If Ubisoft’s leadership is to be believed, the company is seemingly under the impression that players enjoy the fact that its full-priced AAA single-player games also have microtransactions. As spotted by WCCFTech, an entry on Ubisoft’s financial report speaks about microtransactions in games, which the company notes make “player experience more fun”.
“The adoption of monetization and engagement policies that respect the player experience and are sustainable in the long term,” reads the entry about microtransactions on page 10 of Ubisoft’s financial report. “At Ubisoft, the golden rule when developing premium games is to allow players to enjoy the game in full without having to spend more. Our monetization offer within premium games makes the player experience more fun by allowing them to personalize their avatars or progress more quickly, however this is always optional.”
Ubisoft has included microtransactions in its games for several years at this point, with some of the more recent prominent examples being all of the major Assassin’s Creed releases since 2017’s Origins. The company does make it a point to mention, however, that its games have been designed to be played and finished without strictly requiring the player to spend any real-world money.
To give the company some credit in this regard, microtransactions for Assassin’s Creed games, for example, tend to largely revolve around cosmetic items. While some of these items can have some gameplay effects – weapons in Assassin’s Creed, for instance – these same effects can also often be found in weapons that can be earned by simply playing the games. Other microtransactions include skins for ships and horses. The games also tend to have “time-saver” offerings, including massive amounts of crafting resources that could also just be found by playing the game.
During a recent conversation with Ubisoft’s shareholders, CEO Yves Guillemot also offered up a response to the Stop Killing Games consumer rights campaign in the EU. Guillemot spoke about how Ubisoft tends to offer plenty of support for its games, including ensuring that its titles are playable 24/7. However, he also noted that “it’s not a whole lot of money to be able to continue playing a game.”
“But this kind of issue is not specific to Ubisoft,” he continued. “All video game publishers are faced with that issue. You provide a service, but nothing is written in stone and at some point the service may be discontinued. Nothing is eternal. And we are doing our best to make sure that things go well for all players and buyers, because obviously support for all games cannot last forever.”
When it comes to support for games, Guillemot also spoke about how software tends to be replaced when it becomes obsolete, and how “nothing is eternal”.
“But this kind of issue is not specific to Ubisoft,” he explained. “All video game publishers are faced with that issue. You provide a service, but nothing is written in stone and at some point the service may be discontinued. Nothing is eternal. And we are doing our best to make sure that things go well for all players and buyers, because obviously support for all games cannot last forever.”
