“We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” ~ Ayn Rand. Ubisoft have been ignoring reality for a long time, and now the consequences of ignoring reality have arrived.
I live in Montreal and know people who work at Ubisoft. The worst thing about DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) isn't the fact that they hire based on a checklist; it's that they also promote based on a checklist. This practice is detrimental because talented people (often white males) become fed up and leave, unable to tolerate less competent individuals being promoted over them bossing them around. This is how you lose studios...
Dealing with this at my current job. Manager got promoted simply because she's a lesbian. She's lazy and incompetent and has been the cause of countless quality employees quitting.
The funny thing all these employers are forgetting: the free market applies as much to employment as it does to customer purchases. If you drive off the customers _and_ the talent, you'll find yourself facing successful competitors built from your former employees and paid by your former customers. We don't even need the practice banned. We just have to let the market do its thing.
@@mawnkeyYes, the thing is, the casino economy, the stock market, has become so large that they thought they didn't need our money, the normal, mortal worker people, anymore. They are the same people who talk about the Great Reset, DEI, and vaccines...
Give it time and it will sort it self out, UBI has put them selfs in a bad spot, because no talent means bad products, bad pr means no consumers, no consumers means no one is funding their products. Sooner or later the ones around them will have yonked the talent and making good products, good pr or just keep their heads down and do not put their slong in a bee hive meaning they do not insult potential consumers or the consumer base they already own. Because good pr and good product means consumers will fund them. Meaning that the first one that drove of their talent will fall.
@@EcardEcardian The story I heard was about a good engineer who had been there for 18 years and lost his promotion to two new DEI hires, women who had only been there for 2 or 3 years. Not only did he lose the promotion, but he also had to train them while staying at the same pay level. He left a week after the women started bossing him around. This is the way you lose talent. If you look around at other studios and the speed at which they lose talent, I cannot stop myself from thinking that this situation happens very often...
I really hope no one looks up "Uyghur internment camps in Xinjiang, China" or "CCP organ harvesting" or "Tiananmen Square massacre" or "Chinese fentanyl smuggled into US" or "China aiding Russia in Ukraine". That would be just awful if anyone looked these up.
i know all of it but you forgot to add CIA to the last point. maybe you should do more research but you are already half way there, better than some of the gamers but consuming MSM content is not enough for you to get the big picture.
What if, and hear me out! What if they are an activist to push DEI out? That could still be activism. I am still against it, don't be an activist, be a game dev.
You most certainly didn't. Only morons with too much time online thinks they're "missing out" on EA and Ubisoft games. In reality, most people around you don't play (non-mobile) video games as much as you do. Even if they do, they don't have strong feelings to those games. They pick up an EA or Ubisoft game because it's from a popular publisher, play it to completion then go back to their normal lives. The people who discuss the games are the outlier and even then they only do it online. Don't be fooled by the amount of players who thinks EA and Ubisoft games are good on reddit or twitter. More likely it's just a small group of people circlejerking each other, giving the impression that there are more people talking about it than it actually is.
Nope. Didn't miss a single thing. The last game I got from EA was Anthem because a friend of mine whated to play it. I said I didn't think this game was going to be worth it, ends with the game just died after a year it was out. Last game I got from UBI. It was the last HOMM game they made. I got gifted Anno 1800 but. I do not think it counts because I didn't buy it, I think it is intressting the only ip UBI has not droped the ball on so far is Anno. So if UBI just drops or sells everything that is not Anno. Oh wait, UBI is just the publisher, that is an German studio that owns ip, Blue Bite, they also own the Settlers. So if Blue Bite didn't go under with UBI. Im good. I kind of only what one thing to survive and that is Anno.
The Dead Space remake is actually great. It easily rivals the RE4Make for me. It's without question one of the best games that I've ever played, despite a few cheap hits from off-screen enemies being your downfall. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a fantastic old-school puzzle platformer. The combat sucks despite what some might say, but the game overall is still good. So you missed out on at least two games. That said, EA and Ubi are pretty much trash companies and I genuinely felt dirty buying both of those games even at the $30 for DS and $15 for PoP that I paid for physical copies. 😂
Pointless. Unless it's an indie studio, Tencent holdings has some percentage ownership so long as it's publicly traded. It's quicker to denote what middling or big labels AREN'T invested in by Tencent, Bite Dance, etc.
Imagine being a developer excited to make an AC game set in Japan and all it's historical figures. And a company man comes in and tells you that you have to make a female sumo wrestler...
I've been screaming into the air about Tencent(and Snail Games) for years now. Even tried, really tried pointing out to former friends who are bleeding heart bluer than blue Liberals that Tencent was investing into all the DEI stuff while refusing to implement any of those policies in their own countries. They still refuse to see the obvious, and I'm at a point where even though I myself wont support games like Marvel Rivals, I don't blame anyone who does. We saw this cycle happen before in 1985, it needs to happen again for Western Development to experience it's second rebirth. Some people just need to burn their hands on the stove to understand that it's hot.
China played the long game, we all knew they were playing the long game, but nobody did anything to stop it because the people in a position to do so love that sweet, sweet CCP cash. The selling out began decades ago and it's coming to fruition, but our industry leaders are either in cahoots or too incompetent to do anything about it.
Now we know why esg and dei is pushed. Obvious really. Destroy company from within, put out of business or buy up. China has all control. The "why are companies making unprofitable products" or "it makes no sense" comments. Well here's your answer.
On the one hand, its a real shame. They were responsible for some truly great titles, and I'm never happy to hear people lose work en masse. However, on the other, they stopped listening a long time ago Stopped listening to their fans. Stopped listening to what people wanted. Stopped listening to that little voice that says "innovate and entertain " Hopefully something better will rise from the ashes of this era of gaming As an aside, I'm new to your channel, but you're killing it man. Very thoughtful and thought-provoking stuff. Keep it up
I have mixed feelings. I don't want Tencent and China owning everything. I love capitalism. However even in Canada and the US through some help of the government(Regardless of Anti-trust regulations) a few companies own just about everything. I despaired when Shift Up(Devs of my favorite 2024 game Stellar Blade) went public(I think its a horrible idea because investors just want money and don't care how its made) only to find out later Tencent bought shares in in Shift Up. I only bought 2 games last year that were new, when I used to buy many. Games aren't holding up to scrutiny anymore. So yeah, China has been playing the long game and it's working out for them. Rivals is solid. I just wish western studios seen that.
I don't respect developers more or less than any profession. I don't generally blame them, but there are as many bad developers as there are bad writers, directors, plumbers, or basket weavers.
Don't forget the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince investing heavily in video game companies through his non-profit MiSK Foundation and their Sovereign Wealth Fund (PIF). As always great work.
Hey, wizard. You are literally one of the most wholesome critics I've seen on TH-cam and I watch a lot of others like Drinker, Little Platoon and Mauler. Their take on is a bit more mean/vulgar and I enjoy that. But you seem to go above and beyond. Hope you stick around, if you do leave you will be missed. Either way your choice will be respected.
Easy way to fix this is start a series of new studios that make good games. People are too focused on old ips. Gamers can cause a rebirth in gaming by supporting good games from new developers and studios.
If they wanted money, they should have re-released the Watch_Dogs trilogy and Far Cry 3-6 on GOG with DRM free software. Down with Ubi, down with EA, down with Disney, down with Sony and Microsoft
Tencent owns some of Nintendo too, but you get the feeling that Nintendo execs have a session where they read their investors statements in a room filled with laughter.
In regards to the marvel rivals video, I would never buy the skins in game, especially knowing it directly supports the ccp. However, it is a fun game and is free, so ill still play it.
2:04 Tell that to those of us who played the old West End TTRPG, they were tougher than 50 cent steaks. We would joke that all the ones in the movie were faking it to up their combat pay. 2:35 Corinne Busche was none of those five things, nor was she an artist. We also find it hard to believe that Concord was solely the result of A Mandate from The Five, down to it's last pixel or scrap of code. You have a lead *Halo* Dev who _does not like guns._ Remind Us again the main factors for Avowed's probable failure? There is *plenty* of blame to be laid at the feet of the Devs. Both things can be true.
Glad to see you get it. "we just wanna play good games man" exactly. No one I know likes the idea that our money for Rivals is in part going to the CCP. We are also praying that ... Disney, yes Disney, has their boot on Net Ease's neck making sure our privacy is at least partly under control (we know its not). We can only hope that the success of Rivals shows western devs what we want, and most importantly shows Disney how we expect Marvel to be portrayed in media.
Poor guy. Yasuke didn't go around Japan killing folks with his boyfriends. They could've made a great story using him. But it's Ubisoft so... It's not exactly the Devs fault either. It's the people calling the shots. And the shareholders forcing them.
This the west fault the fall back old old problems of arrogance and thinking there positions are unassailable this in the 1980s and japan took the game industry from the US now they lose it to Asians yet again
After what Ubisoft has done to the Battle isle and Heroes of Might and Magic franchise, and also the arrogant statements like "that players should get used to not owning their games", i am not sad to see this company going down. But of course i am sorry for the people that are connected to this and losing they jobs
@@gageshippy2256 I did some further research, it seems their studios all closed down in early February 2025 during the so-called "Went woke, went broke" purge.
Ubisoft is a french company, france is highly progressive. The divisive games won’t stop, because it’s not about the money it’s about sending a message
Are you insinuating that Rothschild puppet Emmanuel Macron supports atheistic, Liberal Marxist ideologies? Rothschild's 25 Point Plan For World Domination "In 1770, Mayer Amschel Rothschild married Gutta Schnapper. In that same year, he retained Jewish-born, Adam Weishaupt, an apostate Jesuit-trained professor of canon law, to revise and modernize Illuminism, the worship of Satan, with the objective of world domination and the imposition of the Luciferian ideology “upon what would remain of the human race” after a final orchestrated social-cataclysm. In 1773, Mayer summoned twelve wealthy men to Frankfort and asked them to pool their resources, then presented the 25-point plan that would enable them to gain control of the wealth, natural resources and manpower of the entire world. Those 25 points are: 1. Use violence and terrorism rather than academic discussions. 2. *Preach “Liberalism” to usurp political power.* 3. *Initiate class warfare.* 4. Politicians must be cunning and deceptive - any moral code leaves a politician vulnerable. 5. *Dismantle “existing forces of order and regulation.” Reconstruct all existing institutions.”* ---Religion in Communism Abolished - all religious and metaphysics is rejected. Engels and Lenin agreed that religion was a drug or “spiritual booze” and must be combated. *To them, atheism put into practice meant a “forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.”* 6. Remain invisible until the very moment when it has gained such strength that no cunning or force can undermine it. 7. *Use Mob Psychology to control the masses.* “Without absolute despotism one cannot rule efficiently.” 8. *Advocate the use of alcoholic liquors, drugs, moral corruption and all forms of vice, used systematically by “agenteurs” to corrupt the youth.* 9. Seize properties by any means to secure submission and sovereignty. 10. Foment wars and control the peace conferences so that neither of the combatants gains territory placing them further in debt and therefore into our power. 11. *Choose candidates for public office who will be “servile and obedient to our commands, so they may be readily used as pawns in our game.”* 12. *Use the Press for propaganda to control all outlets of public information,* while remaining in the shadows, clear of blame. 13. *Make the masses believe they had been the prey of criminals. Then restore order to appear as the saviors.* ---Spoiler alert. The country that was "born" three years after this was written was created to be the Capitalist, religious Fascist criminals preying on the masses. This will make more sense when Trump enforces the Jewish Talmud Noah/hide Laws (eliminating many Liberals, LGBTQ and others deemed "Enemies of God and State") as a means to "save the US/West from Communists" and Make America Great Again. 14. Create financial panics. Use hunger to control to subjugate the masses. ---A financial panic was created in late 2019, early 2020. Want to take a guess as to what it was? 15. Infiltrate Freemasonry to take advantage of the Grand Orient Lodges to cloak the true nature of their work in philanthropy. *Spread their atheistic-materialistic ideology amongst the "Goyim" (gentiles).* 16. When the hour strikes for our sovereign lord of the entire World to be crowned, their influence will banish everything that might stand in his way.
17. *Use systematic deception, high-sounding phrases and popular slogans.* “The opposite of what has been promised can always be done afterwards... That is of no consequence.” 18. A Reign of Terror is the most economical way to bring about speedy subjection. 19. *Masquerade as political, financial and economic advisers to carry out our mandates with Diplomacy* and without fear of exposing “the secret power behind national and international affairs.” 20. Ultimate world government is the goal. It will be necessary to establish huge monopolies, so even the largest fortunes of the Goyim will depend on us to such an extent that they will go to the bottom together with the credit of their governments on the day after the great political smash.” ---The US dollar is the world's most used currency and most widely held currency in reserves. Destroy the US, Capitalism falls, those who were reliant on the US dollar lose tons of money in sales and reserve currency, and there will be a need for a new monetary system under direct control of the New Order. You will be required to get the Quantum Dot Tattoo on your hand or forehead, identifying you as a citizen of the New Order and allows you to buy or sell. 21. Use economic warfare. Rob the "Goyim" of their landed properties and industries with a combination of high taxes and unfair competition. 22. “Make the 'Goyim' destroy each other so there will only be the proletariat left in the world, with a few millionaires devoted to our cause, and sufficient police and soldiers to protect our interest.” 23. Call it The New Order. Appoint a Dictator. 24. *Fool, bemuse and corrupt the younger members of society by teaching them theories and principles we know to be false.* ---Big Bang Theory, Darwin's Theory of Evolution. The goal is to make people believe there is no God, and therefore no moral guidelines set by an absolute authority on morality who will judge you for breaking moral laws. The US becoming a Fascist regime and enforcing religious laws is necessary for people to reject God completely. 25 Twist national and international laws into a contradiction which first masks the law and afterwards hides it altogether. Substitute arbitration for law."
Woah! That is so rare to hear someone speaking out AGAINST china and their practices. Here, I crafted this like for you as a trinket to wear! It is supposed to give you at least +1 in Kudo and a boost in amaszingness!
So Tencent is for video games what Disney is to movies and medias, I get it, but isn't Disney on fire right now because they destroyed too many franchises and the trust of their fans, because they thought they were too big to fail ?
The root of the problem is that all Western AAA game publishers, with one exception, is publicly traded. This has created a wealth of problems as the bottom line in king and good games are being sacrificed at the altar of higher profits which are being fuelled by DLC and microtransactions. Decisions are being made with the share price in mind and quarterly results, not making decent games based on merit. The one exception - Valve, which is not answerable to anyone, and look at the success of that company. Valve has its own issues, mostly laziness from not need to try to make money from its own games, but that is a different story. Tencent strategy to buy into so many Western AAA companies is worrying, not only because it is Chinese, but because it is not healthy for the AAA industry to fall into fewer and fewer hands until it becomes an oligopoly. Fewer games are being made as competition in the AAA space is drying up. We are all losing. Good analysis Wizard.
As concerning as it is, these companies have mismanaged themselves so badly it’s hard to believe how successful they once were, we keep getting community managers & employee’s insulting the customers, not mentioning all the woke trash, look at a dragon age origins advert, then see veil guard, which one looks fun cool to play, all the preachiness with forced agendas, they did this to themselves.
A long time ago I hoped that Ubisoft would come out with a sequel to one of my favourite games, Beyond Good & Evil. Then I started hoping they'd never do a sequel.
4:50 It's not a joke! I showed some friend year after release some moments from Avatar 2 and he actually wondered where them from and surprised when I said it's from second movie.
Seriously. I build houses and do offshore crab fishing for work. I would absolutely be responsible if I knowingly helped build a house with special features to assist in crimes. Or if I overfished and was generally cruel to the animals I catch. Sure I'm just doing my job but I'm also an adult with lucidity and I'm responsible for my own actions. Even if those actions are part of a collective
@@ticket2space Exxxactly, its also not like many of these devs are complicit and purposely create these woke trash games because its inline with their ideologies. Tired of this narrative of oh these innocent poor devs were forced to by their cooperate overlords, when in reality many of them were in line with them.
The only reason I don’t play Ubisoft games is their dumb login system. I don’t even play them when they are free because of that. If I could just start the damn game and play it, then I would.
I dunno.. I think Stevie Wonder could see the reason why Ubisoft is crapping money like they only eat Taco Bell. I'm sorry that they're losing their jobs. But you learn things every day. Sometimes it's up to you whether you learn the easy way or the hard way.
I could be garbling it, but I think Kissinger said the west plays chess and the chinese play go. In chess you achieve a final victory - but victories in life are impermanent. As long as you have a pulse, there are further moves to make. He seemed to imply that Go (which I'm not familiar with) was about state improvements - conducive to a thought process of playing the long game - accruing a thousand minor victories. If so, Respect. It's good strategy. I doubt they're consciously tanking western companies. If a company does well, then they get profits and maybe some access to usage data. If you're in a room, then you can hear what is being said. But if companies are self-immolating, then you'd be an idiot to not look at any IP that might still be viable.
That attempt to imitate Chewie was truly awful. You could have just shamelessly ripped off the original Star Wars instead, Disney has been shamelessly ripping off Star Wars for years. This comment was brought to you by the keywords Disney, Star Wars, EA, Ubisoft, Lord of the Rings, Sesame Street, MrBeast, DEI, and Algorithm. Can you say al-go-rith-m?
Bro, embracer group is just as bad. I'm at peace with all of this. 🐋 Can feed the 🐷 all they want. I mean they are covering a lot of the costs for most of us to enjoy. I mean I haven't spent money on digital entertainment for over 20 years. If people want to use digital against us then we'll use digital against them. I wonder who will win? Even if all of the entertainment stopped now. I'll probably still be entertained with backlog for up to 10 years with some repeats.
The western game industry been pushing me away into the Chinese market. And they make some fun stuff. Would prefer if most of it wasn't gacha but ehhh I'll play them until a full price game I want comes out.
Who would have thought, that ignoring all of western cultural norms, would lead to the downfall of every company, industry, and government that tries. It's almost like the people who built civilization, knew what they were doing. There.. there has to be some group who focused on hiring women and minorities - instead of skilled workers - that succeeded, right? One?
Ubisoft has became too big and bloated for its own good. It has over 20k employees, while another massive company like Nintendo only has about 7k. I bet most of those jobs don't even involve making games, just consulting and overseeing the actual devs. This collapse is inevitable.
They are firing actual developers instead of firing the over bloated DEI and Human Resources department in their HQ. Those are unproductive people who are actually detrimental to the quality of their games. Tencent is well welcome.
You don't blame the devs? The Saint's Row Reboot would be a example of devs making bad decisions based off of the same ideology and as a result you get a watered down version of the game play that made the game fun to begin with.
As far as the Chinese companies buying up all of gaming goes...sure the games may be fun but remember what happened to Blitz Chung and keep in mind that we are and will further still, be losing our rights to free speech and criticism in gaming as the CCP gets more authority. In regards to respecting devs...eh? I suppose I may be too critical of devs and may be lumping them in with the corpos when that may not necessarily be true however some of them deserve the ridicule and vitriol; Take Nintendo for example and how they're bullying Palworld and using back-door under-handed legal tactics to deny Pocket Pair their right to compete in a free market. Maybe the Western and Eastern ideas of "Honor" are defined differently but Nintendo's actions hold no honor in my eyes.
I've always believed the leader of the notsee party is a bad guy, but so are all the foot soldiers that did what he told them to you know? You can tell people to do some crazy stuff, but if nobody listens it won't happen.
@@RealLifeFakeWizard well, maybe one of the people that just took 400+ billion out of the "bank of nvidia stock" could buy them instead. It's not like there's no free floating investment capital floating around the US desperately looking for something, anything to buy. PE's snapping up trailer parks now. I doubt it's inevitable that it would go to tencent, but yeah, they probably would be bidding on the auction for sure.
“We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” ~ Ayn Rand.
Ubisoft have been ignoring reality for a long time, and now the consequences of ignoring reality have arrived.
I live in Montreal and know people who work at Ubisoft. The worst thing about DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) isn't the fact that they hire based on a checklist; it's that they also promote based on a checklist. This practice is detrimental because talented people (often white males) become fed up and leave, unable to tolerate less competent individuals being promoted over them bossing them around. This is how you lose studios...
Dealing with this at my current job. Manager got promoted simply because she's a lesbian. She's lazy and incompetent and has been the cause of countless quality employees quitting.
The funny thing all these employers are forgetting: the free market applies as much to employment as it does to customer purchases. If you drive off the customers _and_ the talent, you'll find yourself facing successful competitors built from your former employees and paid by your former customers.
We don't even need the practice banned. We just have to let the market do its thing.
@@mawnkeyYes, the thing is, the casino economy, the stock market, has become so large that they thought they didn't need our money, the normal, mortal worker people, anymore.
They are the same people who talk about the Great Reset, DEI, and vaccines...
Give it time and it will sort it self out, UBI has put them selfs in a bad spot, because no talent means bad products, bad pr means no consumers, no consumers means no one is funding their products. Sooner or later the ones around them will have yonked the talent and making good products, good pr or just keep their heads down and do not put their slong in a bee hive meaning they do not insult potential consumers or the consumer base they already own. Because good pr and good product means consumers will fund them. Meaning that the first one that drove of their talent will fall.
@@EcardEcardian The story I heard was about a good engineer who had been there for 18 years and lost his promotion to two new DEI hires, women who had only been there for 2 or 3 years. Not only did he lose the promotion, but he also had to train them while staying at the same pay level.
He left a week after the women started bossing him around. This is the way you lose talent.
If you look around at other studios and the speed at which they lose talent, I cannot stop myself from thinking that this situation happens very often...
Its almost like ignoring the people who buy your games and telling them you hate them has consequences.
I really hope no one looks up "Uyghur internment camps in Xinjiang, China" or "CCP organ harvesting" or "Tiananmen Square massacre" or "Chinese fentanyl smuggled into US" or "China aiding Russia in Ukraine".
That would be just awful if anyone looked these up.
And the pinned comment has been bestowed.
@@RealLifeFakeWizard Thanks! Keep up the good work, Wiz.
i know all of it but you forgot to add CIA to the last point. maybe you should do more research but you are already half way there, better than some of the gamers but consuming MSM content is not enough for you to get the big picture.
Don't look up oral suction circumcision. You might begin to hate them...
Did you know that every time an activist game dev gets fired an angel gets his wings? True story, not a joke.
And a baby laughs
Gaming is healing.
What if, and hear me out! What if they are an activist to push DEI out? That could still be activism.
I am still against it, don't be an activist, be a game dev.
@MoonBunnyLovers yes it would still be activism and still be bad game devs should develop games not make politics
It's a wonderful life......post DEI
I swore off EA and Ubisoft games about 7 years ago and I don't think I've missed out on anything.
You most certainly didn't. Only morons with too much time online thinks they're "missing out" on EA and Ubisoft games. In reality, most people around you don't play (non-mobile) video games as much as you do. Even if they do, they don't have strong feelings to those games. They pick up an EA or Ubisoft game because it's from a popular publisher, play it to completion then go back to their normal lives.
The people who discuss the games are the outlier and even then they only do it online. Don't be fooled by the amount of players who thinks EA and Ubisoft games are good on reddit or twitter. More likely it's just a small group of people circlejerking each other, giving the impression that there are more people talking about it than it actually is.
Nope. Didn't miss a single thing. The last game I got from EA was Anthem because a friend of mine whated to play it. I said I didn't think this game was going to be worth it, ends with the game just died after a year it was out. Last game I got from UBI. It was the last HOMM game they made. I got gifted Anno 1800 but. I do not think it counts because I didn't buy it, I think it is intressting the only ip UBI has not droped the ball on so far is Anno. So if UBI just drops or sells everything that is not Anno. Oh wait, UBI is just the publisher, that is an German studio that owns ip, Blue Bite, they also own the Settlers. So if Blue Bite didn't go under with UBI. Im good. I kind of only what one thing to survive and that is Anno.
I didn’t feel like EA cucked Cal Kestis in Fallen Order or Jedi Survivor. Just kinda broken on launch but overall good story based Star Wars games.
@@nobodyelse-m6b *than there actually are.
The Dead Space remake is actually great. It easily rivals the RE4Make for me. It's without question one of the best games that I've ever played, despite a few cheap hits from off-screen enemies being your downfall.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a fantastic old-school puzzle platformer. The combat sucks despite what some might say, but the game overall is still good.
So you missed out on at least two games. That said, EA and Ubi are pretty much trash companies and I genuinely felt dirty buying both of those games even at the $30 for DS and $15 for PoP that I paid for physical copies. 😂
"No one can save Ubisoft" I think that's a pretty accurate statement. I think even if someone buys them it will be ONLY for the IP's.
Perhaps, yet they have also driven their IPs into the ground
@@GearForTheYeardoesn't mean a new studio can't do them justice
Spock: "They are dying."
Kirk: "Let them die."
I literally heard their voices and line delivery in my head🖖
@dorian_aguayo God, I miss actors that can act
We need a “China Detected” cultural movement similar to DEI Detected
And not just for video games. You think the fingers they have in the entertainment pie is scary? Look at everything else they own here
That one will be beeping 24/7.
Dude, look around you. More than half the stuff in your home was made in China. They outnumber us more than 3 to 1. It's a matter of time and numbers.
Pointless. Unless it's an indie studio, Tencent holdings has some percentage ownership so long as it's publicly traded. It's quicker to denote what middling or big labels AREN'T invested in by Tencent, Bite Dance, etc.
Why? What's coming out from there is lightyears better than the DEI slop coming out from Western AAA studios.
I can't say I'm mad about it, suddenly all that backlog is gaining a LOT more value.
"Ah Boo Hoo" ~ Real Life Fake Wizard
Bro had me rolling at 1:10
Imagine being a developer excited to make an AC game set in Japan and all it's historical figures. And a company man comes in and tells you that you have to make a female sumo wrestler...
coming here to support to wizard, no matter what he does
I've been screaming into the air about Tencent(and Snail Games) for years now. Even tried, really tried pointing out to former friends who are bleeding heart bluer than blue Liberals that Tencent was investing into all the DEI stuff while refusing to implement any of those policies in their own countries. They still refuse to see the obvious, and I'm at a point where even though I myself wont support games like Marvel Rivals, I don't blame anyone who does. We saw this cycle happen before in 1985, it needs to happen again for Western Development to experience it's second rebirth. Some people just need to burn their hands on the stove to understand that it's hot.
Wery nicely put👏
China played the long game, we all knew they were playing the long game, but nobody did anything to stop it because the people in a position to do so love that sweet, sweet CCP cash. The selling out began decades ago and it's coming to fruition, but our industry leaders are either in cahoots or too incompetent to do anything about it.
Yep, the sellout started when Nixon "opened" trading and investment with China.
Now we know why esg and dei is pushed. Obvious really. Destroy company from within, put out of business or buy up. China has all control. The "why are companies making unprofitable products" or "it makes no sense" comments. Well here's your answer.
On the one hand, its a real shame. They were responsible for some truly great titles, and I'm never happy to hear people lose work en masse. However, on the other, they stopped listening a long time ago
Stopped listening to their fans. Stopped listening to what people wanted. Stopped listening to that little voice that says "innovate and entertain "
Hopefully something better will rise from the ashes of this era of gaming
As an aside, I'm new to your channel, but you're killing it man. Very thoughtful and thought-provoking stuff. Keep it up
I have mixed feelings. I don't want Tencent and China owning everything. I love capitalism. However even in Canada and the US through some help of the government(Regardless of Anti-trust regulations) a few companies own just about everything. I despaired when Shift Up(Devs of my favorite 2024 game Stellar Blade) went public(I think its a horrible idea because investors just want money and don't care how its made) only to find out later Tencent bought shares in in Shift Up. I only bought 2 games last year that were new, when I used to buy many. Games aren't holding up to scrutiny anymore. So yeah, China has been playing the long game and it's working out for them. Rivals is solid. I just wish western studios seen that.
I don't respect developers more or less than any profession. I don't generally blame them, but there are as many bad developers as there are bad writers, directors, plumbers, or basket weavers.
Oh yeah . We're all just people
I'm pretty sure that he meant in relation to the five positions that he felt were the cause of gaming going downhill.
They may end up being owned by China but at least there's a chance they will actually be made AND with competence.
Something is better then nothing.
Don't forget the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince investing heavily in video game companies through his non-profit MiSK Foundation and their Sovereign Wealth Fund (PIF).
As always great work.
storm trooper armor is cosplay made out of styrophone in outlaws
IRL Cosplay Outfits are sturdier than Outlaws Stormtrooper Armor.
I have seen 3d printed helmet take full on overhead hammer shots and bounce the hammer off.
Hey, wizard.
You are literally one of the most wholesome critics I've seen on TH-cam and I watch a lot of others like Drinker, Little Platoon and Mauler. Their take on is a bit more mean/vulgar and I enjoy that. But you seem to go above and beyond.
Hope you stick around, if you do leave you will be missed. Either way your choice will be respected.
Easy way to fix this is start a series of new studios that make good games. People are too focused on old ips. Gamers can cause a rebirth in gaming by supporting good games from new developers and studios.
14% of remedy? So this is why Alan Wake had so much space in game called Alan Wake Too. Without them it would be five minutes.
Pause on that screenshot about Remedy - they took a MASSIVE loan from Tencent.
Remedy... more like 補救
If they wanted money, they should have re-released the Watch_Dogs trilogy and Far Cry 3-6 on GOG with DRM free software.
Down with Ubi, down with EA, down with Disney, down with Sony and Microsoft
Assassins creed odyssey was fun during lockdown
Tencent owns some of Nintendo too, but you get the feeling that Nintendo execs have a session where they read their investors statements in a room filled with laughter.
Helmet part was articulated brilliantly and made me laugh
That ending with Chewie! 😂😂😂😂
Ubisoft, I barely knew her.
And don't forget kids, cancel your Disney+ subscription.
But I can't cancel Disney Plus because I wasn't dumb enough to subscribe to begin with.
In regards to the marvel rivals video, I would never buy the skins in game, especially knowing it directly supports the ccp. However, it is a fun game and is free, so ill still play it.
That’s pretty much how I feel about it too
The only Ubisoft IP I care about is Rayman, I hope whoever gets a hold of the IP next cares more for it
2:04 Tell that to those of us who played the old West End TTRPG, they were tougher than 50 cent steaks. We would joke that all the ones in the movie were faking it to up their combat pay.
2:35 Corinne Busche was none of those five things, nor was she an artist. We also find it hard to believe that Concord was solely the result of A Mandate from The Five, down to it's last pixel or scrap of code. You have a lead *Halo* Dev who _does not like guns._ Remind Us again the main factors for Avowed's probable failure? There is *plenty* of blame to be laid at the feet of the Devs. Both things can be true.
That Metallica reference killed me! Wizard knows his music! A man of culture! 😎😎😎
Glad to see you get it. "we just wanna play good games man" exactly. No one I know likes the idea that our money for Rivals is in part going to the CCP. We are also praying that ... Disney, yes Disney, has their boot on Net Ease's neck making sure our privacy is at least partly under control (we know its not). We can only hope that the success of Rivals shows western devs what we want, and most importantly shows Disney how we expect Marvel to be portrayed in media.
I am legitimately blown away at how much fun I'm finding with Marvel Rivals... and I hate that... Western companies suck and that's disappointing.
Poor guy. Yasuke didn't go around Japan killing folks with his boyfriends.
They could've made a great story using him. But it's Ubisoft so...
It's not exactly the Devs fault either.
It's the people calling the shots. And the shareholders forcing them.
Maybe if Tencent grabs Watch Dogs we can actually have a spiritual sucessor to... Sleeping Dogs?
Bad joke, I know. Sorry.
i thought the bit at the end was funny, its the reason i liked the video
good video beyond that
Hell is empty and all the devils are here
All hell brakes loose. We need the rapture
more like Fake Life Real Wizard with that Chewbacca impersonation
Good to see you are posting again ... nearly every day.
"nearly every day" goes back into the opening. tomorrow.
Of course Tencent and China is partly to blame for DEI.
This the west fault the fall back old old problems of arrogance and thinking there positions are unassailable this in the 1980s and japan took the game industry from the US now they lose it to Asians yet again
Entertainment is the least of worries when it comes to China.
After what Ubisoft has done to the Battle isle and Heroes of Might and Magic franchise, and also the arrogant statements like "that players should get used to not owning their games", i am not sad to see this company going down. But of course i am sorry for the people that are connected to this and losing they jobs
Hello i am commenting from the future of March 2025, who is this Ubisoft of which you speak?
You're from the future you should have access to that info already.
@@gageshippy2256 I did some further research, it seems their studios all closed down in early February 2025 during the so-called "Went woke, went broke" purge.
It is frustrating hearing everyone blame the developers when they have little creative freedom to do anything
Ubisoft is a french company, france is highly progressive. The divisive games won’t stop, because it’s not about the money it’s about sending a message
One day they're sending a message.
The next day they can't find Taiwan on their maps.
Are you insinuating that Rothschild puppet Emmanuel Macron supports atheistic, Liberal Marxist ideologies?
Rothschild's 25 Point Plan For World Domination
"In 1770, Mayer Amschel Rothschild married Gutta Schnapper. In that same year, he retained Jewish-born, Adam Weishaupt, an apostate Jesuit-trained professor of canon law, to revise and modernize Illuminism, the worship of Satan, with the objective of world domination and the imposition of the Luciferian ideology “upon what would remain of the human race” after a final orchestrated social-cataclysm. In 1773, Mayer summoned twelve wealthy men to Frankfort and asked them to pool their resources, then presented the 25-point plan that would enable them to gain control of the wealth, natural resources and manpower of the entire world.
Those 25 points are:
1. Use violence and terrorism rather than academic discussions.
2. *Preach “Liberalism” to usurp political power.*
3. *Initiate class warfare.*
4. Politicians must be cunning and deceptive - any moral code leaves a politician vulnerable.
5. *Dismantle “existing forces of order and regulation.” Reconstruct all existing institutions.”*
---Religion in Communism
Abolished - all religious and metaphysics is rejected. Engels and Lenin agreed that religion was a drug or “spiritual booze” and must be combated. *To them, atheism put into practice meant a “forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.”*
6. Remain invisible until the very moment when it has gained such strength that no cunning or force can undermine it.
7. *Use Mob Psychology to control the masses.* “Without absolute despotism one cannot rule efficiently.”
8. *Advocate the use of alcoholic liquors, drugs, moral corruption and all forms of vice, used systematically by “agenteurs” to corrupt the youth.*
9. Seize properties by any means to secure submission and sovereignty.
10. Foment wars and control the peace conferences so that neither of the combatants gains territory placing them further in debt and therefore into our power.
11. *Choose candidates for public office who will be “servile and obedient to our commands, so they may be readily used as pawns in our game.”*
12. *Use the Press for propaganda to control all outlets of public information,* while remaining in the shadows, clear of blame.
13. *Make the masses believe they had been the prey of criminals. Then restore order to appear as the saviors.*
---Spoiler alert. The country that was "born" three years after this was written was created to be the Capitalist, religious Fascist criminals preying on the masses. This will make more sense when Trump enforces the Jewish Talmud Noah/hide Laws (eliminating many Liberals, LGBTQ and others deemed "Enemies of God and State") as a means to "save the US/West from Communists" and Make America Great Again.
14. Create financial panics. Use hunger to control to subjugate the masses.
---A financial panic was created in late 2019, early 2020. Want to take a guess as to what it was?
15. Infiltrate Freemasonry to take advantage of the Grand Orient Lodges to cloak the true nature of their work in philanthropy. *Spread their atheistic-materialistic ideology amongst the "Goyim" (gentiles).*
16. When the hour strikes for our sovereign lord of the entire World to be crowned, their influence will banish everything that might stand in his way.
17. *Use systematic deception, high-sounding phrases and popular slogans.* “The opposite of what has been promised can always be done afterwards... That is of no consequence.”
18. A Reign of Terror is the most economical way to bring about speedy subjection.
19. *Masquerade as political, financial and economic advisers to carry out our mandates with Diplomacy* and without fear of exposing “the secret power behind national and international affairs.”
20. Ultimate world government is the goal. It will be necessary to establish huge monopolies, so even the largest fortunes of the Goyim will depend on us to such an extent that they will go to the bottom together with the credit of their governments on the day after the great political smash.”
---The US dollar is the world's most used currency and most widely held currency in reserves. Destroy the US, Capitalism falls, those who were reliant on the US dollar lose tons of money in sales and reserve currency, and there will be a need for a new monetary system under direct control of the New Order. You will be required to get the Quantum Dot Tattoo on your hand or forehead, identifying you as a citizen of the New Order and allows you to buy or sell.
21. Use economic warfare. Rob the "Goyim" of their landed properties and industries with a combination of high taxes and unfair competition.
22. “Make the 'Goyim' destroy each other so there will only be the proletariat left in the world, with a few millionaires devoted to our cause, and sufficient police and soldiers to protect our interest.”
23. Call it The New Order. Appoint a Dictator.
24. *Fool, bemuse and corrupt the younger members of society by teaching them theories and principles we know to be false.*
---Big Bang Theory, Darwin's Theory of Evolution. The goal is to make people believe there is no God, and therefore no moral guidelines set by an absolute authority on morality who will judge you for breaking moral laws. The US becoming a Fascist regime and enforcing religious laws is necessary for people to reject God completely.
25 Twist national and international laws into a contradiction which first masks the law and afterwards hides it altogether. Substitute arbitration for law."
I'm sorry, but if outlaws was your game of the year... I mean, Jesus Christ. Did they only play outlaws and unknown nine for a whole year?
didn't the french government already say they would block any attempt of tencent buying ubisoft as they didn't want those ip to leave their country?
Woah!
That is so rare to hear someone speaking out AGAINST china and their practices.
Here, I crafted this like for you as a trinket to wear!
It is supposed to give you at least +1 in Kudo and a boost in amaszingness!
"185 people losing their job is no joke"
Well.... it is if those 185 people should not have been hired to begin with
Cancel Disney+
So Tencent is for video games what Disney is to movies and medias, I get it, but isn't Disney on fire right now because they destroyed too many franchises and the trust of their fans, because they thought they were too big to fail ?
I wish some brave hero would make a short video of the outlaws character running around and dub in the "I'm han solo" song.
The root of the problem is that all Western AAA game publishers, with one exception, is publicly traded. This has created a wealth of problems as the bottom line in king and good games are being sacrificed at the altar of higher profits which are being fuelled by DLC and microtransactions. Decisions are being made with the share price in mind and quarterly results, not making decent games based on merit.
The one exception - Valve, which is not answerable to anyone, and look at the success of that company. Valve has its own issues, mostly laziness from not need to try to make money from its own games, but that is a different story.
Tencent strategy to buy into so many Western AAA companies is worrying, not only because it is Chinese, but because it is not healthy for the AAA industry to fall into fewer and fewer hands until it becomes an oligopoly. Fewer games are being made as competition in the AAA space is drying up. We are all losing.
Good analysis Wizard.
Wizard, I agree with you and I think you're great.
As concerning as it is, these companies have mismanaged themselves so badly it’s hard to believe how successful they once were, we keep getting community managers & employee’s insulting the customers, not mentioning all the woke trash, look at a dragon age origins advert, then see veil guard, which one looks fun cool to play, all the preachiness with forced agendas, they did this to themselves.
I'm fine with it.
Big corpos don't produce what I want.
A long time ago I hoped that Ubisoft would come out with a sequel to one of my favourite games, Beyond Good & Evil. Then I started hoping they'd never do a sequel.
Finally been getting notifications on time!! Might have gotten un shadowbanned
That would be amazing news!
Ubisoft: buy us and you get our 2 billion debt uwu buy us!
That Remedy bit made me laugh. I'm dumb. (Also the wookie)
7:29 no Rayman?😢
4:50 It's not a joke! I showed some friend year after release some moments from Avatar 2 and he actually wondered where them from and surprised when I said it's from second movie.
Avatar 2 came out? Huh.
What are some of the song you use in your videos especially the piano one?
Kingdom Hearts 3
Fire Emblem Three Houses
Another good video that I thoroughly agree with.
did not know that about tencent Mr fake wizard thank you for that info
8:44 Chewy, is that you?
Ubisoft COULD save Ubisoft buuuuttt there's a buck to be made TODAY, there is no...tomorrow.
Naaaw the devs are at fault too.
Seriously. I build houses and do offshore crab fishing for work. I would absolutely be responsible if I knowingly helped build a house with special features to assist in crimes. Or if I overfished and was generally cruel to the animals I catch. Sure I'm just doing my job but I'm also an adult with lucidity and I'm responsible for my own actions. Even if those actions are part of a collective
@@ticket2space Exxxactly, its also not like many of these devs are complicit and purposely create these woke trash games because its inline with their ideologies. Tired of this narrative of oh these innocent poor devs were forced to by their cooperate overlords, when in reality many of them were in line with them.
The only reason I don’t play Ubisoft games is their dumb login system. I don’t even play them when they are free because of that. If I could just start the damn game and play it, then I would.
I dunno.. I think Stevie Wonder could see the reason why Ubisoft is crapping money like they only eat Taco Bell. I'm sorry that they're losing their jobs. But you learn things every day. Sometimes it's up to you whether you learn the easy way or the hard way.
I could be garbling it, but I think Kissinger said the west plays chess and the chinese play go. In chess you achieve a final victory - but victories in life are impermanent. As long as you have a pulse, there are further moves to make. He seemed to imply that Go (which I'm not familiar with) was about state improvements - conducive to a thought process of playing the long game - accruing a thousand minor victories. If so, Respect. It's good strategy. I doubt they're consciously tanking western companies. If a company does well, then they get profits and maybe some access to usage data. If you're in a room, then you can hear what is being said. But if companies are self-immolating, then you'd be an idiot to not look at any IP that might still be viable.
I can watch the 20-minute video or longer good content all around
Master of puppets mentioned 😅🤘🤘, hilarious comment
I don't know anyone who wants to save Ubisoft.
I like their IPs more than Ubisoft itself.
That attempt to imitate Chewie was truly awful. You could have just shamelessly ripped off the original Star Wars instead, Disney has been shamelessly ripping off Star Wars for years.
This comment was brought to you by the keywords Disney, Star Wars, EA, Ubisoft, Lord of the Rings, Sesame Street, MrBeast, DEI, and Algorithm. Can you say al-go-rith-m?
You've hurt my feelings and my day is ruined.
@@RealLifeFakeWizard You get the fans you deserve.❤️
Chewy sounded like my cat when she’s angry 😂
Bro, embracer group is just as bad. I'm at peace with all of this. 🐋 Can feed the 🐷 all they want. I mean they are covering a lot of the costs for most of us to enjoy. I mean I haven't spent money on digital entertainment for over 20 years. If people want to use digital against us then we'll use digital against them. I wonder who will win? Even if all of the entertainment stopped now. I'll probably still be entertained with backlog for up to 10 years with some repeats.
I like this guy.
me too.
The western game industry been pushing me away into the Chinese market. And they make some fun stuff. Would prefer if most of it wasn't gacha but ehhh I'll play them until a full price game I want comes out.
Who would have thought, that ignoring all of western cultural norms, would lead to the downfall of every company, industry, and government that tries. It's almost like the people who built civilization, knew what they were doing. There.. there has to be some group who focused on hiring women and minorities - instead of skilled workers - that succeeded, right? One?
Ubisoft has became too big and bloated for its own good. It has over 20k employees, while another massive company like Nintendo only has about 7k. I bet most of those jobs don't even involve making games, just consulting and overseeing the actual devs.
This collapse is inevitable.
They are firing actual developers instead of firing the over bloated DEI and Human Resources department in their HQ.
Those are unproductive people who are actually detrimental to the quality of their games.
Tencent is well welcome.
Neither Tencent or DEI are welcome.
This… this is what i need in my Video game market analysis… a Real Life Fake Wizard.
You don't blame the devs? The Saint's Row Reboot would be a example of devs making bad decisions based off of the same ideology and as a result you get a watered down version of the game play that made the game fun to begin with.
I'd blame the other 5 people FIRST before I blame the devs every single time. They're the ones advising what the devs make.
"it's a day that ends in 'y'."
Do you know the one day of the week that doesn't?
Tomorrow?
Tomorrow
As far as the Chinese companies buying up all of gaming goes...sure the games may be fun but remember what happened to Blitz Chung and keep in mind that we are and will further still, be losing our rights to free speech and criticism in gaming as the CCP gets more authority.
In regards to respecting devs...eh? I suppose I may be too critical of devs and may be lumping them in with the corpos when that may not necessarily be true however some of them deserve the ridicule and vitriol;
Take Nintendo for example and how they're bullying Palworld and using back-door under-handed legal tactics to deny Pocket Pair their right to compete in a free market. Maybe the Western and Eastern ideas of "Honor" are defined differently but Nintendo's actions hold no honor in my eyes.
I've always believed the leader of the notsee party is a bad guy, but so are all the foot soldiers that did what he told them to you know? You can tell people to do some crazy stuff, but if nobody listens it won't happen.
One day real fake life wizard, one day, there will be a day! that does not end in Y.
What do you tell devs who get laid off? Learn to code probably won't help...
why should they be saved. let them go out of business so people can all go work at some new enterprise that hopefully won't destroy itself.
Yeahhhhhh - just understand tho: Ubisoft going under likely means Chinese company(s) will acquire all their IPs.
@@RealLifeFakeWizard I don't think it will be China, I think it will be the banks buying those which is as good as locking them in a vault.
@@RealLifeFakeWizard well, maybe one of the people that just took 400+ billion out of the "bank of nvidia stock" could buy them instead. It's not like there's no free floating investment capital floating around the US desperately looking for something, anything to buy. PE's snapping up trailer parks now. I doubt it's inevitable that it would go to tencent, but yeah, they probably would be bidding on the auction for sure.
4:44 Avatar 2 was pretty great, very anti-woke and much less predictable than the first one.
I can't wait for Alita 2!
>Long term
>Ubisoft
Lol, lmao even 😂
I know you don't care, but now you know (of) at least one soul who enjoyed A2 and looks forward to A3.
We all have our quilty pleasures 😂
i didn't say it was bad! I just don't know anyone IRL that has seen it! ... or cared!
Ima buy Outlaws at like $12 though I tell you what 🤷🏼♂️
Like, I have a desire to play it to see just how bad it is, but not for anything above $10.
we're in 2025 and people are still doing the "avatar has no cultural impact" shtick PLEASE get a new line 😂
we're in 2025 and I saw Avatar (2009) in theater and NEVER saw it again.
wizard man can get it
He saying boycott Chinese owned games
Personally, I know one person who watched and enjoyed Avatar. He's a raging alcoholic, but still...
Unlife on Tencent, soon.