Rumor: Ubisoft Wants Valve To Disable Steam Player Count API Fuelling SteamDB

[Gigaherz]

rather than making a political woke statement that no one wants or cares about!

Problem is the rotten marketing and press departments. They can claim high potential sales figures through generating headlines with "scandals". If gaming media and jounalists werent as degenerated as they are right now there would be a lot less insentive for developers to get community engagement. Potential sales dont care if feedback is negative or positive. Thats how they justify their ever increasing developement cost.

Edit: This post has been shortened to "clean it of social ideology" by TPU staff and does no longer show my full statement.

 

[csendesmark]

maybe they could make a good game to get higher numbers...

Nothing wrong with their products, it is the gamers whom want too much

It's good to see that the vast majority of gamers are starting to vote with their wallets, it gives me hope for the future, good job folks. Gabe is getting along in his years, and hopefully one day, he will hand over the reigns to someone that is not easily corruptible, ergo, that someone then can't be made to bend to others will.

Ubisoft deserves to fail, no bailouts.

That is a good incentive to motivate one to make good games!

Ubi is gone but it's the players fault isn't it ?

yes

Ubisoft made AC: Black Flag one of the best pirate games ever and then over 10 years

That is the last game I have from them, AC4 Black Flag is awesome!!

 

[Timbaloo]

maybe they could make a good game to get higher numbers...

Realistic suggestions only, please

 

[Space Lynx]

Nothing wrong with their products, it is the gamers whom want too much

That is a good incentive to motivate one to make good games!

yes

That is the last game I have from them, AC4 Black Flag is awesome!!

well EA made some great star wars games recently, like Jedi Survivors, if you actually watch videos of Outlaws though, it is really badly designed... so I have both EA Jedi games in my steam library, but not giving my money to Outlaws... so again... make better games

 

[Konomi]

Time for Valve to double down and provide access to yet more data. They probably have a ton that could be interesting that hasn't been shared yet.

 

[Athlonite]

LOL Ubisoft sound a little butt hurt that their crappy game isn't doing very well and would not like others to know it too

Well Ubisoft the cure to that is to not make crappy games.

I really hope that Valve/Steam give Ubi the giant middle finger

 

[csendesmark]

well EA made some great star wars games recently

Well, LucasArts did much better games when they care
Never even care to try ea's Star Wars games...
Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are legendary, nothing compares to those from the current games .
Wish if been redone with modern game-engine with love and care, just like Black Mesa been made with Half-Life

LOL Ubisoft sound a little butt hurt that their crappy game isn't doing very well and would not like others to know it too

Obviously they think they are entitled to our money.

 

[Space Lynx]

Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are legendary

I agree with this, but Jedi Survivor that came out before OUtlaws had one of the best boss battles I have ever experienced, it literally had me standing up screaming it was so damn good. I was playing on hard difficulty and just nailing it, was frenzy action at it's finest, but mind trippy at the same time.

 

[Bwaze]

"The Substack post quotes Ubisoft insiders who claim that the game developer and "other companies" want Valve to disable or restrict the APIs used by tools like SteamDB and Steam Charts as a direct response to the disappointing performance of Star Wars Outlaws. "

The whole entertainment industry is trying very hard to control the narrative, reviews etc.

Movie and TV industry on streaming largely doesn't publish their viewership numbers, at least not in a way they could be verified. And the independent viewership estimates are now frowned upon and questioned. The same is with review sites like imdb and Rotten Tomatoes, whatever the reasons for editing or deletions of negative reviews are.

So I think gaming industry won't be the exception here, and publishers will sooner or later achieve their goal of controlling the information on how successful something is or isn't.

 

[Space Lynx]

"The Substack post quotes Ubisoft insiders who claim that the game developer and "other companies" want Valve to disable or restrict the APIs used by tools like SteamDB and Steam Charts as a direct response to the disappointing performance of Star Wars Outlaws. "

The whole entertainment industry is trying very hard to control the narrative, reviews etc. movie and TV industry on streaming largely doesn't publish their viewership numbers, at least not in a way they could be verified. And the independent viewership estimates are now frowned upon and questioned. The same is with review sites like imdb and Rotten Tomatoes, whatever the reasons for editing or deletions of negative reviews are.

So I think gaming industry won't be the exception here, and publishers will sooner or later achieve their goal of controlling the information on how successful something is or isn't.

The only thing I wish Steam would do differently is unite everyone again, bring epic games, all the other launchers into a meeting, say steam will drop everything from 30% fees to 15% fees for 12 year contract, in exchange, they close their launchers and bring all the games over and make it easy transition for gamers to get those games on steam -

UNITE THE CLANS!

 

[Gigaherz]

say steam will drop everything from 30% fees to 15% fees for 12 year contract, in exchange, they close their launchers and bring all the games over and make it easy transition for gamers to get those games on

And what is the benefit for say... Epic in that ?

"Yo Buddy close your business, so I can sell your inventory at my store to your former customer base"

 

[Space Lynx]

And what is the benefit for say... Epic in that ?

"Yo Buddy close your business, so I can sell your inventory at my store to your former customer base"

more sales, because steam as a store is an actual behemoth and has customer loyalty like never before seen in the history of marketing/business

edit: on second thought, it's probably a good idea if this never happens though because it might make Steam a monopoly, so yeah that would not be good as government would try to break it up, as government is trying to make google sell chrome right now

 

[Gigaherz]

has customer loyalty like never before seen in the history of marketing/business

Sure buddy...

Yes gog will certainly give up its no-drm principles just so their already available at steam games get "higher" sales. And Epic for sure will give up their entire revenue and Market power + experience with the unreal asset platform so that they can have the 8 games they made in the last 10 years on steam. Opposed to having exclusive deals with hundres of developers...

This doesnt even hypothetically make sense

 

[persondb]

The claims also mention that Ubisoft seeks to control the narrative of its games and potentially present a rosier image to its investors

This has a name. It's called fraud.

I kinda doubt that Ubisoft actually wants to commit fraud.

 

[Space Lynx]

Sure buddy...

Yes gog will certainly give up its no-drm principles just so their already available at steam games get "higher" sales. And Epic for sure will give up their entire revenue and Market power + experience with the unreal asset platform so that they can have the 8 games they made in the last 10 years on steam. Opposed to having exclusive deals with hundres of developers...

This doesnt even hypothetically make sense

it might make sense someday, when their fortnite money runs out, but we do live in idiocracy now and people spend money on outfits in games, so eh... maybe I am wrong indeed

and I wouldn't include GoG in this, I do understand their principle is different from all the others

 

[Bwaze]

This has a name. It's called fraud.

I kinda doubt that Ubisoft actually wants to commit fraud.

Nah, it's called advertising. Does it bend the numbers and actually go against the reality? Sure, but that's what it is made for!

The whole entertainment industry is doing it. Amazon has the most expensive TV show on earth, allegedly, with most viewers ever, allegedly. Independent viewership estimates put "The Boys" in front of "Rings of Power", with tenth of it's budget. And what did Amazon say? "Our internal numbers don't reflect that". And suddenly there were bunch of articles on how Nielsen Ratings and other independent viewership estimates are dinosaurs from the cable TV times and unfit to measure modern viewers.

 

[Space Lynx]

This has a name. It's called fraud.

I kinda doubt that Ubisoft actually wants to commit fraud.

I am not sure laws exist for companies or rich people in America anymore anyway, and they know it.

 

[Totally]

View attachment 373446

A tale as old as time.

Yep 'If your enemy is making a mistake do not correct them" -- Sun Tzu

This has a name. It's called fraud.

I kinda doubt that Ubisoft actually wants to commit fraud.

Not really as long as they aren't blatantly lying it isn't necessarily fraud. The data being readily available just limits how much the can bend the truth.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Too bad Disney tossed Star Wars 1313 to the side when they acquired the IP. I thought that one looked promising.

 

[LittleBro]

Greedy microtransaction king known by name Ubisoft has been undergoing some quality problems for last couple of years. Not all people are sheep, dear Ubisoft. Some even think about what they pay for. I still can't forgive them for Far Cry 6 or Ghost Recon Breakpoint. After great predecessors they managed to f**k up the series for good. Serves them right. Never buying anything from Ubisoft again.

The only thing I wish Steam would do differently is unite everyone again, bring epic games, all the other launchers into a meeting, say steam will drop everything from 30% fees to 15% fees for 12 year contract, in exchange, they close their launchers and bring all the games over and make it easy transition for gamers to get those games on steam -

It's not about bringing Epic games back. It's Epic who decided to part ways, not Steam. And with free games and lower fees it still can't really compete with Steam. Even though I'd surely be happy to pay less for games (pay less fees to Valve when purchasing game on Steam) I'm actually perfectly fine with 30% fees. What many people don't understand is what is beyond Steam. Steam has huuuuuuuge CDN. And they have been actually keeping quality around the same level for years. When you look at other launchers ... Ubisoft launcher or similar ... it can't really compete with steam, I mean just look at it. It's so ... slow, glitchy, not intuitive.

Do you recall time when every game developer cried at Steam and wanted to create their own platform (launcher)? EA moved out of Steam, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Blizzard, Epic did. They even stopped selling their games through Steam. After some time they reconsidered and started selling games on Steam again. They finally realized cost of platform popularity and CDN importance. Well, It's nice to have more places where your goods get sold, right?

Btw, does any other launcher than Steam have voice chat implemented that can work for hours? I don't give a damn about having voice chat in games, I want to have it on OS level and don't want to install additional stuff (Team Speak, Ventrilo, ...).

Kudos to Valve for supporting Linux and teaming up with Archlinux developers!
Unfortunately, when it comes to games, GabeN can't count to three ... :-(

 

[GodisanAtheist]

View attachment 373446

A tale as old as time.

- That's called "offering something no one else can" and is fundamental to the breakout success of a business.

 

[kapone32]

Ubisoft is so out of touch. That stupid MBA business philosophy is not congruent with PC Gaming. We don't want less as Gamers.

Too bad Disney tossed Star Wars 1313 to the side when they acquired the IP. I thought that one looked promising.

Marvel Super Heroes was also very sad.

 

[persondb]

Not really as long as they aren't blatantly lying it isn't necessarily fraud. The data being readily available just limits how much the can bend the truth.

Misleading can be defrauding, specially when the only information is coming out of your company.

If there is information elsewhere and your company presents a rosier picture then it's up to the investor due diligence to see through it. If the only information is only through your company then you can't mislead people.

It's not necessary to outright lie.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If Ubisoft has its way, the gaming industry would lose even more transparency, since tools like SteamDB are often used by game journalists to evaluate the popularity and commercial success of games.

And this is because they don't want the public to know just how terrible they are. What a garbage company..

 

[like.a.cactus]

I'm more willing to lose ubisoft and EA over SteamDB tbh.

I love Ubisoft games, but I don't love Ubisoft. Every game that I love is something they purchased (and ruined) from another Dev. And not something they created by themselves.

Or maybe something they created so many years ago, is not the same company anymore.