this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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Larian director of publishing Michael Douse, never one to be shy about speaking his mind, has spoken his mind about Ubisoft's decision to disband the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown development team, saying it's the result of a "broken strategy" that prioritizes subscriptions over sales.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is quite good. PC Gamer's Mollie Taylor felt it was dragged down by a very slow start, calling it "a slow burn to a fault" in an overall positive review, and it holds an enviable 86 aggregate score on Metacritic. Despite that, Ubisoft recently confirmed that the development team has been scattered to the four winds to work on "other projects that will benefit from their expertise."

This, Douse feels, is at least partially the outcome of Ubisoft's focus on subscriptions over conventional game sales—the whole "feeling comfortable with not owning your game" thing espoused by Ubisoft director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay earlier this year—and the decision to stop releasing games on Steam, which is far and away the biggest digital storefront for PC gaming.

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[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (6 children)

Gamers be like "We don't mind not owning our games as long as we don't own them through the monopoly that we like, ok?"

[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev 13 points 6 months ago (6 children)

Ya I trust Steam more than Ubisoft. I feel like that's pretty reasonable?

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Just pointing out the hypocrisy

[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev 7 points 6 months ago

Do you really find no difference in buying games (or the license to play them) and subscription services?

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[–] narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

If you're talking about Steam, while it provides its own DRM system, games can be published on there without any DRM whatsoever, so you can do whatever you want with the downloaded files and then play the game without Steam.

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[–] 4am@lemm.ee 13 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Valve has a good track record, and you’ve never owned a game in your life. They’ve always been a license, with few exceptions. Even physical media.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The difference being that I can resell a physical media, even at a profit if there's enough demand for it, and to most people that's the definition of ownership.

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Defining ownership as "can I sell this" is ridiculous

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

If you can't dispose of it by selling it to someone else, your don't own it. Notice how even DRM free games are just the purchase of a license and the distributor can revoke your right to use that license? Yeah, do you don't own DRM free games either.

[–] Squirrelanna@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If that's the definition of ownership we're going with, does the fact that I can sell my steam account mean I do actually own every game on it regardless of DRM? Also, does a lack of a demand for a game degrade your ownership?

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

You can't though (not by following the terms you agreed to) and Valve can ban you or remove your right to use the license you paid for whenever they want.

[–] inlandempire@jlai.lu 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Indeed but being able to dispose of something by selling it does not automatically means you owned it

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Unless you're acting as a proxy for the owner, yes it does.

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[–] MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world 147 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

I mean given the massive industry layoffs over the past few years developers are already pretty used to not having jobs.

I hate how developers are the ones attributed to game industry problems. Decisions like this almost never fall on the developers shoulders, specifically the ownership quote was from their subscription service director. You know... the guy whose job depends on you not wanting to own games.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 42 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (7 children)

Agreed, I’m always saddened by quotes like “well the devs should have” when it’s almost certainly “the execs should have.” Unless a studio is owned by its devs, or they make up some of its leadership, which are few and far between, the devs don’t have the say on the shitty things that happen to the product they’re working on, and often when the devs have more say you end up with like Kingdom Come Deliverance from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhorse_Studios. One of my favorite games, was supported by the studio for long after it came out, and now they’re working on a promising sequel

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