• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

[Sarcasm] Ubisoft really honors early adopters.

unicornKnight

unicornKnight

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,205
Athens, Greece
So Assassin's Creed Odyssey is on sale right now on Xbox One, Gold Edition is on sale too, same as Ultimate Edition. You know what isn't discounted? Season pass. The same season pass that is included in both Ultimate and Gold Editions.
If you have a gold subscription you can buy Gold Edition for 33$ but even if you don't you can buy it for 40$, 60$ off the regular 100$. That's the same price that season pass alone costs. For someone like me who bought the standard edition day one, that's a big fuck you in the face. The best scenario for me now would be to purchase digital gold edition and sell my retail standard game - of course had I bought the game digital I wouldn't even have this option.
I know what most of you will say "you should have waited, it's your fault, blahblah". Yeah don't worry I know it's my decision, I am just saying that these policies only set a bad precedent and harm the industry in the long run. It was the first time I bough a Ubisoft game day one because I really wanted to play it and I have no regrets, I fully enjoyed it. But still it's disappointing to see this stance and that was the point of the thread.

Will I buy a Ubisoft game again day one? Not sure, will have to double / triple think about it.
 
Astra Planeta

Astra Planeta

Member
Jan 26, 2018
668
every publisher does this. its been like 6 months. you said yourself you really wanted to play it day 1 and really enjoyed it. what is the issue?
 
TheJackdog

TheJackdog

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,644
this seems pretty typical.

and honestly i dont mind it. gamepass/games on sale allow a lower entry point to create sales for DLC and other things. its pretty common
 
bombshell

bombshell

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,927
Denmark
Ubisoft is not alone with pathetic differentiation in their DLC pricing. Digital prices on the games themselves have come a long way, but DLC pricing still need to improve.
 
Mullet2000

Mullet2000

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,909
Toronto
Ubisoft in particular is really bad about this. They always heavily discount gold editions but are much more inconsistent with discounting the season pass.
 

Yamajian

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,148
Early adopters provide the best profit margins. Why reward them when you don't have to? To early adopters, the reward is being able to play first. They are happy to pay that premium to do so.
 
Abudiix

Abudiix

Member
Sep 8, 2018
1,116
Malmö, Sweden
Astra Planeta said:
every publisher does this. its been like 6 months. you said yourself you really wanted to play it day 1 and really enjoyed it. what is the issue?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I was thinking the same. Every game goes on sale after a while and I don't think they are not fair because you chose to play it day one and like other publishers they do sales. It's the same with black ops 4 and most games
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
43,663
That's why I always buy the edition with the season pass if I'm buying day 1 (really rare event tho)
 

Deleted member 1759

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,582
Europe
I'm still waiting for a good price for AC Origins gold edition. I've got plenty of patience (usually).

But I had the same issue with Mafia 3. That fucking season pass just never got a good enough discount.
 

Deleted member 10629

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,238
Paying full price on Ubi stuff is just an early adopter tax (and I preordered The Division 2!)

It is better to just wait a few months for the gold edition to be at 50%
 
Futterish

Futterish

Half of F-Squared
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
85
There are usually two things at play when games get deep discounts. At retail, it's based on how the publisher handles the channel. Ubisoft has tended to flood the channel. This brings them in large up-front revenues, but requires larger "reserve" concessions. These expenses usually get buried down the line and they don't have a ton of material impact (except in the case of something like Starlink, which failed to sell well at retail at all).

The other reason for primarily single-player games with minimal MTX to see deep discounts is the "Decay curve." These are modeled for every release, and publishers time sales and discounts to spike uptake when sales taper off to a predetermined point. Games with stronger tails (and therefore less decay) don't see sales quite as often or quite as deep.

Ultimately, as a game consumer, you have to know what you're getting into. Games WILL drop in price. Some franchises WILL get complete collections (something to keep in mind if you are planning to get MK11 this week). As a consumer, you needed to decide what's more important: playing early or playing cheaper. Either answer is fine, but make that decision with information and stand by it. Don't blame a publisher for executing on a business model that exists across industries (not just this one) that allows them to earn enough revenue from franchises to keep them alive for future iterations.
 

Deleted member 23475

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
662
Isn't Battlefront 2 from EA at 6£ currently or something? Isn't the game a very different one today than it was at launch?

No offence but these are AAA games today, they are for most live service games with many updates, this is just the AAA market mostly.
You could even say that why bother paying if you wait just a bit to have some in gamepass if you are on Xbox or for free if you use a gold, PSN+ membership or even the epic store.
 
ckareset

ckareset

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt account
Banned
Feb 2, 2018
4,977
It's not ubisoft. It's everyone. Day 1 purchases are bad business
 
Qwark

Qwark

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,038
Ah, now you have me thinking I should buy the season pass on PSN now that it's 40% off. I got the base game for Christmas, but haven't played it yet. I plan to eventually but I wasn't going to get the season pass anytime soon. Ack, now I don't know what to do, it's only on sale for another 18 minutes.
 
Aaron D.

Aaron D.

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,337
PaladinXII said:
There are usually two things at play when games get deep discounts. At retail, it's based on how the publisher handles the channel. Ubisoft has tended to flood the channel. This brings them in large up-front revenues, but requires larger "reserve" concessions. These expenses usually get buried down the line and they don't have a ton of material impact (except in the case of something like Starlink, which failed to sell well at retail at all).

The other reason for primarily single-player games with minimal MTX to see deep discounts is the "Decay curve." These are modeled for every release, and publishers time sales and discounts to spike uptake when sales taper off to a predetermined point. Games with stronger tails (and therefore less decay) don't see sales quite as often or quite as deep.

Ultimately, as a game consumer, you have to know what you're getting into. Games WILL drop in price. Some franchises WILL get complete collections (something to keep in mind if you are planning to get MK11 this week). As a consumer, you needed to decide what's more important: playing early or playing cheaper. Either answer is fine, but make that decision with information and stand by it. Don't blame a publisher for executing on a business model that exists across industries (not just this one) that allows them to earn enough revenue from franchises to keep them alive for future iterations.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Great post.

Typically if I have to be there Day One, I fully know what I'm getting into. I've decided that my time is more valuable than my money, and that's okay.

There's lots of titles I wait on for the right (discounted) price. But there are some franchises and devs I enjoy so much that I'm fine with paying full price up front. Like I've already got Imperator: Rome pre-ordered 'cause I'm an unabashed PDX fanboy.

Nothing wrong with either approach.
 
MrWindUpBird

MrWindUpBird

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,686
I'm sure you have acknowledged it but honestly don't buy games day one, especially from these massive publishers. They all do this stuff, capitalize on your frwr of missing out so you pay the maximum on day one, then get the heavy discounts rolling a few months down the line. Odyssey came out in October and in the PlayStation flash sale over the weekend, you could get the base game for $20. It's been a long time that being a day 1 adopter has been a bad deal.
 
The Spoony Hou

The Spoony Hou

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,938
Brazil
unicornKnight said:
That would sure make me look like an idiot.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I wouldn't worry about that. Your point is that everything should go on sale at the same time. I'm an hypothetical situation where the whole pack is a better deal, you could give in and buy the ultimate gold champion edition now, and next week they discount the season pass and you feel like an even bigger idiot.

By staggering the sales they are hoping people will double dip, which is a pretty disgusting tactic.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
43,663
Qwark said:
Ah, now you have me thinking I should buy the season pass on PSN now that it's 40% off. I got the base game for Christmas, but haven't played it yet. I plan to eventually but I wasn't going to get the season pass anytime soon. Ack, now I don't know what to do, it's only on sale for another 18 minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's a great value, you get AC III Remaster with it
 
The_Land

The_Land

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,390
Cleveland Ohio
I mean it's common knowledge to not buy single player games at launch in 2019 because they will be half off or more very soon after release. The only exception being Nintendo games. That is why anyone pre ordering or getting Rage 2 day 1 is nuts! That game is the perfect example of something that will be heavily discounted weeks or even days after launch.
 
KillerDark

KillerDark

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,301
This happens for almost every game/publisher, not just Ubisoft. Even waiting a couple weeks can usually save you money on games.
 
Hella

Hella

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,411
i actually just bought acoo today, and the pricing is bananas.

basic: $32 (just the game edition)
deluxe: $33 (game and "weapon pack" edition)
gold: $43 (game and season pass)
ultimate: $49 (all of the above-- game, season pass, and weapon pack)

season pass alone: $50

acoo + aco double pack (just the game editions): ~$60

some of them include 3-days early access which of course hasn't applied since the game released.


also im pretty sure i got robbed, as the season pass is supposed to include liberations hd, but everything except the season pass feature list does not mention this.
 
Last edited:
Baccus

Baccus

Banned
Dec 4, 2018
5,307
I mean, the base Odyssey disk has more content than any other single player game I can recall this gen. If you paid $60 for it and only it, it shouldn't feel like Ubi cheated you or something,

You know what you're getting into when you buy an Ubi game at launch.

Luckily they support their games so well you never feel like you got ripped off.
 
CloseTalker

CloseTalker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,767
I actually had this exact issue with AC Origins, the Gold Edition kept going on deep discount, but the season pass on it's own almost never did. It was super frustrating, and I really couldn't see the business angle for it (as a buyer of the regular edition, I'm more than willing to buy a discounted season pass, but I'm obviously not going to rebuy the entire game). Luckily the Origins season pass did eventually go on sale, but it took a long ass time. With Odyssey, I just bought the Gold Edition at launch, and I don't regret it. The season pass has insane value with the added content and remasters, and the game has more than $100 of quality content there for me.
 
Lowrys

Lowrys

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,430
London
Season passes and DLC usually stay at full price considerably longer than the base game, because the content comes out later and they want to maximize standalone sales of the additional content. This is true of most publishers.
 
LuisGarcia

LuisGarcia

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
3,478
FFS people really will moan about anything these days. Just buy the season pass if you want it. Or don't.

Just because you purchased the standard edition at launch doesn't mean Uni owe you a sale of the season pass. Especially when their big DLC is about to arrive.
 
tomd96

tomd96

Member
Jul 6, 2018
198
I didn't buy Odyssey at release because I knew Ubisoft would discount it significantly within a month or so (Black Friday) and I had a good price for my Red Dead pre-order, plus a Game Pass deal (£1 for 1 month) lined up for Forza Horizon 4 so it made sense to wait.

When Black Friday sales came around, as expected Odyssey was discounted, and I had planned to buy the Gold Edition. However, the PC version that I wanted had a weird discount compared with consoles. The PS4 and Xbox versions were about £20 cheaper than the PC - basically, the PC standard edition was about £25, and the Gold was just that plus the normal cost of the season pass (something like £67 before the 20% Uplay points discount for the PC Gold and £48 for the consoles). So I just bought the standard and decided to wait for the season pass to go on sale - I didn't mind waiting a few months.

I didn't actually end up starting the game until mid-December, two days before Ubi's holiday sale when they applied a much better discount to the Gold Edition - if I'd waited I would have effectively been able to get the season pass included in the PC Gold Edition for about £8 more than I bought the base game for at Black Friday. Since then, the Gold has been on sale for that same price a number of times but the season pass hasn't budged. I have plenty to keep me going until it finally goes on sale, and in the end it should work out for me because I can just treat the whole paid DLC bundle as my 2019 AC game, but it still doesn't feel like great treatment of their customers.
 
udivision

udivision

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,034
People who can afford a 60 dollar game and those who can only pay 20 both get to play the game. Everyone wins.
 

Deleted member 679

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,741
This was very common with FFXV as well, I just gave up and will eventually replay it on PC with all the DLC when I end up double dipping for that version.

It does suck, but at the end of the day it'll lead to money saved for me. If I think there's even a chance I'll be interested in the season pass down the line, but not enough to get the expensive edition now, there's absolutely 0 reason for me to buy a game with "deluxe editions" and stuff like that day one.

I just wait on a lot more games and buy them cheaper, or just lose interest before they get cheap enough and end up saving even more money.
 
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,044
UK
Lashley said:
Usually pays to wait tbf, it's not just Ubisoft.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This

The industry is set up so as early adopters get screwed

Pay a premium to play the unpatched inferior day 1 version with no DLC, or play it 6 months later for half the price will all the DLC included

If only people would stop blindly preordering, maybe they would have an incentive to change
 
Sheepinator

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
28,064
A lot of people are missing the point. It's not that game prices go down. That's common, especially with Ubi and EA. The point is that they put huge discounts on the Gold/Ultimate editions over and over while rarely giving a discount for the DLC so the day one buyers can get a deal.

There was a similar issue with Trials Fusion. The game offered a season pass, total price for game plus season pass $40. That was 6 DLC's. Great deal, no complaints there. In July 2015 they came out with a final DLC called Awesome Level Max for $10. It's been on sale 1 time on PS4, in August 2018 over 3 years after release, where it dropped from $10 to $7. Meanwhile the edition which includes the game + season pass + Awesome Level Max has gone on sale 22 times, for as little as $12. The message is, if you're a late buyer we're happy to get your business at any price, but if you're an early buyer then enjoy paying full price for everything.

P.S. I got AC Odyssey Gold Edition on Uplay a few weeks ago for $26. That was the regular price $33 with a 20% code for 100 points.
 
Kage Maru

Kage Maru

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,804
You always carry a risk of paying more by being an early adopter, this is nothing new. I much rather Ubisoft give great deals at sales than not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.