm a wimp and I need others to protect me, and later on I played 2 for a bit, but they just feel like the same game. I have them all on PS3 from the first one 'till 3, but I can't get myself to play them, they just feel like the same game with slightly different things.
I haven't played any of them in a while, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the basic integration of Uplay on PS3 was getting points from playing and buying things with those points. That was really painful, it took a lot of time to load, not gonna talk about the difficulty of getting them because they were optional.
As for the PC versions, I didn't buy any because I don't feel the need to play the ones I've finished again (even though it's only one). But considering I only like getting games on Steam on PC, having Steam AND Uplay at the same time seems useless and tiring. I'm glad that at least they're on Steam, unlike the newer EA games that are Origin exclusive on PC as far as I know, and I really, really don't like the idea of keeping games on two different drms.
(Not a native English speaker, sorry for any mistakes.)

I have issues with a lot of Ubisoft games on PC. On console, I haven't had issues, but getting multiplayer to work (even just LAN) is like pulling teeth, and their support isn't very helpful. Also, while Uplay has improved greatly, I much prefer Steam, and being forced to use Uplay is a slight annoyance.

Hate their DRM.
With Prince of Perisa : TWT, their DRM broke windows installation. It used to stay even after game was uninstalled.
With Prince of Persia : Forgotten Sands, their DRM was needed to play. Always need to be online. And if your connection dropped out even for a small bit, expect to have your game messed up.
Child of Light : Uplay needed. Does not work sometimes. Its a single player game, but I still cant play it anytime I want. I bought the game on steam, then had to torrent to just play it. The torrent version worked without any glitches.

Then I don't like their ideals. They don't care about gamers. Just the bottom line. When they started, they seemed to care about the games they made. Now they are too big for their own good. They rarely make anything I enjoy anymore. If they did, I might still buy it, but I would still think twice before doing it.

Agreed with 4.

Most of the times I hate their fukin pricing. But I can't deny they've made some good games. I totally love Valiant and Rayman series, but hate Assassin Creed franchise for being cash cow. Sure they're business, but it doesn't mean they make half assed games like AC franchises like that. Polish it, then we talk money.

I'm not sure how "I don't like DRM in general, but I don't hate Uplay/Ubisoft any more than I do Steam/Valve. I've just had too many problems with their client" fits in with the choices. There's also "I'm not a huge fan of the stealth/evasion/whatever it is/ gameplay of AC."

For games with stories, I'd prefer to hack my way through (since I'm there for the story, not so much the "challenge"). For a challenge, I stick with platformers and the like.

I don't play Ubisoft games because I can't play them. Lack of a console and bad computer, all that. Now, Ubisoft isn't bad but they've definitely gotten the impression that people want the games that they make, regardless. Assassin Creed is a key example. I played the first one and, wow, it's ridiculously weaker and worse-looking than the second game, which is probably my favourite in terms of overall enjoyment. So, the next few games come around and they introduce new idea but... The AI, story, character development and of course # of bugs increased. The recent games, starting at Brotherhood I'd say, are just abysmal. Brotherhood wasn't bad but the later games were horrible. Ubisoft's biggest issue seems to be buggy releases / lazy 'promises' (Watch Dogs' graphics/performance for example which had people going crazy, just like the pirate Assassins' Creed game) and DRM, so I'm not big on Ubisoft in general but if the game runs and I enjoy it, it's a win situation for me. I could hardly care about graphics and performance unless I can't tell what is what and the game doesn't run.

DRM is just bad in general and that's why I'm looking towards GOG more and more.

Three words that prove their degradation - Assassin's creed franchise

the only thing preventing me from playing/buying their games is the horrible uplay system.
i liked far cry 3, child of light and many other titles. but you know what, they are pirated and i won't ever pay for them because of their drm choice.

they also keep making games like AC but i just chose to ignore them. i only played the first one when it came out and it was original and fun, the rest just seem repetitive.

Micro Transactions killed them, I miss the Splinter Cell/Prince of Persia trilogy days of Ubisoft, but Assassins Creed is not a bad series and they do make good games, just bad choices.

They impressed me enough as E3.

i play valiant hearts on the uplay thingie wish i didnt need it just more programs on the computer :)

I love the AC series but they milk that franchise like their life depended on it. I would rather have them releasing games with some time between them instead of releasing one game every year, and some of them with poor optimization, tons of bugs and unplayable (aka. Watch Dogs or Unity... I haven't played Rogue so I don't know how's it like).
About uplay, I don't mind it actually, but the latest updates made it worse in my opinion. I don't like the new in-game interface and uplay doesn't even work for me on ac3 for some reason.

I just have a simple rule: no non-Steam DRM. I miss out on a few games I'd like to play, but there are thousands of other games out there.
Also, in a few cases, if I really want to play it, I can buy it on my PS3. (e.g., Child of Light, Valiant Hearts).
I've never used/seen the Uplay client (or Origin for that matter), but I've heard enough bad that I'm willing to avoid it-- hence my "simple rule" above. DRM on top of DRM just doesn't make sense to me. =)

I had only a few problems with UPlay and everything was solved via support. I guess the biggest problem about UPlay is that you cannot activate a complete edition if you already own the original release so you have to go through support. Other than that, not really a difference between UPlay, Origin or Steam and it's not gonna stop me from buying their games.

Eh. Uplay, origin, steam, desura. They all have annoying DRM that I find mostly unacceptable. Only GoG lacks any unfair DRMs out of all of the platforms.

Thing is though every client has AMAZING games unique to themselves.

I dislike the company, due to their constant lies and attempts to cover their own behinds (and treating their customers like idiots), but I do like some of their games (really liked Might & Magic X and Valiant Hearts). As for Uplay, I would prefer not to use it, but it's no dealbreaker for me.

dont really care. give me games i like, i will probably play them in the far future when they are way cheaper

I ran into the Ubitrap once, with Anno 2070, when I was fairly new on Steam. I bought the game on Steam, when it was on sale, didn't even know a thing about Uplay, only to discover afterwards, that I would get a key for Uplay instead of a game which I could just play on Steam - I am fairly sure, this wasn't made very clear in the Steam store at this time and that the information is better now. Anyway, so I installed Uplay, which took realtively long, then the client was updating even longer, and when I finally had it running the client was not very intuitive at all, like wanting me to add friends like in some stupid social network when I only wanted to try out my game. In the end I managed to do run the game, it works, but up to this day, I still think it takes very long to start up, because of all the Uplay stuff loading on top of Steam - as a consequence I don't play the game very often any more, which usually means that Uplay needs to update even longer when I do, which is kind of a vicious circle.
Apart from that, I absolutely hate it, that I can't even play offline with Uplay in that particular game. Steam is not ideal either, but at least, I never had any problems with just blocking it in my firewall, playing singleplayer in offline mode. With Anno 2070, when I block out Uplay, forcing it in offline mode, important functions are not available any more, not even in single player campaigns. This may be bad design in that particular game, and may not be true for all of Uplay, but it still sucks.

Their games are good but their DRM annoys me. How about UPlay: it's ok & they have good customer support, but there are way more games on Steam or GoG and I don't like to use too many clients.

i don't buy every game from ubisoft but the ones I got are good and till now i never had a problem with uplay... but yeah, it would be better, if all games would be in steam (same for origin)...

it also don't have to be steam, if all games would be in uplay or origin it would be fine too... the only thing that i hate is, that i have 3 different clients to start games