Ubisoft blames gamers, Steam, trends, and everyone but itself for poor game sales

Ubisoft is making a lot of headlines lately, and not for the right reasons. Right behind telling us that paying for progression is fun comes their latest take: they're now blaming everyone but themselves for their recent failures in the gaming market.

First, starting with Star Wars: Outlaws, Ubisoft has come out claiming the game failed to meet expectations because Star Wars itself isn't popular at the moment.

As reported by TheGamer, Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, said, "Outlaws was released at a time when the brand that it belonged to was in a bit of choppy waters."

Not only does this fail to take into account the success of projects like The Mandalorian, a literal massive outlaw-style Star Wars franchise, but it also forgets to consider the reality that Outlaws itself may have been as mid as the Mid Rim.

Seriously, while we gave it a solid four out of five stars, the overall sentiment placed it in the 75 range on Metacritic. It launched to decent reviews, but came with a plethora of technical and performance issues, alongside gameplay mechanics like instant failed stealth missions that gamers absolutely loathe.

The likelihood that it's the general feeling toward Star Wars, considering programs like Andor, The Mandalorian, and Rogue One received massive praise from Star Wars fans, is akin to finding the droids you're looking for.

Not to mention, another Star Wars game has seen a monumental resurgence in recent months. You might have heard of it: Battlefront 2.

To continue their trend of blaming anyone but themselves, Ubisoft has taken up arms against the current Rebellion of gamers in a form similar to the Empire. According to their latest financial report, gamers and their dang organized groups are to blame for their recent shortcomings.

"Ubisoft is exposed to risks of damage to its reputation resulting from online bashing, understood as massive, sometimes virulent and organized campaigns of criticism against its products, teams or public statements," said a representative.

I'm sure this could also refer to the potential backlash over Assassin's Creed: Shadows and their inclusion of a black Samurai, which, if you ask me, is one of the silliest arguments gamers have ever made. This franchise has always been history-light in its presentation.

Heck, the Desmond from the original timeline died, sacrificing himself so that a lady from the First Civilization could return from the dead in a virtual form to protect the Earth from a world-ending solar flare. Let some stuff go, for crying out loud.

Continuing, Ubisoft further added, "These campaigns may occur on social media, content distribution platforms, or in certain specialized media, particularly following strategic decisions, technical issues affecting games, or statements perceived as controversial by certain segments of the public. The changing perception of the video game industry as a cultural and artistic medium is also leading to an increase in criticism based on ideological or societal considerations, sometimes to the detriment of technical or gameplay aspects."

Take a look at that — a little self-reflection from Ubisoft, where they discuss technical issues affecting their games. Wait, did they just blame Steam users when they referred to "content distribution platforms"?

Oh man, one step forward, eighteen steps back. Then again, this is the same company that decided to close the best new shooter IP on the market (XDefiant) in years in favor of keeping their decade-long development failure, Skull and Bones, alive, which has an all-time peak lower than Starfield's current daily play count.

Hey, don't forget, according to Ubisoft, you don't own your own video games. They're also chasing another battle royale after cancelling Heartland.

I realize the article I wrote yesterday also focused on Ubisoft's bitter-tasting financial analysis on what gamers really enjoy, so it feels sad to take another shot at them. However, when they continue to take an antagonistic tone with the very group of people who genuinely made them who they are today, it becomes deserved.

Let's hope my current love of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X and my possible love of Descenders Next, which I just downloaded and plan to play after this article, helps alleviate this ever-building negative opinion I have against a company I would have once trusted with an entire year's worth of gaming content to keep me happy.

How about you? What do you think of Ubisoft's recent comments? Let us know below or on social media. I'm genuinely interested in what others have to say.