If you browse the internet and appreciate video games, then you’ve probably seen the hilariously terrifying glitches that tainted the launch of the first current-gen exclusive Assassin’s Creed title, Unity. Ubisoft has since released three updates and a couple of hotfixes to address the issues, but in an apology posted earlier today by CEO of Ubisoft Montreal and Toronto Yannis Mallat, consumers who purchased Unity and/or its Season Pass will be getting a little bit more in return.
If you picked up Unity for Xbox One or PS4, you’ll receive the upcoming campaign DLC Dead Kings as a bit of a make-up kiss. Following the events of Unity, Dead Kings has Arno visiting Saint Denis and its underground necropolis, and was previously included in the game’s Season Pass. Season Pass owners will still have access to Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China when it launches in 2015, but future sales of the Season Pass have been discontinued.
If you purchased the Season Pass however, Ubisoft is attempting to soften the blow by offering one of the following games for free: Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs, The Crew, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, Just Dance 2015, or Rayman Legends. In retrospect, buying the Season Pass was probably a good idea.
You can read the full apology right here at the official Assassin’s Creed website, which also has more info on how to redeem your free game if you’re a Season Pass owner.
Free games are all well and good, but it’s really just slapping a band-aid over an infected wound. Developers need to realize that it’s not okay to ship a game that shouldn’t have even made it out of beta. This year alone we’ve seen a plethora of supposed AAA releases launch in a broken state because developers know they can just “fix” it with a day one patch. If your game needs a day one patch, it’s not finished. You’re taking advantage of your consumers, which is (for lack of a better term) complete bullshit.
Bradley Keene is the Executive Editor here at What’s Your Tag?, generally handling news, reviews, public relations, and our social media communications on Facebook and Twitter. He’s an aspiring video game journalist, Baltimore native, and an on again/off again WoW player that blasphemously favors consoles over PC. As a Marylander, he naturally puts Old Bay on everything, loves the Orioles, drives aggressively, and says “son” too much. Contact him by e-mail at the address above, or follow him on Twitter.
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Reblogged this on The Geek/Gaming Life and commented:
The question is … too little, too late? UbiSoft has had a horrible string of games this year. Do you really think it’ll affect their future releases and thought processes or is this just a stop gap move to keep you coming back?
They really just seem to have this “we’ll apologize for our mistakes and that makes it all okay”, like they just need to whip out a rod of mentos and we’ll all forget.
Assassin’s Creed was broken way before this release but, that’s just my sour opinion towards them.
I totally agree that developers need to realize it’s not okay to release a half finished game & still charge us a not-so-half price. The greed is unbelievable nowadays.
This was one of the reasons I refuse to buy the next gen GTA 5. Considering their horrible PS3 launch loaded with online play issues, why would next gen be any different?
From what I hear, launch wasn’t as rocky but, STILL. Couldn’t they have just waited a few stupid months to release it on next gen?!
Of course not…they’d rather make money off of both.
It’s getting to the point where it just doesn’t make sense to buy a game on launch day anymore. If you look at the list of major releases this year, damn near all of them were plagued with launch issues. Watch Dogs suffered Uplay issues (and was mediocre as shit to begin with), Destiny is still suffering from server connectivity issues, Driveclub was broken for weeks, Halo still has matchmaking issues, Unity launched basically broken, NBA 2K15 has the exact same server issues that 2k Games apologized for last year but never fixed, GTA V’s current-gen port had save transfer woes at launch, WWE 2K15’s MyCareer mode was broken at launch, again, because of being forced to connect to unreliable 2K Games servers, and the only way to correct it on Xbox One was to disconnect your console from the internet. Not to mention it took Blizzard almost 2 weeks to iron out their Warlords of Draenor launch issues, although some of that had to do with outside DDoS attacks.
This was quite the disappointing year in terms of quality control.
It sounds even more depressing when you mention so many of them. It does seem to make more sense to wait. Besides, I still have a lot of older games I need to revisit.
Next gen won’t be truly next-gen until they can detach from scaling down graphics just so they can release on their last gen & current gen consoles simultaneously.
On a brighter side of things, being a game lover like yourselves…I highly recommend a little game called Never Alone. I’ll post the trailer if I can find it. (But I wouldn’t be surprised if one of you guys played it already – because you have good taste. 😉 )
It’s an indie game. It’s SO remarkably well done.
Here it is:
Yeah, we’ve been following Never Alone for a while now and Mileson picked it up to stream during the Hour of Power on Twitch. I haven’t picked it up yet, but it’s definitely on my radar. I’m always a sucker for games made in other parts of the world, and with so much emphasis on Alaskan folklore in its storytelling, it’s definitely a must-buy for me.. at some point lol. The end of this year completely ruined my wallet.
If you’re enjoying the game, we’d love to know why here in the comments =)
I love it because it’s so different from everything out there, yet it still plays well & is pleasing to the eye. Most of all, though, the storytellling must be mentioned.
The way they tell you this story is like you’re sitting there listening to your grandmother or grandfather tell you a story. The result is beautiful. It makes you feel.
If I really had to compare it to something, I’d say it’s like Papo & Yo, Journey, & Unfinished Swan had a baby.
Color me intruiged! My GOTY so far, A Story About My Uncle, is kind of like that. It’s a father telling his daughter a bed time story that’s about one of his crazy adventures trying to find his uncle in this fantastical space setting. So good.
Aww! I’m a sucker for games like that. There’s just nothing like a well-told story. 🙂
& That looks like Portal & Alice & Wonderland had a baby. I’m sold.
Such a solid game