E3 2018: Ubisoft

There was no one presentation during the Ubisoft conference that blew me away like the Sea of Solitude speech in EA's briefing or the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer in Microsoft's presser, but Ubisoft may have put on my favourite show so far. When the publisher had a game they wanted to talk about, they mostly made sure we saw footage of that game or had gotten to play a version of it elsewhere. They didn't make a habit of dropping potentially deceptive trailers and then letting our imaginations run away with us or giving us only the smallest crumbs of footage for each of these games. We got to take a hard, long stare at their titles which went some way to letting us verify the promises they were making about them. This E3, they showed us gameplay footage for Trials Rising, The Division 2, Skull & Bones, and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. The Crew 2, For Honor, and Rainbow Six Siege are already games we've had the chance to play, and there will be another opportunity to demo The Crew 2 before it releases as well the chance to get a version of For Honor for free. As for Just Dance 2019, that series is a known quantity which isn't going to vary all that much from year to year and so we don't need to see it. Ubisoft put less behind closed doors and more out in the open; out where we are.

There were some other wonderful touches on this press conference. Twice we got to see women developers talking about the games they'd created, and the Donkey Kong rock medley brought an elating live music component to the stage in a way that spoke to the games rather than distracting from them. A musical number intended to embody the spirit of a game might turn out to be inaccurate to the experience of playing it, but this was the composer for the game using actual Donkey Kong music. It related directly to what they were presenting, and it reminded me of the orchestral renditions of famous video game tracks that Nintendo and Sony had performed at their conferences in the past. If there's space for an orchestra playing soundtracks at E3, there's space for a rock band.

Ubisoft also felt like they wanted to connect more directly with us as an audience. Not that they were the only company putting out free games, but giving us trials of titles or just giving them away is not just hospitable but makes for a more informed consumer going ahead. That desire to involve their communities also came through in them having top Trials level creators working on the new entry in the series, in them promoting their Rainbow Six Siege tournaments, and in their response to criticism of The Division 1. More than any other announcement though, it was the news that they would incorporate community art into Beyond Good & Evil 2 which broke down the barrier between devs and fans. Yet, this decision is also ethically fraught.

That art is being crowd-sourced via Joseph Gordon-Levitt's new media production company HitRecord. But in Gordon-Levitt's description of the Beyond Good & Evil project, we weren't informed of any intent of his company to pay artists who contribute to the game. The impression was that Ubisoft get your labour to help them make mega-bucks and you get nothing. However, not only will HitRecord be paying artists whose work is featured in Beyond Good & Evil, but Gordon-Levitt also intended to announce this during the conference, publicly admitted it was a "huge oversight" and a "fuck up", and explained that the news about them paying creators was probably dropped from the conference script during last-minute edits. Gordon-Levitt shows a respect for smaller artists and a degree of receptiveness to fan criticism that is rare for someone in his position, yet, this still doesn't mean that submitting to HitRecord will get you a fair shake. We know that artists whose work is included in the game will be compensated, but there have been no announced plans to pay creators whose work does not end up getting picked. Some observers have asked how this is any different than actors not getting paid for auditions, but firstly, maybe actors should get paid for auditions, they're still performing labour. Secondly, as Austin Walker explained on Twitter, unlike someone auditioning for a part, these artists would be committing to completing full projects and handing them in only to find that they weren't getting paid. They are likely also signing over their rights to their work which puts them at a disadvantage because they might otherwise be able to sell that work. If it just sits as an unaccepted entry on a Ubisoft database, it helps no one. If you're still unconvinced that HitRecord could put artists in a difficult position, read the responses under Austin's tweet.

Before we finish, let's take some time to drill down further into some of the games shown. It does strike me that The Division 2 is following in the footsteps of Far Cry 5 as a game posturing as though it's going to make incisive political points but then backing off before it can cause any controversy. While we're here, it's still amazing to me that The Division 1, a party-based loot shooter released in 2016 didn't have raids. I'm very expectant for Skull & Bones because there aren't enough pirate video games. I understand why there aren't: Firearms during the golden age of piracy were relatively crude, ships are not highly manoeuvrable vehicles, and the ocean is an expanse of nothing, but weirder games have been developed, and pirates love violence and loot, the two legs which hold up the body of AAA games. When Ubisoft showed Skull & Bones this year, it looked like a project that had grown beyond the clone of the Black Flag combat that was its original demo into a piece of software with more of its own personality. Likely, Ubisoft started by working off of the Black Flag engine and needed some time to produce new systems and assets.

Starlink: Battle for Atlas is a toys-to-life game coming out after the workspace for such products has been wiped clean. If even the toys-to-life title that used figurines of Disney characters couldn't remain afloat, it's hard to see how Ubisoft won't capsize doing the same thing with an original IP. However, many games find more depth when they allow us to combine play elements and Starlink looks to be bringing that concept to the toys-to-life genre. It also makes sense that Nintendo would lend some of their characters to the project because from the Super Scope to the Wii to Labo, they've long been about integrating real-world objects with video games. Lastly, we have Assassin's Creed: Odyssey which is visiting perhaps my ideal time and place in history but looks like it's not straying far from what Origins did. I wonder if Odyssey is to Origins as Brotherhood was to II, using the same engine and play to allow Ubisoft to push out an annual sequel quickly and buying time until they can develop a more original Assassin's Creed. Ubisoft can probably get away relatively unscathed doing that once, but I wouldn't try it again; Assassin's Creed: Revelations got slapped on the wrist for exactly that.

All the companies at E3 have the difficult task of conveying a sense of what it's like to play their games over a medium that can't directly express the feel of that play. However, sometimes a presentation can work in tandem with the play experiences we've already had, and when we can't play a game, showing another person doing so is the next best thing. Ubisoft leveraged those facts in this press conference. I'm not going to say every one of their games was a winner because all press conferences are going to be hit-and-miss, but I'm a big fan of the transparency Ubisoft displayed this year. Thanks for reading.