Ubisoft Under Fire Again: Battle Royale Missteps & ‘You Don’t Own Your Games’ Lawsuit

Ubisoft just can’t seem to help itself when it comes to making poor decisions, as the publisher is confirmed to be working on a new game in the past-its-best genre of battle royale. Apparently ignoring the fact that its previous battle royale title, Apex Legends, has been languishing near death for months now, the controversial studio seems to be wading back into a stale genre with blinders on.

This highly questionable move comes amid a wave of fierce backlash surrounding Ubisoft’s recent comments on game ownership rights; a stance that was taken during an ongoing a class-action lawsuit between the French videogame giant and a group of outraged plaintiffs who have felt the need to defend game ownership in the wake of the abrupt shutdown of The Crew.

How Many More Mistakes Will It Take?

According to the story published on Insider Gaming by Tom Henderson, the upcoming battle royale project will take the form of a first-person shooter featuring a class-based upgrade system and movement mechanics heavily influenced by Respawn’s now-fading battle royale titan. For all intents and purposes, it sounds like it is essentially Apex Legends 2.0.

However, any new information that we come to learn about the game as it nears release, is unfortunately going to be tarnished with the Ubisoft’s chronic refusal to learn from its past mistakes, with gamers only growing more frustrated with the publishing behemoth.

Whether you are a Ubisoft fan or not, it is impossible to ignore the reputation that the company has built for abandoning titles, pushing greed-based live service models, and undermining audience ownership of the games they purchase. Calling Ubisoft, the worst gaming company in the industry is subjective, but pointing out the patterns of ignorance and greed that the corporation continues to display is not.

In an Industry That Thrives on Loyalty and Trust, Ubisoft Continues to Burn Bridges With the People It Depends on Most

The way in which Ubisoft handled shutdown of The Crew’s servers is just the latest example of the company’s abrasive attitude and lack of perception for its own reputation. If you have been living under a rock, every player who owned a copy of 2014’s The Crew, – either physically or digitally, – found themselves permanently unable to play the game after its servers went offline.

Ubisoft’s defence against criticism from the community, (and its defence in this lawsuit,) boils down to the idea that consumers do not own the game they purchase, they are simply paying to license the software, even if they own a physical disc. This inevitably sparked a heated ethical debate about game ownership whether it is fair for game publishers to have the power to take the software away without giving the paying customer a say in the matter.

This incident has left a sour taste in the mouth of many and only serves to amplify the widely accepted perception of Ubisoft being one of the most out-of-touch companies in gaming. For years, fans have been voicing their collective concern about things like aggressive monetization, lack of innovation, and failure to maintain its live service titles. Yet time and again, Ubisoft has proved to be more focused on trend-chasing than on delivering enjoyable experiences.

Between public legal battles against its own audience and ill-timed product announcements it is very evident that Ubisoft no longer cares what the community at large thinks. Most players likely don’t actually care about whether or not they’ll ever get to play the first Crew game ever again, but many are justifiably concerned about the precedent that this could set, causing other greedy publishers to follow suit and take the power away from the players.

For more Thumb Wars Gaming coverage, check out how the launch of the Switch 2 could be affected by Trump’s tariffs, or how the Death Stranding movie have brought on the perfect team to adapt Hideo Kojima’s signature oddness for the big screen.

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