A methodology of pre-order sales over sales (A Ubisoft Story)

Hey all,

I watched the above video today, we all have seen similar ones and in different games, but I have been thinking the following for some time in regard to Ubisoft as well as other game companies.

Firstly
I just want to make it clear, being a developer, I fully understand deadlines. A game has a release date, you optimise the game, things can get cut and you may have to tune down many aspects of the game to make a deadline or just to make it run smoothly. It happens, especially for consoles.

Secondly
At events like E3 you, of course want to show your product off in the best possible way to the media and the consumers who will purchase those games. There is always going to be of extra shoe polish going on.

In saying that though..

I think Ubisoft especially has a very clear model of production in their games. Clearly we all know how similar their games are in structure, people have compared graphical "features" through the games and so on. But for me, it is ever becoming clearer that Ubisoft put a massive focus on the hype machine and getting those pre-order sales through. It clearly seems to be a big focus for Ubisoft and they do what they can to obtain them. As this video shows pretty much every time Ubisoft show of games, what is delivered in the graphical sense, while some like the division still look nice are a pale comparison to initial showings. Watchdogs was a massive drop. And many will argue, early gameplay fidelity also drops when they get their hands on the retail version from playing it at events or presentations early on.

Ubisoft often reference their pre-orders, even if the games do not rate well, bad reviews or longer term sales are poor, its the pre-orders, fastest this and that of pre-orders. It is the pre-orders that matter.
For me, it seems a very clear approach, get as many pre-orders as possible, make the games look amazing to get those rolling in. Pre-Orders always come up after the initial preview's of games for that matter, either straight the way or very soon after.
Looking at reviews, embargo's and media previews close to release and researching this a little today Ubisoft run a methodology of very tight control to ensure if games do have issues, clearly differ or do not live up to expectations the public knowledge of this is mitigated as best they can. Yes they can and will loose some pre-orders but people are already committed and the money is already in the bag as it were. Too late when you get it day one and realise like everyone else its crap or looks nothing like what you thought even on full settings on PC.
I know Jeff has always said many times don't pre-order and he is not wrong.. But many people do it year in and year out and I think many companies try to use this to ensure sales figures and remove the risk of natural sales on release as they used to, and with companies like Ubisoft they seem to have a very clear business model and process they apply to their games to benefit from that.

- Amaze and wonder with games trailers
- Show very maximized demos
- Maximize early pre-order sales efforts, advertising pushes before the game is even remotly out - Ubisoft push early in terms of their social media campaigns for all their games. Google adwords invest seems quite high early on.
- Allow media to play said games in a controlled environment
- Scale back and make a more streamlined realistic game
- Share resources and assets across game development (EA, Everything Frostbite these days as an example)

Ubisoft more then others suffer from many bugs and issues with their games on releases, poorly tested and poorly optimises - very rushed. I think the Division has suffered the least but it still had issues and I think the numbers have dropped quite a lot.

Ubisoft are definitely not the only ones following this methodology but they are ones that seem to have their business revolve around this process. It should not be allowed in my personal view, its pretty disgusting at the end of the day but on a business level, if it works it works, and it does.

I think to stop this, make such companies change their ways and produce better games and stop this nonsense of smoke and mirrors....

DON'T PRE-ORDER GAMES!
It is nice to get a game day one, but especially if there are review embargo in place etc... Do not hand your money over until your sure the games going to be great for you.

All ubisoft needs to do is put "This is alpha footage and not representative of the final game" or "This is target render running in real time and not representative of the final game. Plus graphics aren't the full value of the game, i would say watchdogs should get shit more for it's weak gameplay than it's weak graphics.

I think if people want to pre-order they should pre-order, unless your doing it on amazon it basically gives developers/publishers free money to put back into the project (or put into their pockets if they choose lol). I think pre-orders keep big budget games alive as it takes a lot of the anxiety of release away from the publisher who may not want to put the money down on a project. Anyway, the division looked pretty good from what i played on pc and watchdogs was a launch title so i can forgive not knowing the full techincal limitations of trying to get that running. I"m more concerned about games that don't run properly at all, like Arkham knight and even Xcom 2(a game that loved anyway). I would rather games push graphics back if it means the game will actually function properly.

Interesting explanation. While pre-orders are definitely the best kind of sale for a publisher, I wonder what share of sales they typically represent for a given game. Though I'm sure the amount is non-trivial, I would also expect it's less than half. If you really screwed over your fans in such a way as to make few people buy your games once they receive reviews, I can't imagine you'd be able to cover your costs.