chickenboo wrote on Sep 26, 2024, 11:44:
You have to wonder, when Valve is reporting Steam CCU of 55 million players at one time, why isn't Ubisoft putting their games in front of that audience?

Is that a forward-thinking statement, considering Steam hasn't yet reached a concurrent user count of 55 million (but they're getting close)? If it is, then it seems obvious that Ubisoft is anticipating this growth. They’re likely adding their catalog to Steam now to be ready when the CCU hits that 55 million mark.

RogueSix wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 22:43:

Back in 2019 the, company started a romance with the Epic Games Store with Ubisoft's Chris Early calling the Steam business model "unrealistic."

IIRC, Ubi referred to the original 30% as "unrealistic" (which it is... 30% is a fucking ripoff) but the new conditions are likely much more bearable. Ubi are big enough to pretty much almost always end up in the 20% tier, i.e. >$50 million revenue per title and, who knows, maybe they are getting a special deal as well.

30% of nothing is still nothing, and nothing is unrealistic. Having a game on Steam, even with a 30% cut, would likely result in more units sold compared to what you'd sell on EGS with its 12% cut.

Epic: "You're breaking up with me?"
Ubisoft: "It's not you. It's me."

You have to wonder, when Valve is reporting Steam CCU of 55 million players at one time, why isn't Ubisoft putting their games in front of that audience? It sure took them long enough to realize they were losing significant sales, and only because they disagree with the 30% cut and prefer 12%. Ubisoft and Epic must have felt they could sway players away from Steam, but... that did not pan out.
70% of tens of millions in revenue is better than 0%, after all.

Just toss that pile of digital shit called UPlay and remove it from being another forced layer of DRM. Then and only then will I even consider an Ubisoft game.

Not to mention they still have to answer for their abusive employment practices.

Wonder of wonders, Pitchford walking back on three of his hobby horses, Outlaws shipped as a piece of crap and now they are going to polish up that turd, Shadows is being pushed back since it used Outlaws release level of quality and needs more turd polish, and now the Epic Game store exclusives are not paying off like they hoped and it's back to Steam on Steam's terms.

It seems like Ubisoft is spending half of its existence divorcing itself from Steam and the other half coming back to it.

"They always come back™"
- Gabe

NKD wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 21:05:
I think a lot of people are realizing that you get a hell of a lot of visibility and a lot more sales for that larger cut Steam takes over EGS, and that EGS is never going to compete with Steam in the size of its user base.

Yes, that's generally how monopolies work. You can't make enough money anywhere else so you have to use Steam.

Back in 2019 the, company started a romance with the Epic Games Store with Ubisoft's Chris Early calling the Steam business model "unrealistic."

To be fair, Valve introduced a new revenue split system (30%/25%/20%) under Epic's pressure and there are credible rumors that huge gigs like EA et al returned to Steam because they got even more special individual conditions.

IIRC, Ubi referred to the original 30% as "unrealistic" (which it is... 30% is a fucking ripoff) but the new conditions are likely much more bearable. Ubi are big enough to pretty much almost always end up in the 20% tier, i.e. >$50 million revenue per title and, who knows, maybe they are getting a special deal as well.

Anyway, in their current situation it would be very hard to justify to their investors and stockholders why they are not optimizing their income as much as possible. The PC platform has become surprisingly "important" to them in recent times.
The PC only made up 18% of their total revenue in 2022/2023, then jumped up to 32% in 2023/2024 and last quarter it almost equaled the consoles at 44% PC vs. 46% consoles.

So, in Ubi's shitty place it makes a whole lot of sense to optimize that PC revenue by going where they can maximize day 1 sales, i.e. Steam.

Darks wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 20:34:
Desperation for sales. Going back to steam is what they think will save them. To little to late!

I mean it can only help them at this point and they need all the help they can get. It's not a panacea for their larger problems, which are their management and head count.

I think a lot of people are realizing that you get a hell of a lot of visibility and a lot more sales for that larger cut Steam takes over EGS, and that EGS is never going to compete with Steam in the size of its user base.

Desperation for sales. Going back to steam is what they think will save them. To little to late!