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Larian director of publishing Michael Douse, never one to be shy about speaking his mind, has spoken his mind about Ubisoft's decision to disband the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown development team, saying it's the result of a "broken strategy" that prioritizes subscriptions over sales.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is quite good. PC Gamer's Mollie Taylor felt it was dragged down by a very slow start, calling it "a slow burn to a fault" in an overall positive review, and it holds an enviable 86 aggregate score on Metacritic. Despite that, Ubisoft recently confirmed that the development team has been scattered to the four winds to work on "other projects that will benefit from their expertise."

This, Douse feels, is at least partially the outcome of Ubisoft's focus on subscriptions over conventional game sales—the whole "feeling comfortable with not owning your game" thing espoused by Ubisoft director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay earlier this year—and the decision to stop releasing games on Steam, which is far and away the biggest digital storefront for PC gaming.

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[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Gamers be like "We don't mind not owning our games as long as we don't own them through the monopoly that we like, ok?"

[-] 4am@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago

Valve has a good track record, and you’ve never owned a game in your life. They’ve always been a license, with few exceptions. Even physical media.

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

Mostly yes, especially if you're a big AAA publisher, so your game won't get buried under cheap shovelware and the latest AAA slop. Also don't forget that Steam barely does any moderation, especially once you become a power user, so hate groups will buy your game, leave a negative review, then refund it, because a YouTuber named Prof. Chud called it anti-white and anti-male...

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

The difference being that I can resell a physical media, even at a profit if there's enough demand for it, and to most people that's the definition of ownership.

[-] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

Defining ownership as "can I sell this" is ridiculous

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

If you can't dispose of it by selling it to someone else, your don't own it. Notice how even DRM free games are just the purchase of a license and the distributor can revoke your right to use that license? Yeah, do you don't own DRM free games either.

[-] inlandempire@jlai.lu 5 points 1 day ago

Indeed but being able to dispose of something by selling it does not automatically means you owned it

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -2 points 22 hours ago

Unless you're acting as a proxy for the owner, yes it does.

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[-] Squirrelanna@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 22 hours ago

If that's the definition of ownership we're going with, does the fact that I can sell my steam account mean I do actually own every game on it regardless of DRM? Also, does a lack of a demand for a game degrade your ownership?

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

You can't though (not by following the terms you agreed to) and Valve can ban you or remove your right to use the license you paid for whenever they want.

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca -1 points 21 hours ago

You don't know the definition of monopoly then

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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
597 points (99.2% liked)

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