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the welcome to tech stuff, a production from I heart, radio, the t there and welcome to tech stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland, I'm an executive producer with iheart radio and how the tech aria I am, the road to recovery myself. I hope all of you are well back in november of twenty twenty I did a three part series about the history of the video game: company, booby, soft or you be soft. Depending on how you up announced today pronounce a different ways within the company itself. So there's no Universal agreed upon pronunciation saw price, a booby soft, Anyway, the video game company actually true its history back to farm machinery for eels, I'm not gonna go into everything that I covered in those twenty twenty episodes.

It easily go back and listen to them if you like. I do think that's up a bit of tribute to consider now the company was founded in france back in the late nineteenth eightys by a group of five brothers. The geothermal brothers are one of them. Yves de homo remains c, o to them day, and I'm gonna go over a little bit the stuff I talked about in those episodes, just a kind of mind us all but, like us if you really want to dive into the history of you. Be soft, then check out those episodes that published in november twenty twenty to get the full story. Eyelids get back till I come about. Overview, sell, the studio became known for several game franchises, ranging from re man, which was the earliest big franchise for the company. two assassins, creed and far cry in more recent years.

They expanded tremendously in the nineteen nineties in part, because the company made lots of acquisitions, they bought up lots of other game developer studios, notably they purchased a development company in north carolina, called red storm and in two thousand you be soft required red store. Men in the process got access to games with Tom glances intellectual property. So I'm talking about stuff like splinter cell ghost recon and rainbow six among others, the Tom Clancy games would become kind of bedrock for ubisoft over the years. Like a a very strong. Foundation for the company. The two thousands saw who besought dodge duck dip dive dodge various attempts to acquire the company first up was electronic arts or ie eight showed interest in obese off for quite some time, a purchased, a fifth of obese offs stock at one point

but he ain't never actually made an overt move to acquire the but there was obviously some feelers out there, but nothing ever coalesced into like a hostile takeover. Anything like that and by twenty, and a had sold off. It shares a booby soft, but that exist He had a really big effect on who be soft itself. The company had played things a bit more conservative Lee though they might have. Otherwise it didn't make as many big choices while under the potential threat of acquisition, the thing is the Yea move was just the first time what we saw was under the potential shadow of a hostile takeover. A similar situation unfolded in twenty fifteen when another large french company called vendee started, scooping up shares a booby soft or shares that the brothers Gale mo themselves owned vivendi. Through its weight around and demanded that soft include vivendi, executives, Anu besought board of directors,

but the brothers were able to drum up enough support among other shareholders to keep them from happening, because even though when the old, more stock than the brothers dead. The brothers were able to rally other shareholders to to support them. Now the battle for kids the company lasted a Three years at which point vivendi said fine, keep your stupid, Nobody were selling our shares and we won't buy him back for up for at least five years. Then maybe then we will come back, we'll we'll just have to wait and see, and at that point vendee held nearly thirty percent of all the shares of the company, so that was a truly significant amount and Since then, another company bought up a bunch of shares, a newbie soft that would be the chinese mega corporation ten cent. I'm sure we will see history repeats itself again right. Well, we'll pray mentioned tents and again before we end

episode today. There are few other things I want to mention before we pick up where we left off in late twenty twenty. At the end of the I asked episode of that series. First up, the video game. Industry is notorious for its crunch culture, not just to be solved at me like that industry in general is known for this is, as a game is a development, particularly as you get later in its development cycle company, have been known to pressure developers into working longer hours, sometimes giving weekends or really in extreme cases, discouraging them from even going home. Then, as you might imagine, this becomes a stressful and unpleasant situation. And more recent years we have seen employees and allies of employees push back against the whole crunch culture of the video game industry,

and and to be clear, crunches, not just something that happens in the video game industry. It happens in lots of industries like overall developers, not just in video games. It happens air, but it can happen and lots of other situations as well, the summons the staff who work at the again companies have actually unionized to create more leverage with their respective companies. There's a union among who besought paris developers, for example, but there are other who besought offices all around the world and some other our union eyes and some of the marked and besought was no stranger to crunch, crush fact. In the early days of the company they actually located there office in a chateau in brittany, france- and this was a us

a ploy to lure young developers to work very soft, and you know not necessarily want to go home at the end of a long day, and it worked at least until the costs of maintaining a chateau proved to be a bit too steep and were eating into profits in it. they re located. The paris on a related note will be soft, had identified something pretty concerning so by two thousand nineteen through the various studios the company had acquired of the year, which again are all over the world right to figured that it employed around sixteen thousand developers. That's astronomical that such a huge number of developing, and it was spitting out aaa videogame titles. At a rate, the left competitors in the dust and again do you not familiar with the term triple a video game? That's just a big budget, major release right, like assassins, creed,

typically falls in the triple a video game. Category things like halo, you know or grand theft auto. These are aaa video It was, you might get spin offs that are not aaa, but the man in trees, all fond the triple a category obese otto though it was releasing more aaa games than any of its competitors were, releasing a linked rise and revenue and from a net revenue generated per employee perspective, How much money are we making? If we say we ve got X, number of ablaze were making. Why amount of money? How much are we making per plea. They were starting to lag behind others. In other words, other companies were making more money per employee, maybe not more money overall, but per employee. They were making more money. The neue software

So we'll be soft started to kind of pump. The breaks a little bit on aaa videogame development has that developing a triple a video game is over expensive. Am this was pie led to give development teams more time to polish games, and it was also partly to trade, focus on alternatives to these huge flashy and expensive. Aaa titles like whether types of games could we make that would be less expensive and more profitable. Now, the second thing they want to bring up before I move on two what's been happening. Any we soft since november of twenty twenty is that it be solved like a lot of other companies began, exploring ways to make games and ongoing revenue generator cell in the old days, you would head off to the game store in or whatever, and you would buy a copy of the game you wanted and that was it right end of transaction. You purchase your game and then you brought it home in played it

Maybe some time later, the game company would release and expansion pack to the game. You had purchased and you could go out by that and it would add some more content to the game you loved, but that was about it like that was the only options open to a video game developer company, and even that meant that you still had to poor resources to developing and releasing and expansion back by twenty twenty lotta. Things have changed in the video game industry. The internet, essentially the facilitator for this change, because now companies could stagger out downloadable content ordeal see some of deals, he could be free, but a lot of it would usually choir at least a small fee to purchase and the transaction mechanism could be inside the aim itself and would hit the play

or just wood. They were on the verge of getting that dopamine release, but it's being denied so like you can't beat that final stage. Boss baby. If you spent five bucks for a new mega, bazooka thingy, you could manage it and a lot of companies, including you, be soft, experimented with free to play, games or free games. So with these titles you: don't even have to buy the base game at all, it's free for you to download and play, but for it to be fun, or to flush it out. You might have to pay some cash to buffet up a bit They are the best premium. Games are funded play even if you never spend a dollar on them, but that's kind of counter productive for the companies that make these games because they need to be able to generate revenue or else it

well the business. So ideally you create a game where yeah it's fun. To play, even if you never sinking money into it, but if you do sink money into it, it's more fun or in a lot of cases it it's not that it's more fun, it's just it's less fun. training, which is kind of a grim way to look at things. But that's how this free to play business model works. The base game is free, but all the cool stuff is locked behind micro transactions. Then we get to the third element, the least pleasant of the three to put it lightly. So word got out the ruby soft had a toxic corporate culture, absolutely rife with instances of sexual harassment and discrimination, and this was company white like allow. The discussion was focused on who besought paris, the that, like the home office for besought the headquarters, but

allegations spread throughout the company and its various offices in places like canada, the united states in singapore and things like that, am word was that the companies human resources department had effectively attempted to dismiss any allegations. That executives in particular, were guilty of either it ought to doing acts of sexual harassment or ignoring acts of such sexual. For asthma, essentially allowing it to happen now. Possibly isn't. My hr was not really paying attention to this is that those accusations went way way. the leadership chain and the company ink, putting but not limited to the creative director for all of booby soft, a guy who had the the sultan yea or nay on essentially every That was under development within the company eventually,

news of these allegations and newbie got out to the public, and the french authorities launched an investigation into the company. Now the company, in afford to turn a blind eye to what was going on. After all these, these bombshell news reports were coming out and soon the media would start to cover a series of dismissals and resignations as various beside executives were shown the door that's kind of where I left off in november twenty twenty. So let's pick up again to see what's been going on with you soft since then now, go ahead, a mention the reason I decide to do This episode in the first place is because recently those french authorities detained a group of former ruby softly executives based off serious accusations of illegal conduct, primarily in the form of sexual harassment, or some reports reported as our rights

while violence, the investigation, which is technically ongoing. It's been a really lengthy and thorough one, as reported in the french news hybrid liberation liberation. I guess I should say a bay is how it's often referenced french union representing videogame workers, brought allegations against various x. You besought employees back in twenty twenty one. this was after the scandal and besought. I know I'm going back and forth on. The plantation is drive me crazy to just no that, as you hear me, say, Ruby softer you be soft and you're going crazy I am also going crazy anyway. Let me get back to that end. This was after the scandalous at you. Besought became public new, two other individuals also approach police to the accusations. They obviously were not named, because if you're naming the victims of like sexual violence in papers. That's not typically a good thing to do. Middle of investigation, so the police

launch their own investigation. They interviewed more than fifty current or former you be soft employees and the whole thing took it's over the course of more than a year, and then the detain meant happened on October third and october forth, which of twenty twenty three which, as I record this and publish it, was last week now among the five people detained was a guy named at surge. Has good, whose name I have butchered. I'm gonna be butchering lots, unease, they're, all french names- and I am not a french speaker, so my Apologies for that was just blade. My ignorant american tongue anyway surge had served as the creative director for all of you be suffer many you're. So this was the person who had the year, nay safer, pretty much everything the other part and who was named was tommy Francoise, but did vice president of editorial and creed of services.

Talk more about those charges valuations and the un going investigation then get into what else you be soft has been up to over the last few years. The first, let's take a quick break out Hey podcast listeners returning for season for is the restless months and original podcast presented by t mobile for business, and I heart radio. join me as I sit down for in depth discussions with the people at the intersection of technology and business, learn of there nick missions and challenges to enhance, optimization and drive their organizations forward. We reveal how two days bored thinking, leaders continue to thrive and a world of ever changing technology. here from those on the leading edge of business, share industry, expertise and how a strong, inflexible network lays the foundation for positive changes in their fields for revolutions and customer experience and employee enable meant to ideas with the power

to change the game and even the world. They are building a bridge to what's next and adopting transformative technologies like fire. Indeed to create a more connected and meaningful future today check out new, episodes of the restless ones avail hold on. I hurt radioactive apple podcast or wherever you listened abad guests, these d,

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be initial reports indicated that the police had detained, but not formally arrested these five former you be soft employees from what I can tell they have made no arrests so far like I try to follow up on this and see what was going on, and I did look at some french publications, obviously translating them into english. Using google translate, because my french is terrible, but the lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, the other people making the accusations have made. It has made it clear that the charges are really serious and that are not limited to just these five individuals and that in fact, the charges point to a systemic problem with it, to be soft itself and the departments there at least on the surface, were meant to provide employee protection.

We're really nothing but a way to protect the company and a squelch any efforts by employees to speak out about the toxic culture and harassment that they faced. It's really ugly stuff and it's still ongoing and maybe there will be arrests that follow as part of this ongoing investigation, as it stands right now. As a record this, I am unaware of any actual arrests but yeah, so is serious stuff and I'm sure I'll touch. But again because of our allegations about a different arm of you. We saw that the recently came to light, but let's leave that behind now and talk about other stuff in the company. So. While you besought was embroiled in this scandal, it still face the challenge of developing and publishing games right. The world did not come to a halt, as it was dealing with.

They were trying to forge a new strategy and perhaps reverse the trend of diminishing returns like I had talked about before. So in february, twenty twenty one ubisoft held an investor, call to talk about the company's performance in twenty twenty and what it planned to do. Moving ordered the chief financial officer. Frederick do way, I think emphasised that you be soft, would not be leaning as heavily honourably titles as the company had in the past. So to quote him he said quote we said for a number of years that our normal template is to come with either three or four aaa games. So we'll stick to that plan for fiscal, twenty twenty,

to that, we see that we are progressively continuously moving from a model that used to be only focused on aaa releases to a model where we have a combination of strong releases from aaa and strong back catalogued dynamics, but also complementing our programme of new releases with free to play and other premium experiences. End quote: so again indicating that games as a service was some the company was really interested in this by the way games as a service has, I, had a really rocky go of it as of late like a lot of game. Studios are evaluating that approach because a lot of players of kind of rejected that that version of games,

they don't like the idea of being sold to again and again and again, just a play, a game they wanted to play at not to say that it can't work, but that it requires a very careful approach for it to work well and for players to feel like it's fair and not predatory. So it's a very tough line to walk and not a lotta games are able to do it super well also to touch on something else he mentioned. He said oh taught about be the back catalogue of games as it stands, you be sauce back catalogue, isn't and radical contributor to their revenue lake I, like, more than ninety percent of game sold tend to be games where the bat catalogue and It may not surprise you do now that you be soft, is also looking into releasing ray mastered versions of some of their older games, because people want to play them, and then

the way of generating more revenue by updating the games gives people. What they want. Do you making everything look pretty. Maybe fixing some game play. Issues that existed in the arena version of the game and charging in old. Seventy bucks a copy or whatever now. The company was also started to really I mobile games as a possible opportunity for growth at that time, less than Ten percent of obese offs business came from mobile games but ten cent had made an end of significant investment into besotted ten cent is a company that has a deep investment and mobile games and am aware that the fact They were investing adieu. Besought, suggested that, things might change soon. There might be more focus on mobile games moving forward power, It turns out that if there was gonna be a dramatic shift for be soft, it hasn't quite happened yet not that it be hasn't, been developing mobile games.

but they haven't really changed as far as the how much they contribute towards revenue. At least not significantly are, Let's talk about some of the titles that have been released since I published by episodes in november twenty twenty. Now. Remember that strategy here was to back away a little bed from aaa games and focus more on it's like freemium type stuff, but also remember, video game development cycles, the last years and years near so it can take some time before start see a dramatic strategy reflected in actual releases, rightly A change in strategy might take a while to be evident in a cupboard releases, because so many gangs were still already in the development phase. While the announcement was made, assassins creed, valhalla came out right around the time. I was publishing my episodes in november of twenty twenty million.

Essence, creed franchise is enormous. major games that they're, like thirteen of them, more than a dozen games. In the main series, then you ve got like around twenty spin off games on top of that the basic concept behind the assassins creed games as that there, this millennia old conflict between two group, yeah the assassins on one side and the templars on another site and, generally speaking, the assassins are all about free will and choice. The tim lars, are all about creating order and both sides are we to see a sort of a peaceful existence, but its through two different, actions. So the assassins believe that only through free will can you really have true peace and the tumblers believe Only by locking folks down into a very orderly system can you actually guarantee peace and that's where the main conflict comes from.

there's us all this stuff about a precursor to human civilization and some science fiction elements of various items that when assembled would give incredible power against pretty convoluted, complicate this even more, is that, while the assassins creed titles are set throughout, history there's a modern day component to the story, so typically in an assassin's, creek gay you play as a modern day person who work not is a descendant of some historical character who was involved in this ancient conflict between two blindness: since and using sub science fiction technology you're able to inhabit the ancestral memories of these people from your ancient past and in the process you uncover some of the mysteries that are at the core of the struggle between the assassins and the templars. Mostly,

like trying to get an idea of where some of these sites five artifacts from this precursor civilization could be hidden. Now have only played a few of the assassins. Crete gaze. Personally, I find the historical said to be far more enjoyable to the modern day ones. I find the site by stuff kind of silly convoluted historical components, are met, he only slightly less goofy, but I just by the more enjoyable about that. That's just my own personal opinion of the games anyway, valhalla, as I'm sure you can imagine taps into norwegian, story and mythology. The historical segments are set in the late night, said: trace of elite. Eight hundreds of the common era in it Go by historical chronology. Thou would mean this is the fourth game. If you look at the historical sector, If that's how you order the assassins creed franchise, which, by the way there

lots differ ways you could order the franchise most of them in making everything make no sense, but but just go by the historical segments first up would be, as its creed odyssey, then, would be assassins. Crete origins so, ironically, that actually comes after odyssey. Then the new game assassins crete mirage would be next and then, after that would be assassins. Creed valhalla although mirage valhalla, but up against each other super clusters, mirage would have been taking place like a decade before valhalla. a starts assassins. Great valhalla is a huge game idea estimated that it would take about sixty hours to complete it that would actually make it the longest game by playtime in the entire assassins, creed siri. So far, by contrast, the new title, the one it just came out assassins crete mirage is far less complex. It completely.

Rid of any modern day story at all, so you're just focused on the historical element. It's really stripped down the game to its stealth, an assassination components and it debuted on October fifth, twenty twenty three, you know just shortly, for all those who besought executives had been detained by police anyway, it's interesting to compare and contrast valhalla with mirage because One is a huge sprawling gave with tons of content that generally got positive reviews, but some critics calling it out as being a little too long that it had excessive links to the main storyline. According to game aunt, Valhalla falls, bring much in the middle of all the games by gamer by many critics score it's a little bit on the bottom side of the metal, so not smack dab in the middle

It's a little too early to make a call a mirage, but as a record, this met a critic, has mirage at a score of seventy seven kind of average, doubt among more than eighty critics if it holds that seventy seven that would put eleventh on the list of thirteen game so toward the bottom end. So again, interesting because it depends. I guess, on whether or not you value the stripped down. Poor game play of assassins? Creed, which would suggest that you would prefer a game like mirage or if you prefer, outside the the larger, more sprawling kind of game play of something like valhalla and again its early. Maybe other reviews will change. Let score overtime. It'll be interesting to see. If he be decides that the valhalla approach is better than stupid. Things down to their roots also while you besought would release downloadable content ordeal, C4 valhalla, they ve said that.

they're not gonna. Do that for mirage I does have micro transactions included in it, but its purely for a cosmetic elements. So can pay to have different cosmetic feature. Added into mirage, they can change like the appearance of a character of their their costume that kind of stuff. But you won't begin. additional content, so very interesting that they're, taking that, I guess they're kind of Testing the waters to see What resonates with gamers more if it is something words like a stripped down version that the potentially mean A smaller investment source wise into game development and perhaps a better pay off down the line. but if it turns out that gamers kind of reject that, then it may mean like well. I guess we're stuck with planning out these really huge game

Now, let's go over some of the other games that have come out since november, twenty twenty, besides assassins, creed, valhalla and mirage There were several tv he or game show or board in based games that came out like family feud or trivial pursued that kind of stuff. family view by the way case are not aware there is a long running tv gameshow, and so I was one of the titles that you be softly since november. Twenty twenty Then, let's see there was a three different. Just dance games came out because there's one every year, so just danced twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three all came out since november. Twenty two there are several Tom clancy titles they came out since, in rainbow six c an rainbow six extraction were two of those.

He sought also release scott pilgrim versus the world. The game, complete addition, the game had been out before, but this is kind of a re mastered. Full version of the game, Then there was also a far cry six and twenty twenty one far cry series is: Those that's also like a a law standing franchise would be solved far cry. Typically, take on the role of a person who is stuck in an environment where there is an oppressive leader of some sort and you or essentially either escape or overthrow that leader, depending upon which far you're. Looking at an far cry, six got some mixed reviews, which is a ashore.

Because giancarlo Esposito, the actor who I think of it as gus spring from the breaking bad series, he played the villain in far cry six curtained anton castillo. I have not play far cry six. I think the last far craig game I played was blood dragon, which is tat weighs ways back, but from what I understand. It also received like mixed reviews and and people were generally a little disappointed in it, which is a shame cause. I mean again that's a series that has a lot going for it, but I think a lot of people feel that it's a little formulaic and so a lot rests on the story. of those games, because if the game play is pretty much the same as the previous one in the series you gotta make Further, the the story really sets it apart, and I think a lot of people didn't resonate with that story based upon my impressions from reading various reviews in such any

Hey, that's just a selection of some of the games that you be softer least over that period. They also had lots of other games as well should be a surprise because again, who besought has offices all over the world these days already. We can see that the pace of releases is different from earlier years. At the company lightless take assassins, creed for aids simple, we got mirage just last week and before that we got valhalla in late. Twenty. Twenty Phyllis compare that to the era of twenty, the twenty nineteen. So in that ten year period you re soft, released nine assassins. Creakings started with his essence: creed brotherhood, which came out in twenty and the last one in that era, was assassins. Creed odyssey, which came out in twenty eighteen, so the pace today is absolutely glacial compared to back then

anyway, there's a selection of games that you we sought has released over the last few years. But what about a game that hasn't been released yet on this been development for more than a decade, has slipped launch dates, half a dozen times and has various development hell on a level that rivals that of titles like duke newcomb forever. I am talking, of course, about the long awaited pirate game skull and bones gonna go into the drama behind skull and bones, but firstly take another quick break, paper, gas listeners returning for season for is the restless ones and original podcast presented by t mobile for business, and I heart radio join me as I sit down for in depth. Discussions with the people at the intersection of technology and business. Learn of there

Nick missions and challenges to enhance, optimization and drive their organizations forward. We reveal how two days forward. Thinking, leaders continue to thrive and a world of ever changing technology. here from those on the leading edge of business, share industry, expertise and how a strong, inflexible network lays the foundation for positive changes in their fields. revolutions and customer experience and employee enable meant to ideas with the power or to change the game, and even the world they are building a bridge to what's next and adopting transformative technologies like g to create a more connected and meaningful future today check out new Results of the restless ones away, on the radio web apple podcast or wherever you listened broadcasts. Should you borrow too

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doktor about consent, exe, ok before craig. I alluded to scholar tones which you If you wanted to keep with the mariner theme, you could say what has been an albatross around the corporate neck of ubisoft for a few years of the general public. First got a look at skull and bones back in two thousand and seventeen during e three, which I'll remind you used to be a thing but the game had been in development for several years already, mostly over it. You besought, singapore and, in part

that's where a lot of isaf's problem comes from not there, the developers it'd be soft, singapore are are bad or substandard, but that the deal you be soft made with singapore, the country has kind of put the company and a bit of a bind. So when you be soft set out to establish the singapore office, which was back in two thousand eight you be sought, had to negotiate with singapore government and this is to establish stuff. Like tax, eggs and incentives in that kind of thing, and you can land those sorts of staff, but typically you have to offer something in return, so part of those negotiate. kids included. You be soft, gearing

in that they would hire a certain number of people in singapore. The staff, the office silly wouldn't just be bringing people to singapore. To do it, they would be hiring from the developer community within singapore itself. Another was a commitment that the eu be soft. Singapore office would release original ip games, so not games that belong to other franchises, but that this office itself would become, known for creating original ip. Also the developers eddie resolve singapore were largely responsible for the ship game, play mechanics of one of you resource best reviewed games and that would play a part effect, a primary part in the skull and bone story. So, according to co taku you we sought first launched development of skull and bones back and twenty thirteen.

Not that time. The idea was. This was just gonna, be an expansion of multiplayer expansion for assassins creed for black flag. That just happens to be my favorite assassins, crete game that I have ever played, but keep a mind. I'm only play like three or four the titles his whole. I haven't played the vast majority You have assassin's creed games. It's it's possible that if I played one of the other once more, the more recent titles I'd say: oh well, this one's actually my favorite, but for now black lag is my favorite, and then that game you play as a privateer, slash pirate, slash, eventually an assassin, and it includes sections of the game in which you control ship and you can engage and shipped to ship. Combat and pursue in o generally by radical pursuits, so the initial plan was to create a multiplayer feature

Where gamers could purchases this multiplayer expansion to us essence, creed for and set their own skills against other players and have ship to ship battle against people who are now controlling the other shut. However, while in development, the team added more features and components in this kind of inspired executives to expand the project and it went from being just a an expansion to a full spin off of black flag and I had the working title. Of black flag infinite, and that decision wasn't just because the game getting fleshed out more of us, an indication that the games as a service model was really appealing to you besought. So why spend so many internal resources to make an expansion to an existing game that you can only really sell the one time. Instead, why not create a fully fledged game that has the ability to Jim? revenue repeatedly from the same player base?

for, however long that games lifecycle lasts, they, whether it comes in the form of subscriptions or MIKE transactions or whatever? That means you can keep making money off the same title year after year, I'm like grand theft auto online. That's a great example of a game that has done that in readily effectively mean While a problem that has hit lots of game developers was hitting this particular development project. Actually you can argue that two very common problems within videogame development hit the black flag infinite project. One was that, while developers were hard at work on the project, technological innovation in the game hardware, space kept on going, which meant some of the assets that the team had been using, were starting to really show their age and

This leads to a pretty tough choice. Do you adopt newer technologies, knowing that this means a lot of your your earlier work will no longer be usable right as you adopt these new technologies. It means you get atossa. Last up you ve already built, or do you stick with, the stuff you ve already created a just resign yourself to the problem that folks are going to think your game looks outdated at large. They're gonna say all this looks like a last generation game. So we saw decided they were gonna go with the first option. There we're gonna, adopt the new technologies, but I meant that they were gonna lose a lot of that early development work. Now. The other big problem than a lotta game companies have faced is feature creep. So this is when you have a set of defined features that you want in your project and then someone typically yell someone in charge besides it hey, while we're doin

all this we should also add in feature ex except adding feature. Acts means that you also. do a whole lot more work not just have feature ex work, but to have it work within the context of the overall project right because just including future ex might break other stuff. So it's a lot of work and its rarely just feature axe often become feature x and Y and z? And next thing you know, you've read our letters and you gotta start with numbers and stuff, and your project becomes bloated and difficult to manage that happen to ubisoft's project of black flag. Infant as well now a little bit later, ubisoft decided to divorce the game from the black flag title entirely which also meant skull and bones the new title would be. One of those original I peas, that they needed to produce out of you, you besought singapore, so that would solve that problem right, like He would be a brand new intellectual property that sure will

drawn from the experience of designing assassins, creed black flag, but had no other connection to it. Now the game changed, scope and end game play several times so originally it was meant to be set in the caribbean. It was going to be this ship to ship combat between players, where you would have these specific instances of ship to ship call. That, then, after a while, it migrated to a fantasy setting called hyperborean for a bit Another variation had a floating pirate citadel called liberte leia as a focal point of the game, but then they would ultimately migrate over to the indian ocean. It had actually have, according to at least some histories. I read had moved to the indian ocean before it got moved out now it's back in the indian ocean, that's the setting for scullin

and as it stands today. Meanwhile, the video game developer rare, was at work on a similar concept. This one called sea of thieves will be a multiplayer game in which players would form small pirate crews. They would command ships that go on adventures which could include which ship to ship combat, as well as adventuring on land searching for treasure in that kind of stuff. Rare also decided that progression in the game could be marked with cosmetic items and to not lock any weapons and tools and such behind that so way. You know you wouldn't just log in to the game for the first time and then find yourself obliterated by a veteran player, who's he's in I dunno cap'n chunky, his intercontinental ballistic cannon ball or something so rare began, developing sea of thieves or two thousand and fourteen, so not too long after ubisoft had started on what would become skull and bones. Rare first announced the game in two thousand and fifteen at eighty three, so this is before ubisoft would announce

skull and bones, and the original plan was to release sea of thieves and twenty seventeen, but that got delayed till twenty eighteen. Meanwhile, back at ubisoft the project that would become skull and bones hit some choppy waters to fit. In with the metaphor, developer. Leadership was mere it changed multiple times, and that also change should have the development of the game, and so it meant that developers were working and working and working on this project, but they weren't any closer to getting a finished game, and that was very much demoralized. Ubisoft announced the game in two thousand and seventeen they launched their own preview video at a three that year, a sea of thieves was not yet out. So now we knew about two pirate crew games that were coming out. Ah,

the two thousand and seventeen preview of skull and bones showed off what appeared to be an encounter involving four ships. First, what seems to be a a navy ship succumbs to an attack led by a female pirate captain, but her victory celebration doesn't last very long because thus, as she's looking over the spoils of her attack to other part ships come into view and they flank either side of her up and then all three vessels open fire and each other and looks like all four of them sink, and that was the end of the preview. The graphics and see a thieves tends towards the cartoons, whereas skull and bones looked more aligned with what you would scenes in an assassins- creed game again, no big surprise, it did spawn from assassins creed originally, but it didn't really shown a game play in that trailer. This is like a cinematic approach, really didn't give you a sense of what you experience while playing the game internally adobe soft. There is chaos, either

It's concern that skull and bones didn't have enough sticky content to keep players interested if the game only involved player versus player combat how long before that gets old and people stopped and if it's meant to be a games as a service where your generate revenue over time, you want people to see, took keep playing a game for as long as possible So they got the development on some pv elements. Pv stands for player, verses environment, so the player is pitted against stuff. That's under control by the game itself, rather than under the control of a different player. in two thousand and eighteen ubisoft showed off some of that pv. He stuff in a preview called skull and bones. The hunting grounds for the hunting ground showed off some of the things you could do. A and player vs environment missions and at the end of that trailer, they proclaimed the game would launch in twenty nineteen. Obviously that did not happen.

In fact, the whole hunting grounds version of skull bones would suffer the same fate as many other decisions during the development cycle. It sank so, instead, we sought was looking at a different set of games that were becoming really popular around this time and those would be survival games that includes stuff like resource management and crafting so games like arc r R. In that The gory I play a game like that called seven days to die. That's a zombie hoard survival game that some of those crafting woman and resource management included in it so skull and bones would need to adopt those kinds of features as well and the development would drag on because it's not just as simple as saying. Well, let's add an inventory right. You had to build a whole new. Player economy. It would change motivation for why the players playing the game. I can have a massive impact on the game's development

so the changes would mean that players would need to venture on land to find collect resources. So there had to be new ways to manage that inventory. The game would have to have an entire crafting mechanism built into it to make it all work and the existing foundation of the game wasn't really suitable for all this kind of gameplay. So I made it even harder, to achieve the new direction of the title. So what was actually going on here? It's not like gaindu, elvis follow some sort of natural progression, leadership on the project spread out across multiple managers and appears that not everyone was on the same page according to some of the folks that qatar cooped up to it, seem like allow leadership practised a passing the buck routine. When it came,

making a critical, difficult decisions, which meant those decisions just didn't get made. So things were left in limbo. Then there is the fact that he be soft. Singapore was young studio. They never had shift its own full tripoli title. It had participated and contributed to them, but never made its own. So that was also an issue is possible that the other two do it suggested the experience to really tackle this, and it was a little too soon out the gate for the studio to two helm, such a big title

The game has had three different creed of directors of the course of its development. The most recent creative director Elisabeth Pelon left the project back in september. She still works for you be solved, but now she's back in the: u s: paris, studio and besought announced and missed launch dates for the game six times so far. Currently the plainest release it in twenty twenty three or twenty twenty four and since we're coming up on the into twenty twenty three, I think most folks now are assuming that we're looking at twenty twenty four at this point, but the game has been in beta, so it's not like it's totally behind closed doors. People have had a chance to experience the game, a select number of people, some of them people who work at prominent video games website. They ve taken part and reported on it. Other views are mixed. Some of them are positive.

Some of them are more mere. I don't. I don't think I've seen anything that was outright negative. The one person said that he then was was bored most of the time, but not like the game was outright bad, not everyone finds the gameplay really that engaging, but for the people with whom it clicked it sounds like it clicked really well, so it sounds like for at least some types of players. This is going to be a pretty fun game. The kotaku report on the development of skull and bones, which came out in twenty twenty one I might add up and ignore the game, still has to come out two years later say that skull and bones at that point was well over. It's initial budget having hit more than a hundred twenty million dollars. This actually is a really big impact, not just on the company, but also the developers themselves, because you see and it we soft. Albers, are eligible for a bonus depending upon how will their game does when hits release compared to how much it costs to make the game

but because skull and bones was so grossly over budget and not at the folded developers necessarily immense there would be no way for the game to do well enough to trigger those bonuses. So, according to quotas, horses, we sought had to do an internal right off on the game in order for the even be a chance for developers to get a bonus. It all again became hasn't come out yet so we don't know if there will be a bonus in twenty twenty one, le bay. That french newspaper reported that you be soft. Singapore had shared some other toxic traits of the overall you besought company and then invest. it was launched into the charges of sexual harassment and racial discrimination at that office. Are that probably had a huge impact on the development of skull and bones as well

Ah there more recently there's been reports that the singapore, creative media and publishing union or see mp, you has been campaigning within singapore's office to try and get workers there to union eyes and to organise that has not yet happened, but apparent. Apparently, that's been going on for about a month Now you be sought is also faced other instances of labors instance. Earlier this year there were members of the paris office who did a walk out around forty of them. in protest of how yale guillermo had released a memo, stating that the problems that the company had faced with it were largely due to developer issues, and they were saying hey it's not us. It's the people you put

charge who created this terrible toxic environment, how dare you say it's because of us and other demanding things like an increase in pay and afford a work week and some other, considerations and um yeah. Then there's ten cent right. Ten cent got a forty nine point: nine percent economic stake in a company called the GMO brothers limited. This company actually holds the stock that belongs to those five brothers who founded you besought. So this this one entity actually holds the stock that belongs to the brothers, and now ten cent owns almost half of that company. In addition, that has about ten percent ownership, Ah, you be soft stock overall. Ironically, this is kind of quelled worries that tense. It could take over you besought entirely, because you resolve shareholders have indicated they would not

dinner, a bio unless the eu be soft stock, was trading for round sixty to seventy euro per share, and when ten cent made this this acquisition deal for, like fifty percent or forty nine point, nine percent of the holding company of the stock price for you is. I fell. Fifteen percent to thirty six point, six euros, so it's far, but oh the threshold, that shareholders would consider for a bio and as our accord, this episode you besought stock prices just below twenty nine euro per share. So yet none on track for that by our option, at least according to shareholders. I should also mention, You besought hope that mobile gaming would make up a large percentage of revenue has not really pan out that way, at least not yet it still. hovering around the ten percent mark, which is what it was at beckoned, twenty twenty, so that might change in the next year or two, but so far it just hasn't really skyrocketed. The way the company had hoped so that kind of gets us up to speed as to what you besought has been up to, since twenty two

De felt good to get through. All of that, I should probably also do this for blizzard, because I did one a series on blizzard not too long ago, and I should do an update on that, especially with all the activision blizzard of acquisition, shenanigans that have happened over the past year and a half or so, but that's not for today You are all well I'll talk to you again release it. text is an iheart radio production for more podcast from my heart radio visit the iheart radio apt we'll podcast wherever you listen to your favorite jobs. First, tech federal credit: is the credit union built by and for the people of tech. We ve got the tools and to improve your financial. Well being so, you can focus. investing securing and growing your money, no man!

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