Ubisoft Hails Extended Average Playing Time As A Standard Of Success

Every AAA aficionado is familiar with the giant Ubisoft. The large team of developers is acknowledged for pumping out concurrent AAA titles. They are known for immersive worlds like Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, and the Far Cry series. It’s fair to claim that no other studio can match Ubisoft at crafting AAA titles so consecutively. Ubisoft has deepened its root all over the world through different branches. Conceivably that keeps them working on multiple AAA titles at once. 

However, the concurrency comes with a price. The lack of innovation in their titles is quite apparent and makes their newer installments appear stale. Ubisoft has been prone to criticisms regarding this issue. They are recognized for following a safe-formula policy. Ubisoft is not a studio that likes to experiment or take risks. Another point worthy of notice is that their recent titles have grown larger. The growth is claimed to be in harmony with profit. The end goal for significant game companies always appears to be profit.

Ubisoft Associates Extended Player Time Leading To More Profit

Colossal games unaffectedly require more time to indulge and explore said worlds. Phil Spencer has associated more player count with an increase in profit. The scope of a game also plays a factor, alongside the accessibility of that title and its reach. Ubisoft has been promoting swelling playing times at least since 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins. It coincides with its games getting more prominent and taking longer to complete.

According to Stephen Totilo, Ubisoft cites that Far Cry 6 players disbursed more time, on average, in that title than the player base spent in Far Cry 5. They also noted that the average playing time in Ubisoft‘s Riders Republic was analogized to that studio’s preceding title. For both these titles, it is also cited that players have spent more bucks on extra content after the beginning procures of the game.

Bottom line: it's pretty clear that Ubisoft sees a correlation between longer playing times and higher in-game spending.

So I assume the games will remain long and be loaded with extras to buy in them. pic.twitter.com/FzzLJ2frKc

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) February 18, 2022

The chart in the tweet further clarifies how Ubisoft focuses on crafting more extensive and immersive worlds. It keeps players engaged, so more in-game cash spent leads to further profits. Whether this business model is better for gamers or not is an argument on its own. As the worlds of Assassin’s Creed series have expanded, Ubisoft has provided the players with more in-game outfits and items that cost real money. DLCs have also been a part of growing up on the original campaigns, keeping the player base more engaged with titles.

Stephen Totilo’s Interview With Phil Spencer

During Stephen’s interview with Phil Spencer, Phil elaborated. “I love the Forza 5 and Halo stats…I love how many people played Psychonauts 2 vs. Psychonauts 1. So, when I look at the teams when Todd and I talk about Starfield, it’s: ‘How do we make sure this is the most-played Todd Howard game ever?‘”

Accessibility has also been the main focus for game studios. Phil discussed the accessibility of prominent titles and how it affects the player base. “I honestly mean… you can see it with Forza and Halo the last releases. Those are the most played games in those franchises because we made them available on more screens than we ever have, through more business models than we’ve ever made them available.”

All in all, more and more game studios are shifting towards this business model. In my opinion, AAA games can be affected negatively if this model is not executed perfectly. For instance, when game studios focus more on in-game purchases, it steals away the charm of purchased games. What are your thoughts about the interview? Let us know in the comments below.