Ubisoft’s share prices have plunged and are edging dangerously close to their lowest point in a decade as investors worry about the performance of Star Wars Outlaws and flailing live service shooter XDefiant. While we don’t know how well Massive Entertainment’s open world adaptation has performed yet, reviews have been uneventful and early incomplete indications at UK retail suggest it may be a softer release than expected.
Meanwhile, there’s speculation that XDefiant is on its last legs, as the free-to-play foray struggles to compete with juggernauts like Fortnite and Call of Duty. The French publisher is apparently planning to pull the plug on the game if it can’t attract a significant increase in player numbers over the coming months.
Ubisoft’s shares dipped as low as €15.20 earlier today, a massive drop from the firm’s €102.95 high in July 2018, marking an incredible 85 per cent decline. Fluctuations are, of course, to be expected – but it does suggest investors aren’t particularly impressed at the moment.
We’ll need to await official sales information before we can declare Star Wars Outlaws a disappointment, but JP Morgan analyst Daniel Kerven has revised his sales estimates, anticipating 5.5 million copies to be sold by March 2025 as opposed to 7.5 million copies. That’s still a lot of units, but considering the budget behind this game, it may not be enough.
Are you playing Star Wars Outlaws? (3,373 votes)
- Yes, of course I'm playing it
- I plan on playing it later down the line
- Nah, I'm not sold on the game yet
- No, Star Wars Outlaws just isn't for me
[source reuters.com, via videogameschronicle.com, gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 69
Because more and more people are becoming savvy.
They know to wait 3months for a reduction. (Sand land out 4-5months and it’s £20 for example)
Or sign up to ubi plus for a month and play multiple games for £15.
Wow, a pretty equal split between those who intend to play outlaws, and those who likely never will.
On a separate note, I trialled X-defiant, and I have to say, I found it a lot more enjoyable than Concord, and it's characters (all from Ubi games) just generally better/ all equally enjoyable, but yeah... companies keep trying to capture the success of team based shooters, etc. And it just seems that it's been a one-and-done thing. The flash in the pan has passed, and only a small few games can hold the attention of the dedicated player base. I don't really understand why everyone keeps chasing the successes of what will likely never be repeated- far better to get ahead of the curve and create the "next best thing"?
I think realistically people just buy less games now. You can’t even say successful IPs or great review scores help now. I mean, what games HAVEN’T been sales bombs this generation according to their publishers? They’re still measuring success against 2020 even now, as that’s when many of these games were in primordial development.
@somnambulance that is true and of course then there is ‘will wait for it to be on a sub service’ mindset that is slowly increasing in thought.
It got reviewed well in places, i think is quite good, wouldn't like to put a number on it but its not as bad as half of Youtube make out
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Yeah, in my own social circle, I’ve noticed that there’s a sharp decline in most of my friends’ purchases. My poor cousin was one of the 50 people playing Concord. Lol. Most people I know have purchased 2-4 games this year whereas in the past, some of those people would have literally bought everything. Those friends can still afford it too, but the industry isn’t making the games they want currently. The industry stopped listening in 2020 when the live service industry dominated for all the kids that couldn’t go to school. They didn’t think about the actual base that was washed out in those statistics and now we’re seeing the consequences of that. If you’re a gamer that was playing Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, and TLOU2 in 2020 instead of Fortnite, GTA, and CoD, the industry isn’t catering to that… but also my friend group may be niche… we had a high purchase rate for Alan Wake 2 in my group, almost as high as CoD. I don’t even think the subs have affected that. I got a lot of people to cancel GP recently because I said, at a party, when was the last time any of us even used the service? For some, it had been over a year.
Did big publications say that Star wars sales were through the roof?
I was really surprised that Ubi offer all of their new games for a £15 a month rental on Ubi+premium, with all of all their other games also available if you finish the new one. Crazy, really.
No real reason to buy their games on Xbox or PC.
I wonder if publishers like UBI and Xbox (lol) realise that new games on subs is killing them slowly especially when they have to spend hundreds of millions to create a new release, and at some point your back catalogue always loses value to the consumer as you can't constantly keep up with the demand for new content to replace the games everyone has played or isn't interested in before they unsubscribe in waves.
That's what happens when you make the same open world and janky combat for the last 10 years....
I might play Outlaws down the line, but as I haven't gotten to Immortals: Fenix Rising, Avatar, AC: Odyssey + Valhalla and a few others I want to play more it won't be any time soon!
I'm pretty sure it sold at least ten times more than Concord.
Ironic that Ubisoft are now making games i enjoy but they dont sell.
guess my tastes arnt the same as everyone else
Personally I think Outlaws is underrated from what I've played so far (about 15 hours in). A really great space adventure in my opinion. A few gripes but a worthy Star Wars game, well worth buying.
@themightyant you really should jump into immortals a lot of fun.
@Oram77 I was pleasantly surprised that Outlaws doesn't feel like the same generic open world stuff of the usual Ubi games. I was expecting AC with a Star Wars coat of paint, but maybe it;s just how they've nailed the settings that it feels quite fresh and exciting to me
@PsBoxSwitchOwner This is exactly what I do for any Ubisoft game now. Sub it for CAD$20, cancel right away, and finish the game within a month or so.
CAD20 is a more acceptable risk to hate the game than CAD90.
I started Outlaws yesterday and it’s been good so far. I was thinking of waiting for a price decrease though.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner It's bought and on my list of shame with another hundred odd games. One day!
Is Star Wars Outlaws any good? speaking as a neutral and someone who hasn't played it I would like to hear from someone who has played it.
I plan on getting Outlaws, but I have open world fatigue and Astro Bot releasing a week later I just decided to buy that instead. If i have to many new games at one time they never get finished.
Yeah they totally deserve it. Remember guys this is the same company that told us that we should get used to no longer owning a game. Plus Ubisoft has the tendency to drop the price of their games few months later.
Yea the points have already been made above. 70 bucks is a lot for 1 game.. a game that has no guarantee that you will even like... Iv been waiting for outlaws but nah to much.
And defiant i actually thought was cool.. the gun battles feel good...problem with all these cod competitors theres just zero innovation.. zero creativity... same play book.. give different abilities...specials.take over zones...blah blah copy paste.
@Flippygruffle Hey man if you like the game more power to you, but I will stand on that Ubi have got very lazy when trying to implement "new" design choices
The live service bubble is about to burst and I’m here for it.
As the great Jeremy Clarkson famously said: “Oh no! Anyway…”
Star Wars: Outlaws didn't die, it was murdered. Rage-baiting, copycat, asmongold wannabes, who only desire engagement from their brain rot sycophants. The same thing is going to happen to AC: Shadows whether it's a good game or not. Not every game needs to be a precious Elden Ring
I’ve played a few hours of Outlaws so far but I’m enjoyed it so far.
People are just put off by the fact it’s by Ubisoft
@RubyCarbuncle It's decent. I'd say for the most part it does feel less like "standard Ubisoft open world" and more like an Uncharted-but-space setup with the open areas there really just to connect it together and give you extra loot to find.
My main complaint about it would be that the checkpointing system for those missions is abysmal, particularly in the early sections and any forced-stealth setups. The game will not save your progress except for at very specific trigger points, and will quite happily throw away all your progress on completing challenges, looting chests, etc. Early on I had a moment of exploring the first (second?) city, accidentally falling into a pit in a side area... and suddenly found myself back outside the gates with the entire area reset to square one - and later spent quite some time meticulously stealthing my way through a large compound during a story mission, opened the Load menu to see if the game was keeping track... and the last autosave was over an hour ago. And even on loading the rare mid-mission checkpoints, it will do so while respawning every enemy in the location, relocking doors, etc - essentially reintroducing every obstacle that you'd cleared.
So, yeah, that's my biggest "buyer beware" warning if, like me, you prefer to fully explore areas and complete side content alongside the main quest.
@crossbit Thanks that's a very good explanation there. I really dislike games that reset progress after death, some do it worse than others and Star Wars Outlaws sounds annoying more than anything. I don't think though that alone would deter me personally in buying the game but it is definitely something people should be made aware of.
I think in general we are just heading towards people spending less and less on new games, sure there will still be outliers but it seems to be a common theme now of big releases not hitting sales targets alongside some huge flops.
These days where are more options to play, whether that be subscriptions or simply waiting for the inevitable sales and we've all likely now got huge libraries of games that we can simply go back to, all whilst new games themselves haven't really evolved since the late PS3 generation
@RubyCarbuncle Same here - as I say, it's decent and for the most part I've had a very enjoyable time with it. On a more positive note, the atmosphere and characterisation is very well done - the little character moments between Kay and Nix are probably one of my favourite things.
But boy, the game definitely had me grumbling "who designed this?!" under my breath in those opening hours, especially coming from other recent games that have handled checkpoints and progress so, so much better, allowed manual saves at all times, etc.
Think I might actually do a ubisoft plus sub for a few months. There's this, AC Shadows, Mirage, Prince of Persia and Avatar that have all piqued my interest the last while, so 4 months or so of sub would be better value than buying them all probably.
Ubisfot needs to get comfortable with gamers not owning their games
Regarding Outlaws, the Star Wars brand as a whole has been ran into the ground recently. Oversaturation with low quality failures. From the Last Jedi to the Acolyte. Needs to go away for a bit. Used to be so special back when there were only 3 movies.
I like it so far. It kind of reminds me of Mass Effect in some ways but set in the Star Wars universe.
If you try to sell average at best, you get average or below back.
You basically you reap what you sow.
I had planned to purchase Outlaws collector edition…But Ubisoft reluctance to release on Steam Day 1 had me cancel any plans of supporting this game period.
I feel absolutely certain that they would have sold more copies of Outlaws had it been more competitively priced. Setting a £120 price point for the Ultimate Edition almost smacks of desperation to get their investment back, rather than being value for money. Selling the base game for £60/£70 would have been okay, and then add £20 to that for the Ultimate Edition, £30 at a push. In other words, the maximum the game should have cost was £80 to £90. At that price, I would have been tempted to buy the Ultimate Edition. As it was, I looked at the £120 price and decided not to buy it at all. I will likely still pick it up at some point, but not until I can pick up the Ultimate Edition for around £60. That's a lot of money, by being greedy, that they lost from me alone...
@crossbit TBH… People need to stop relying so heavily on auto saving. You really should be doing a manual save every 30 to an hour. I personally still approach modern like it still 2000. Gamers have become so relaxed about saving cause now game literally auto save after ever action the player performs… Player open chest, auto save. Player enters room, auto save. Character model breaths, auto save.
Anticipated 5.5 million sales by March 2025 and that would be a disappointment...they're just setting the bar too high with those expectations. I've played the first 8 hours of the game and it is enjoyable for the most part. Does it deserve Elden Ring level sales, probably not.
I'm sure the game is doing great on playstation barring concord most games sell massively on playstation, very pre order heavy throw money at everything userbase sony has cultivated.
I wouldn't even pay a cent for any of the recent star wars games, they should stop being scared and make one like kotor where i can make my own character rather than being forced to play goody two shoes characters who constantly spare people, "mercy is disgusting".
Will get Outlaws when it's about £20 next year ot the year after , same as every game I buy.
So many backlog games due to the PS+ ones every month now going back for years, I wonder if that's part of the problem that we all have too much to play nowadays.
Only just tried Death Stranding for first time a week or so ago , that's how far backlogged I am , incidentally thought it was terrible!
@CrashBandicoat
That was a good post, and I agree to a point, a person's financial situation is definitely going to determine what they buy and what they don't.
However, a lot of this gamer rage is nothing but character assassinations of certain games based on anti-woke ideology - uglifying females, sexual orientation, race, etc etc. These people use dog whistles like "poor writing", "uninspired character design", "last-gen AI" or whatever other talking points they can muster. Then to prove their point they purposefully break the game or act like something is badly done when in fact 99% of people who play the game never see these as issues.
Then once the views start rolling in from all their basement-dwelling crayon-eating viewership the rest of the channels like "Michael Does Life" or "Angry Joe" will jump on for clicks and likes. There are literally hundreds of these YouTube channels with the same thumbnail all vying for negative attention.
But the worst part is that anyone who says anything positive about the game that is this week's target is called a shill for merely suggesting that the game has any merit.
So this is how I decide to buy games now, if these guys hate it, day one purchase and I am never disappointed.
@AverageGamer The thing is, given the choice, I would 100% agree with you and use manual saves. I regularly do for the more open-ended stuff, knowing that they'll put me mostly back where I want to be.
It was in fact through trying to manually save within the game's opening hours that I found that you couldn't - manual saving is completely locked out during story missions, which is why the terrible autosaves for them are such an issue.
Oh, right, one more thing. Never reload a checkpoint from the moment after making a reputation-changing decision; as it stands, it will tend to load you back to the moment before the decision, but will keep your reputation from the moment after... and promptly lower it even more.
This is something i wouldn't even play for free
Companies have changed customer's buying habits, they want live service games and games that keep players engaged. That is what they got.
Fighting games with drip fed new characters, DLC expansions, shooters with seasons, F2P that really costs money. Now players are sticking with games longer, buying less and companies are wondering why not every game is selling like crazy.
I've just bought £1000 worth of Ubisoft shares after my Capcom ones paid dividends.
Live service and subscription models are going to bankrupt a huge name sooner or later. I personally think that’s a good thing because the worst thing for gaming would be a Netflix type system for games. Eventually they would want to put the price up substantially to cover costs or basically stop creating new games to make the model work. Either way the quicker it dies the better.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner
Pretty much this. Why would I spend £110 in one go on a game when i can sign up for a month for £15 and get the same version and have it finished in that time?
For Ubisoft themselves, Ubisoft+ was a mistake. At least in it's current form.
It was either Far Cry 5 or RDR2 that I last bought on release, both great, both finished games on release as I recall.
Zero trust in any day 1 release and any Ubisoft game goes half price very quickly, already 33% off all versions on CDKEYS for steam version.
Ubisoft shot themselves in the foot by punishing early adopters with subscription options and rapid price drops. Not to mention content/early access locked behind special editions.
Chaos is a ladder. The stock price shall rise. Buy.
@crossbit "Never reload a checkpoint from the moment after making a reputation-changing decision; as it stands, it will tend to load you back to the moment before the decision but will keep your reputation from the moment after... and promptly lower it even more."
This sound like a bug, and not something intended.
@Boxmonkey "going to bankrupt a huge name sooner or later"
We're kinda due for the loss of a major publisher/developer. We haven't had one in a while... The last one was THQ?
As usual. Ubicrap. Over hyped, and underwhelming. I'll wait for a sale. Way overpriced IMO.
Personally, I have really enjoyed the game so far. Definitely a few things that could have been done (likely they thought about them, but were likely given a date and had to cut back. Things like having more weapons in inventory, GTA-style using/stealing of other vehicles, etc. But overall, it is actually a lot of fun, the maps are really big and the secrets/activities in the world seem relatively organic and I actually think the acting is not bad. Searching the world is a lot more fun without all the markers and Ubisoft towers. Although the stealth is nothing ground breaking, it is not much different than other games and I love most of the heist missions. No one can argue they nailed the Star Wars environment either, especially the towns/cities. I only wish they had more time to build out a little more, but I have been impressed considering all the negative comments prior to buying it. I would recommend it as long as you are not expecting first-of-its-kind mechanics or concepts, but honestly not many games provide that anymore. I think it is a great game...so far.
There's plenty of good games to play outside Ubisoft games. So why people waste their money on Ubisoft games when there's better games like Black Myth Wukong, Stellar Blade, Space Marine 2, Ace Attorney, Astro Bot, etc etc?
@somnambulance
Im in the category of 8-12 games per year - if there are the games out there that im interested in, but as you say, and i completely agree with you that those games just dont seem to be there in the same numbers over the last few years.
I would however say that poor performance or sub 60fps has been a much bigger factor in me not buying a game at launch / full price over the last year or so.
In addition, but somewhat less important, games that look "muddy" due to too many effects (particularly ray tracing) but too low res.
There are several games i either didnt buy, or bought on sale after suitable performance patches, for these reasons alone; and apart from 1st party Sony i have stopped pre ordering games for these reasons unless i have played a demo (eg lies of P).
Ubisoft = WAIT FOR A SALE 😌
@somnambulance
Wow, you said it better than I could've. I'm not saying I represent the average gamer, but I am lucky enough to have a decent amount of discretionary income to spend. But there just isn't that much I'm interested in. In years past, I would buy 25-40 games. This year? I have purchased three day one releases - Tekken 8, Baldur's Gate 3, and now Astro Bot. That's it.
These publishers aren't making anything I want. Too busy chasing Fortnight money. You, me, your friend group you mentioned - we are the long money. The Fortnight / Apex Legends kids, they are fly by night. Big profits up front but it's not long term, they'll go to the next big thing tomorrow or the next day.
These big publishers are all gonna get a huge wake up call in the next 10 years when they have to pivot and desperately try to claw back the aging hardcore crowd they threw away so their CEOs could get bigger bonuses. Looks like Ubisoft is getting theirs early.
@UnlimitedSevens @Rich33 For me, this is the first year in literal ages that I don’t have a top 20 list for the year yet. I’ll have one by the end of October, sure, but I’ve certainly joked to my wife that it feels like I’m buying more games in September and October than the rest of the year combined. It certainly feels like most games I’ve bought this year have been disappointing to a degree too, so that doesn’t help. I will say that, for new releases, Rebirth, Balatro, and surprisingly enough Ubisoft’s own Prince of Persia games were far and away my favorite games so far this year… but they all released fairly early this year. I’ve still purchased several games this year, but almost everything I anticipated felt off to me when I played it, and then there was a period of literal months when I was starting to wonder if anything was going to come out. Weirdly enough too, with well reviewed games like Dragon’s Dogma 2, Stellar Blade, Helldivers… I was starting to question my sanity because all three of the games felt 7/10 tier or less. I started to feel like those games got higher review score due to drought.
I brought Wukong on hype alone because it had been months and I felt starving for something, anything that might be good. And honestly it is quite good, I’m pleased to report, and I’m sure it’ll be one of my favorites this year. I’m just hoping there’s more games that stick in September/October. I’m practically nervous about every release at the moment when games are supposed to be fun. The only games I’m just blindly excited about are AstroBot, Life is Strange, and Dragon Ball Sparking Zero because, I think to myself, these games are likely going to be pretty true to themselves and that’s about it! Lol. But even so, what a strange year that my most played games are almost assuredly going to be: 1) Dave the Diver 2) Vampire Survivors 3) Balatro. There’s the argument: did I buy my PS5 for game like that? I mean, sort of, but not really.
I’m definitely worried about what’s going to happen when GTA6 launches next year. I’ve got a feeling it might nuke the industry. At first it’ll feel like a good thing because I’m sure the game will be good, but I suspect they’ll raise the price of games with it… and I’m sure the game’ll be worth it, sure, but will anything else be worth the raised purchase price?
@somnambulance @UnlimitedSevens
Your posts made me look back and see what games i have purchased this year, and its pretty dire:
Full price:
Astro (pre ordered) - so looking forwards to this.
WWE 2k24 - I only bought this years at all because, after Bray Wyatts passing last year, they put 3 of his major characters in the game, so it was a bit of an impulse buy.
Stellar Blade - Ok, not fantastic, but good. (Technically Excellent).
Sale:
SF6 after they added Akuma who is my longstanding favourite, but i waited for character release and sale due to how he was handled (along with others) in SF5. Enjoyed World Tour.
Rise of the Ronin - Only after performance patches and demo, even then its just on my tolerance limit for performance, but im enjoying it.
And thats it 5 games (1 of which is not quite out). I also played Immortals of Aveum after they updated with the frame gen patch, which i got for nothing as i added it to my library a month or so before when it was free with PS+ (having seen they were planning the patch). I probably would have bought last year, maybe at full price, if not for the bad performance which made me skip it.
I tried the demo for DD2, liked the game, couldnt stand the performance so skipped - same story as FF16 last year.
I couldnt get exited for star wars outlaws, but did watch a few performance reviews of it.
BMW - im torn on this one, and really want to see a demo - the frame gen may work but is so extreme, and i dont intend to take a punt on a game i dont think was programmed with PS5 in mind. It does look fun though.
Bad performance at launch, combined with early sales is going to kill full price purchases.
But I certainly agree that these devs (Sony included) need to pivot away from chasing the GaaS (or similar) model quickly before they alienate long term gamers.
Sony particularly need to remember that some only buy their consoles due to their big single player exclusives and they are risking a lot in the long term - if it hadnt been for 60fps this generation, and their AAA single player games being exclusive, i may well have defected to PC.
GTA6 may be a big disappointment next year - i fear it will be a slideshow on anything but PC and maybe PS5 Pro, and i still think it may include microtransactions or subscription requirements.
Anyway, Happy Astrobot Day Tomorrow!!
@somnambulance
I did forget, I got Rebirth at launch so I guess it was 4. I definitely will pick up Wukong at some point! Stellar Blade, Dragon's Dogma, and a few others are interesting, but I just haven't felt the need to pull the trigger on those.
Being a big horror buff, I'm very excited about Silent Hill 2 and the physical release of Alan Wake 2. So the tail end of the year is packed for me too.
Besides that, definitely some strong indie showings. Balatro was awesome. Dredge and Cult of the Lamb had some new DLC. The Prince of Persia game and, surprisingly, Contra: Operation Galuga brought it home as well. Then the Microsoft releases, Pentiment and Hi Fi Rush. So the indie scene has been strong and saved the year for me. AAA releases I've mostly dodged.
Now that I'm taking a mental inventory, I think I just like indie games better these days 😆. But definitely excited for Astrobot.
@Rich33
Yes, couldn't agree more. I know the argument is they can do both GaaS and single player, then everyone is happy, but I really still don't buy that. One comes at the cost of the other. I mean, I don't think the Sony 2024 first party drought and the push for live service happening at pretty much the exact same time is any kind of coincidence - I believe there is a strong causal relationship there.
They really need to figure out how they want to proceed going forward. Look, I've never spent 20 bucks on a skin, ever. So I guess there's less money short term if they pursue me as a target market. But I - have - bought every Sony first party game they've released so far, even the re-releases (Concord being the one and only exception). Bought every piece of hardware. That's us, the "hardcore" market (hate the term). It's less money up front because we aren't engaging with the digital casinos masquerading as games, but we are more reliable and longer term customers. I feel Sony's new approach is bad business focusing too much on short term.
All that aside, have fun with Astrobot 👍
@UnlimitedSevens
Agree with everything you've said, and i would add that i do not believe a word of the "we need GaaS to fund single player" rubbish they come out with - any money from GaaS will just fund more.
@UnlimitedSevens @Rich33 Lol. My apologies for having you both inventory your collections. I spreadsheet my gaming, so perhaps my perception of fun is a bit analytical, but you guys are definitely driving that point home. After seeing those Astro Bot reviews, I am hoping that game gets a seismic amount of sales to help show PlayStation (and the industry at large) what we really want from gaming. Can’t wait for Astro Bot. I never expected it to review THIS well!
@somnambulance
PS Library makes it easy.
Its interesting indeed that Sony didnt see it as a major or tentpole release (I cant exactly remember their wording) - when it may well be the game that saves their reputation this year.
@Rich33 Between this and Zelda, we may have two “low stakes” goty contenders and I’m honestly pretty excited for that. I can’t believe Sony didn’t see the game as a top game, absolutely baffling.
If they’d had a badass protagonist I would’ve bought outlaws but a man can only suspend disbelief so much heh
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...