Michael Douse, the publishing director of Baldur’s Gate 3, has criticized Ubisoft’s subscription-focused strategy. He argues that prioritizing subscriptions over traditional game sales is a flawed business model that undervalues the work of developers. Douse pointed out that Ubisoft’s last major release on their own platform was “arguably Far Cry 6 in 2021.” Recent titles like “The Crew Motorfest,” “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage,” and “Avatar: Frontier of Pandora,” released in 2023, did not meet expectations.
This likely led to a drop in subscription numbers when “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown” launched. According to Douse, if these games had been released on Steam from the start, they would have probably seen better sales and potentially justified sequels. He called Ubisoft’s approach “a broken strategy,” saying, “The hardest thing is to make a game that scores 85+ in reviews — it is much easier to release one.
It just shouldn’t be done as it was.”
For “The Lost Crown,” Ubisoft required players to have a Ubisoft Connect account. They limited the game initially to the Ubisoft store and the Epic Games Store, delaying its Steam release by eight months.
Ubisoft’s misguided subscription model
Douse stressed that a strategy that seems to favor subscriptions at the expense of game sales and developers’ job security makes no sense. Douse’s remarks echo a growing industry concern about the move towards subscription models and away from game ownership. Ubisoft executive Philippe Tremblay said earlier this year, “One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games.
That’s the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD or DVD collection.”
However, Douse argues that the shift towards subscriptions over sales could result in fewer jobs for developers, especially if critically acclaimed games don’t become market successes under this strategy. He concluded that Ubisoft’s direction is not sensible from a business perspective.
Douse has previously criticized Ubisoft’s business practices and studio closures. He and Larian studio head Sven Winke have publicly condemned mass layoffs, with Winke stating earlier this year, “It’s the wrong thing for games.”
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