I don't like seeing game companies in crisis, but Jesus Christ is Ubisoft making it hard to cheer for them. The company shutdown servers for its online racer The Crew in 2024 after a 10-year-run. It had no offline component, so it's now unplayable. Gamers in California are suing the company for what they feel are deceptive practices. You know, the old silly assumption that when you purchase a game you own the thing.
Ubisoft's defense is basically, "You never purchased a game because we weren't selling you one. We were selling a limited access license." I can't imagine why this company is almost bankrupt. Look, I'm not new to this. We've known for a long time that certain genres of game, such as racing and fighting live and die by online components we have no control over.
But seeing it in writing, and realizing that Ubisoft would rather pay lawyers to maintain this sickening status quo than do right by its customers is unsettling. This all began when Ubisoft offered refunds to those who had "recently" purchased the game. The word recently is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and most gamers got no refund.
That is, of course, exactly what Ubisoft intended. How much could refunds have cost them? Surely it would have been less than the lawyers and constant public relations hits. Ubisoft, after Tencent saved the company with a cash infusion of more than $1 billion, is trying and failing to convince us that its decisions are not currently being made by inebriated marmosets with a Ouija board.
When you're piling up the money like say, Electronic Arts, you can have all these unforced errors. But the Ubisoft of recent years isn't just a rudderless ship. It's a ship that has an anchor where its rudder should be.
Its stock price is continuing to tank because even flush with Tencent cash, the stockholders aren't convinced this company is headed in the right direction. The debate in this lawsuit is about ownership. No matter how much money is thrown at the problems, nothing at Ubisoft will change until it takes ownership of its constant stream of questionable decisions.