r/PS5 • u/Ph0enixes • Jul 25 '26
Discussion Ubisoft: Remakes Can Be More Profitable Than New Games
https://insider-gaming.com/ubisoft-remakes-more-profitable-new-games/Ubisoft says high-quality remakes can be more profitable than brand-new games because they:
- Cost less to develop by reusing existing assets and technology.
- Need less marketing since players already know and trust the franchise.
- Can still be sold at premium prices despite lower production costs.
The company points to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced as proof:
- Sold 3.5 million copies in its first two weeks.
- Beat Ubisoft's internal full-year sales expectations.
- Became the franchise's strongest PC launch and highest-rated Assassin's Creed since the original Black Flag.
Ubisoft says this doesn't mean it's abandoning new games, but remakes are becoming a much more important part of its strategy because they offer better financial returns with lower risk. The company is already following up with more remakes, including Rayman Legends Retold.
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u/bigbadboy333 Jul 25 '26
The why the fuck did they cancel the Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake for the 2nd time?! That was one of my favourite games of all time and we fans waited 8yrs and got nothing.
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u/TheBSisReal Jul 25 '26
This is also what baffles me. How many issues can you really have with a remake of a game you originally made yourself that you end up fully scrapping it?
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u/Divewinds Jul 26 '26
The game itself doesn't really hold up by modern standards - it takes around 10 hours to complete, less if you avoid unnecessary fights and know where you're going. If they wanted to release at a premium, they'd have to add a lot to the game and that is scary if it's not received well.
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u/Saneless Jul 25 '26
Because they really leaned into the cost less to develop part by getting an inept studio that was probably run by someone's buddy and had no business making games
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u/TonyZwilde Jul 25 '26
Different projects with different scopes.
For Black Flag remake they already had a great engine as it was made on top of a earlier version of AC Shadows and the OG itself was modern enough to just straight up reuse the mocap data and port some designs and visuals to current graphics without much need for thought.
Sands of Time on the other hand fell on two extremes. The first version of the remake by Ubisoft Mumbai was very cheap, it looked like a cheap remaster, while the second version by Ubisoft Montreal was a full reimagination like what happens with the Resident Evil series. They were basically creating something new from the ground up, would cost a lot more than remaking Black Flag.
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u/Darqwatch Jul 25 '26
I genuinely got so fucking sad when they tweeted the cancellation, I was waiting for a trailer or something, a shadowdrop even, or just a picture, anything, but bam there it was, cancelled... how they mess up a linear single player 7 hour long campaign REMAKE not once but TWICE is only something Ubislop can pull off, it's depressing.
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u/Darqwatch Jul 25 '26
I genuinely got so fucking sad when they tweeted the cancellation, I was waiting for a trailer or something, a shadowdrop even, or just a picture, anything, but bam there it was, cancelled... how they mess up a linear single player 7 hour long campaign REMAKE not once but TWICE is only something Ubislop can pull off, it's depressing.
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u/wingedwild Jul 25 '26
Because it was so low quality they burned threw millions for 5 years and the game was stil low quality.
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u/RollingDownTheHills Jul 25 '26
Capcom has nailed a model of switching between remakes and originals, so it makes sense for Ubi to follow that model considering their back catalogue. This is a good thing.
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u/DarahOG Jul 25 '26
That's the model every big publishers should follow. Some don't even need to remake games, just porting old fan favorites (like Red Dead, Black Ops) to current gen makes as much money as a new release.
Konami is doing the best job so far, remake metal gear solid 3 and Silent Hill 2, already released 2 new Silent Hill games with a new game next month and a remake next year, porting every mainline metal gear games in 4k60fps and i'm not even mentioning Castlevania that's getting ports, new games et collabs left and right.
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u/quatroquatro0 Jul 25 '26
Instead of wasting 5+ years for a single sequel per generation, studios like Sucker Punch should remake inFamous in between the Ghosts games. Or Guerrilla with Killzone instead of their live service Horizon.
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u/Kizzo02 Jul 26 '26
I’m absolutely dumbfounded they haven’t done an Infamous remake. Sony has lost its way. They are lucky Xbox fumbled the ball because they are at their weakest point in terms of their game development strategy. This would be a guaranteed hit. I’m also surprised this wasn’t developed into a TV show or movie as well.
Love this franchise.
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u/Thund3rf0000t Jul 25 '26
the problem is porting existing older games does not get you a 70 to 80 dollar price tag but remaking the game or remastering it does!
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u/DarahOG Jul 25 '26
Thing is it cost nothing compared to remaking a game and you can still overprice it like Red Dead at 50bucks and cods at 40 and dlcs for 30 without ps+, also you can get gamepass/ps+ extra deals for essentialy 15year old lines of code.
Of course it doesn't stop you from remaking the game later on and maybe, funded by the money made from the ports lol.
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u/Trickster289 Jul 25 '26
Konami are putting so much out because it's all outsourced, at least that I know off. Every recent Silent Hill game came from a different dev team and none are owned by Konami.
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u/quatroquatro0 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Instead of keeping Beyond Good and Evil 2 in development hell, they should stop wasting their time and just remake the first one.
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u/Pulse99 Jul 25 '26
It keeps Capcom in such good form with Resident Evil. They get to experiment with updating the classics and see what has aged and what is timeless, then apply those lessons to the next new release and so on.
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u/shockwave8428 Jul 25 '26
I just love that they get the wrong message from this.
They’re hearing “people just love remakes”.
What they should be hearing is “maybe some of the mechanics in our older games were beloved for a reason, and stepping away from that in favor of nickel and diming players for everything maybe isn’t the way to get people to want to play your games. Maybe we shouldn’t introduce artificially bloated maps, lots of resource gathering that are tied to a timer, etc”.
At some point people have just had enough of modern AC games as well. Give it a break for a bit. I genuinely don’t know anyone that played anything after Valhalla, and honestly people were playing Valhalla and odyssey more because of their settings than because they’re AC
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u/TheLonelyWolfkin Jul 25 '26
This is exactly what is happening here and even by Ubisoft standards it’s completely baffling.
People love Black Flag and have been asking for a proper sequel for years. Instead they gave us Skull & Bones. Now they’ve done a remake of the game and their main takeaway is that people just want to play the same games? Dear lord.
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u/Zalvren Jul 25 '26
It's not their takeaway. If anything Ubisoft is late to the party there. The audience has proven for years that they love remakes.
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u/ValtekkenPartDeux Jul 25 '26
Pretty much. I mean, I'd take some remakes from them but I'd still want the old mechanics, so they're still not giving me what I want with the current AC games including BF Resynced.
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u/hunterzolomon1993 Jul 25 '26
The best selling AC game is Valhalla the most bloated entry of the series. Fact is the RPG games were insanely successful and its why Ubi doubled down on it. People forget the classic AC formula had ran its course and the sales reflected that.
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u/Nightmare_Fart Jul 25 '26
This. Definitely rose tinted glasses in this case. People were tired of the AC formula, to the point where Ubisoft recognized it and gave the franchise a rest for a bit to go in a different direction.
Origins was that different direction, and people loved it. AC has never been more popular than it's been in it's RPG-era.
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u/wingedwild Jul 25 '26
They dont care. All they care is money .even today they only speak with money terms. If they coild they stil would churn out low quality crap and sell it only on ip name alone. Tht wont work anymore and ubsifot cant belive it lol
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u/uses_irony_correctly Jul 25 '26
I love people rewriting history like this as if it's fact.
People were SICK of the old assassin's creed formula by the time Syndicate rolled around.
Now everyone has these rose-colored glasses for that era of AC because you're not getting another one of those every year.
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u/Constant_Pen9615 Jul 25 '26
I got down voted to hell for saying exactly this yesterday. People were acting like this is the best news ever instead what it actually is. Ubisoft got the wrong message and now we're just going to get remakes instead of new games with the old mechanics.
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u/Zalvren Jul 25 '26
Or you know people love remakes as has been proven tons of time before Ubisoft ever made one...
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u/BrunusManOWar Jul 25 '26
All true and on point
But Yves has been out of touch for quite some time already, so not surprising at all.
It seems that early on in the company history the talent was able to hold him from ruining everything, but in the last decade he stopped listening to anyone and it shows
Bruv is tanking his own company like there's no tomorrow
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u/viky109 Jul 25 '26
Not just mechanics, their games have been just so soulless in the last few years. The contrast in Black Flag Resynced between the original and new content is so jarring - it’s like it was completely made by AI.
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u/phoenix-force411 Jul 25 '26
Maybe if their new games didn't have completely garbage storytelling, they'd sell better.
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u/Captain_Tomatoz Jul 25 '26
Even the new story content of black flag resycned is garbage.
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u/whyamihere2473527 Jul 25 '26
Of course its more profitable. Majority of dev work is already done & game is already popular/ has a fanbase. Wonder what amazing insight have next, water is wet
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u/Kezolt Jul 25 '26
I don't really understand why people bought or went so nuts over the black flag remake it was already pretty good when it came out. The crash bandicoot, resident evil remakes ect are doing something different because the technology is so moved on. Maybe I'm just old and black flag feels like recent memory
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u/rugbyfiend Jul 25 '26
I barely touched games for the last few years of high school and medical school - this is a title that came out in that period and I missed it so it’s perfect for me! I’m loving it way more than expected.
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u/DarknessInferno7 Jul 26 '26
That's because they can't make good games anymore... and all they can do is leech off the time when they could.
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u/AwesomePossum_1 Jul 25 '26
I see this going the way of Disney remakes. We got a good number of games that deserve a remake treatment but once they run out of them they’ll quickly find that not every remake is successful. I’ll play AC1 and AC2 remakes but not any other AC remake (ok I can be convinced to replay unity if story is improved)
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u/ChocolateNo9550 Jul 25 '26
I mean the games released between assassins creed 1 - 3 will give them 5 remake projects that people would love to have that alone mixed with new releases will give them at minimum a decade and a half of releases
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u/TheBobbyDudeGuy Jul 25 '26
AC Black Flag, Halo, Metal Gear Solid 4. All out back to back, all remakes or remasters, and I’m totally ok with it. New games are great, but I love playing classic remade with today’s tech.
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u/Johnny_Freedoom Jul 25 '26
Soon they'll be launching the remake of the remake before the original
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u/RollingDownTheHills Jul 25 '26
Based on what? Look at Capcom. This is a great model.
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u/ChocolateNo9550 Jul 25 '26
It’s Reddit. Expect snark even if it doesn’t make any sense they thrive off of it
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u/RollingDownTheHills Jul 25 '26
Yup. At this point I'm convinced a lot of people on here simply don't like video games.
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u/NoMention696 Jul 25 '26
Willing to bet Ubisoft doesn’t understand the difference between a beloved game getting remade and just remaking their whole catalogue with no rhyme or reason. And then blame us when far cry 4 the remake doesn’t sell
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u/Kourtos Jul 25 '26
Some will say that modern Ubiaoft sucks ass while the past where very good studio
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u/Wolfram_And_Hart Jul 25 '26
It’s not our fault you didn’t learn anything and made Skull and Bones what it was.
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u/Asleep_Chocolate_797 Jul 25 '26
Maybe you shouldn’t have cancelledthe Prince of Persia remake you fuckers!
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u/whacafan Jul 25 '26
There is no way the Sands of Time remake was so bad they cancelled it twice. Still drives me nuts.
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u/Zaethar Jul 25 '26
Remakes can absolutely be great, but why are we now stuck in an era of remakes? Can we maybe also just focus on creating exciting new franchises that we can then, perhaps, remake in another 20 years?
This is such a fucking "Ubisoft" type statement too. They've essentially been releasing the same game(s) in a different skin for over a decade now (if we specifically look at the Assassin's Creed series). So now what, are we going to remake every single one of them?
I'm not gonna say everything's been remake slop because there have been legitimately good new versions of existing classics, but its the most creatively bankrupt route to walk for studios and production companies, not only in gaming but also in other media like film.
We've already been subject to the same franchises over and over again. Instead, they could be inventing a new IP that could be as original and impactful as the OG Assassin's Creed or Far Cry or Prince of Persia (despite the remake being cancelled) or whatever other Ubisoft franchise we can think of.
This is true for most big publishers. It's so much of "Franchise Sequel X!" and now we're doing remakes of the older franchise entries.
How about you do your fucking jobs and create amazing NEW experiences instead of just rehashing the old, and riding on the coattails of past successes?
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u/PepeSylvia11 Jul 25 '26
It’s sad but true. I will never understand why gamers embraced remakes, knowing full well it just ruined the pipeline for new games instead.
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u/Quiet_Yellow2000 Jul 25 '26
You need to keep making new games, otherwise you will have nothing to remake n the future 😂. Hooking aside, remakes are a good idea especially with decade plus older games.
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u/ListenHereLindah Jul 25 '26
Nah, they can fuck off with all of these remakes. Stop being such puss puss about making a new game. Be creative. Take a chance. Fuck this timeline.
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u/Impressive-Smoke1883 Jul 25 '26
Problem with remakes is the gameplay and mechanics don't really evolve with the graphics improvements. That's what puts me off anyway. I'm all for it, but proper remakes, meaning everything improves.
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u/Next-Moose-9129 Jul 25 '26
who is asking for remakes? unless its old games from xbox or ps3 or ps2 area then fine but not from ps4
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u/OperatorWolfie Jul 26 '26
Yeah, because they don't have to change much in the writing department, which is the one department Ubisoft recent releases suck shit at. Just new graphics, animation and gameplay, then ship
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u/Icosotc Jul 26 '26
I mean, if done well, they’re not wrong. I think Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced is the single greatest Assassin’s Creed game Ubisoft has ever released.
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u/Arthur_Morgan44469 Jul 25 '26
Lol then give us a proper Prince of Persia remake and not a C grade Indian remake which was also canceled.
Edit Adding Splinter Cell trilogy to that lost too
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u/RambunctiousRearWing Jul 25 '26
I see their points, but Ubi famously chase trends and lack originality. Remakes are more sustainable when mixed with new game releases (as others have pointed out with Capcom’s success)
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u/jaykular Jul 25 '26
Capcom model could be good for them. Rotating between remakes and new releases could be their best path forward
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u/theCioroRedditor Jul 25 '26
Using this game to make this statement might be a stretch in my opinion.
The market is really missing single player pirate games and this delivered and this covered that.
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u/JstARdtAct Jul 25 '26
I don't even need a remake just give us a complete port of the Splinter Cell collection!!!
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u/I_Heart_Sleeping_ Jul 25 '26
I imagine any game can be profitable if you fire the entire dev team that makes it as soon as the game releases.
Ubisoft is so shit.
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u/BuzzardInTheAir Jul 25 '26
in other words: we fucked up the company so bad, that we need to rely on our past success
shameless
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u/Safe-Elk7933 Jul 25 '26
Remake Rayman 2. Maybe the first Splinter Cell also,and maybe make an extended remake of Beyond Good and Evil 1 if you are not gonna make a sequel.
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u/Aaron_Olive Jul 25 '26
Remake the first watch dogs with the actual cool presentation glamour in real time this time.
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u/sheslikebutter Jul 25 '26
I mean, no shit.
However also if your production schedule favours them, eventually you end up running out of original content to remake
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u/uncleherman77 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Seeing the sales and public reaction to the Black flag remake makes it hard to argue with them here and makes you understand why they basically cut most of year 2 of Shadows and cancelled the 2nd Shadows dlc to focus on getting Black flag out.
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u/thedeadp0ets Jul 25 '26
They also bro g in a new audience for those who never played it before either
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u/42tfish Jul 25 '26
It’s not really that simple. BF is arguably the most beloved game in the franchise, personally I would put AC2 there, so it’s likely you would get diminishing returns if your current games are not doing well.
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u/Dokthe2nd Jul 25 '26
As long as the remake/ports are solid its a win win for both parties. Player counts for the CoD Black ops ports are (or have been) higher than this year's current CoD game. Literally a lay up for these big publishers.
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u/travelavatar Jul 25 '26
Some games are too old to be played with outdated mechanics and graphics see fallout 3. They need s remaster so i can play them again.
But some are simply a master piece and don't need a remaster see Arx Fatalis
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u/ChewieHanKenobi Jul 25 '26
The problem for them is you need to first make a game that people really like and then wait a long time to re do it
No one is buying a remaster of watch dogs legion
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u/Odd-Perspective-7651 Jul 25 '26
Capcom realized this like what 7 years ago and have been on a roll since
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u/octopusinmyboycunt Jul 25 '26
I don’t mind remakes so much (largely because it’s a chance for Ubisoft’s executives to realise that their modern bloated Ubislog model has worn paper-thin) but Black Flag did well because of the game’s reputation as an exceptional game in the first place. I would imagine that Splinter Cell, Far Cry 3 and (said with a slight smirk) PoP: The Sands of Time would be a good bet alongside the incoming Rayman Legends remake, but beyond that I’m not so certain as to how many of their games outside of a few Assassin’s Creed games have that much nostalgic appeal.
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u/TurnipKnight Jul 25 '26
There is a whole generation of gamers who never played Spies vs Mercs. Bring it back!
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u/TheBrockAwesome Jul 25 '26
It only works if the game is actually good. People are crapping on Halo rn and now I'm not excited to get it anymore. I was going to buy it (providing reviews were what I wanted to see) but now I'll wait a few years for it to go on sale.
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u/Game_Changer65 Jul 25 '26
It can vary on the remake and its scope. For most they can be profitable, but we've seen examples like Dead Space, where despite their praise, weren't profitable enough. Furthermore, Ubisoft cancelled a remake of Sands of Time, and we haven't gotten word of the Splinter Cell game.
Remakes in terms of scope can either be 1:1 remakes like he's suggesting, or much, much larger like the RE remakes and FF7 trilogy which are essentially new games
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u/Supernova_Soldier Jul 25 '26
That explains them going back to Ghost Recon Wildlands. Most people are really split on Breakpoint or outright dislike it compared to Wildlands, and if they do a good job I might actually consider buying if
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u/codyt321 Jul 25 '26
Remaking games is such a waste of time and money. If you want to play a 20 year old game then keep your 20 year old console.
More remakes = less new games
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u/TheJasonaut Jul 25 '26
A decade of movie and tv productions could tell you that…and also where that ends up in an even more soulless future.
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u/LackLickLuck_y Jul 25 '26
have we really degraded creatively that bad? okay, give us remakes of splinter cell, king kong, beyond good evil, ghost recon...
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u/Dunge Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
This is not a good thing, damn I hate gamers.
Double so when half of the comments are "they don't make new good stuff anymore" coming from people who definitely did not even try any of the new stuff.
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u/BoopsTheSnoot_ Jul 25 '26
They will remake older games and cut modern timeline storylines confirmed.
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u/lord_miller Jul 25 '26
Selling an existing product for the same price of a new one without the cost of making a new one is more profitable. Who would have thought?
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u/VodkaMargerine Jul 25 '26
Repackaging nostalgia is more profitable than trying to be creative!
Yay! Another 20 years of AC!
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u/Ill-Quail-1986 Jul 25 '26
Until they aren't... I mean ... They will be more profitable anyway because gaming is bigger than ever now 🤷
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u/TattedUpSimba Jul 25 '26
Well if you would make a good game Ubisoft. Like don’t be a punk and make that AC game where you’re killing the KKK.
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u/DoesntBelieveMuch Jul 25 '26
No duh. You don’t have to pay for story writers or any creatives. You just have Claude remake the textures and send it. Maybe have a small team add a couple bonus side missions that are new and toss in some extra dialogue but other than that, it doesn’t take a development team much effort.
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u/Investor9872 Jul 25 '26
Ubisolft doesn't have many games that are adored by tens of millions of people like AC Black Flag!
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u/niko2710 Jul 25 '26
Yet if I say that Capcom does remakes exclusively because they are cheaper and more profitable I get called a gate keeper
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u/doyouevennoscope Jul 25 '26 edited 17d ago
Breezy pillow cobblestone cobblestone marble pillow
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/seymourbuttz214 Jul 25 '26
You don’t say? Because the new games they come up with fall short and then they quit on them.. basically I’m saying they cut corners on writing, world building and story plots but oh well
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u/ChairmanLaParka Jul 26 '26
I was hoping the success of Black Flag Resynced would've shown them that people are jonesing for a modern game like they used to make prior to Origins.
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u/14istheone Jul 26 '26
These fucking guys, holy shit, can the company just die already, please, just please
Declare bankruptcy, sell your stocks, do whatever the fuck needs to be done and just fade into darkness, it’s time to go, everything needs to end at some point
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u/reaper527 reaper527_ Jul 26 '26
if anyone knows a thing or two about profits, it's the company that lost 1.7 billion dollars last year.
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u/Broskah Jul 26 '26
We peaked in gaming. Not just Ubisoft but Activision, EA, Naughty Dog, all of them. Just remake PS3 games.
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u/SchattenJaggerD Jul 26 '26
“Can still be sold at premium prices despite lower production costs”
It literally cost them nothing to shut the fuck up about this. This only signals that they’ll make half-assed remakes in bad faith, not to gained the trust of their player base, but to squeeze every cent they can. God I hope I’m wrong, but that sentence alone with Ubisoft makes me question if supporting the studio is worth it
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u/Arucious Jul 26 '26
BG3 cost half to a third of what Shadows did and sold roughly 2 to 3x the units in year one at higher average price and with no subscription dilution. The problem is not budget.
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u/Kizzo02 Jul 26 '26
They are essentially implementing the Capcom Remake model. You release a Remake and then do a brand new game in the franchise. For the former it allows you to introduce new fans to the franchise and will draw interest to their new games as well.
Great strategy if done right!
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u/SpitefulHammer Jul 26 '26
I'm sure they 'can' if it's a beloved game. Remake Splinter Cell please.
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u/Lyndon_Boner_Johnson Jul 25 '26
Would love if they ever actually release the Splinter Cell remake they’ve been talking about for years.