LogInThe corpo fears your thumbs-down.
Following Ubisoft's return to the spotlight for all the wrong reasons over the weekend, an interesting 380-page document authored by the studio and published back in June has resurfaced online, attracting everyone's attention.
While you might already be familiar with this novel-length report – officially titled the Universal Registration Document – thanks to the flood of articles and YouTube videos mocking Ubisoft for calling microtransactions "fun," one arguably more important and amusing detail has largely flown under the radar: Ubisoft's admission that online criticism does indeed work and is seen as a risk factor by the company.
Ubisoft
Referred to as "Bashing," large-scale online criticism campaigns – especially coordinated ones – are listed as a moderate-level business risk for the studio, with Ubisoft acknowledging they can seriously damage the company's image and how its brands are perceived.
These campaigns, the report notes, usually follow strategic decisions (such as the company's choice to release two NFT games in 2024), technical issues affecting games (like a matchmaking bug that rendered one of NFT games unplayable), or "statements perceived as controversial by certain segments of the public" (with the standout example being Ubisoft's Director of Subscriptions Philippe Tremblay's infamous "get comfortable with not owning your games" comment).
"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," Ubisoft writes.
Sadly though, with Ubisoft being Ubisoft, it seems that even though 2024 has been by far the most reputation-damaging year for the company since its inception, they still don't understand why they're now seen as one of, if not the most despised game companies on the market – with the report brushing off online criticism as mere "attacks," without taking a moment to reflect on why they get "attacked" so often.
What's easily the most worrisome part of the document is its confirmation that Ubisoft's Legal department has developed "appropriate processes to respond to these attacks on its reputation."
Innocuous at first glance, when considered alongside an earlier report about the company planning to sue players for "harassment" without clearly defining what that means, the confirmation comes off as eerie, suggesting that Ubisoft does, in fact, have a team of lawyers on standby, ready to sue you into oblivion for vague, undefined reasons you might not even realize qualify as "harassment" in their eyes.
It's also worth noting that Ubisoft isn't the first AAA publisher to confirm that review-bombing – a term we use without any judgment or negative connotation – does work and can make a difference. Earlier, GTA publisher Take-Two also acknowledged that hostile campaigns can "lead to additional advertising and marketing costs and reputation harm," ultimately resulting in loss of players and revenue.
So there we have it – two gaming giants have now admitted that mass-downvoting their bad decisions and practices does indeed affect them. Feel free to interpret and leverage that knowledge however you like.
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