Tag Archives: Ubisoft

Gaming, Lifestyle, News

E3 2023 is Officially Over

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It is official, E3 2023 has been cancelled. There are plenty of speculations to the real reason to the cancellation. IGN reported that the organisation behind E3 has cited that companies interested in E3 and supposed to attend the conference were not ready and will not be ready to showcase their games in the committed timeline.

While E3 2023 was something gamers was looking forward to, the same cannot be said about the gaming industry as a whole. Ubisoft very recently announced that they will not be attending E3 2023 and will host their own hybrid event instead. Nintendo and many other developers have also not expressed interest or even committed to attending E3 2023. In this case, many speculates that the lack of interest in the conference is the main contributing factor for the cancellation.

E3 used to be the biggest platform for the gaming industry to make their announcements and demos for their upcoming games. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit though, E3 took a hit too. They had to cancel their E3 conference in 2020 forcing the gaming industry to make their announcements on their own and leverage streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Ever since that first cancellation, E3 has not been physically held until they scheduled their June 2023 date, which has since been cancelled too: another year without E3.

That is not to say that the gaming industry is asleep and is facing difficulties though. Ubisoft announced that they are holding a separate event on their own. We expect more announcements from Sony’s PlayStation camp and even Microsoft’s Xbox camp. We are expecting Nintendo to make some sort of announcement in June about upcoming games. Ubisoft and Microsoft have, in fact, announced that they are holding their own announcement event also in June 2023.

This year’s E3 cancellation raised some questions for the gaming industry. Firstly, is E3 coming back for 2024? Secondly, is E3 even relevant anymore?

To the first question, the people behind the scenes have reported that they are still “committed to provide an industry platform for marketing and convening”. The answer vaguely says that E3 is looking to come back in 2024, but is also filled with plenty of uncertainty. Us gamers obviously hopes that E3 makes a come back in 2024 in some capacity.

To the second question, there are a few things to think about. Larger developers like Sony’s PlayStation Studios, Microsoft’s Xbox, Ubisoft, Nintendo, and even Epic Games have realised that they do not really need to rely on E3 to make their own announcements. They also have enough funding to manage and create their own announcement events without constraining to space and tight schedules. Instead of announcing everything within a specified time frame, they can even space their announcements out. While having to learn to leverage online platforms for their announcements, they perhaps learned that they can hit a larger audience at a lower cost cap too. In that case, it is perhaps a more sensible platform to leverage on than having a physical presence in E3.

There is a lot of unknown for E3 in the coming years. The only thing we know is that they will not make a 2023 comeback. At the same time, we think that E3 might still have a place in the gaming industry since Gamescom and the Summer Game Fest will still be happening as scheduled. For now, we can only hope that the people behind E3 have not given up just yet.

Gaming, Lifestyle, News

Ubisoft Pulls Out Form Upcoming E3 2023

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There are few things we look forward to every year. You have the usual flagship smartphone launches, including the iPhone launch and Samsung’s two Unpacked events every year. In terms of gaming, we have the E3. The E3 showcase that has been happening every year for a long time now and it is a gathering of every major game developers and even some minor ones that has been cherry picked by the likes of Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox to chow case their upcoming games on the big stage. Before YouTube, E3 was the only stage you get to premiere your games to the world.

There is a problem with E3 however. Ever since the pandemic hit the world, the E3 conference has stood on quite unstable grounds. While there are still parties keen on attending and make good on the show that is E3, there have been several occasions where big names opted out of the conference. They even had to cancel in 2021 and 2022. This year, Ubisoft has opted out of E3.  

Ubisoft’s absence in E3 2023 will undoubtedly be felt. Ubisoft at this point is one of the largest game developers the world has seen. They own namesakes like Assassin’s Creed, Ghost Recon, ANNO, Far Cry, and more. They own enough IP that they have to have their own curated game store separate from Epic Games, and Steam. They are one of those giants in the gaming industry then that will have no presence in E3 2023 scheduled in June.

That does not mean that Ubisoft will not be producing or publishing any games for 2023 though. It does not mean that they have nothing new to show the world too in 2023. In light of them being absent from E3 2023 for whatever reason, they are also hosting their own show in June 2023. They scheduled their Ubisoft Forward Live showcase on the 12th of June 2023 in Los Angeles.

For the upcoming show, we are expecting Ubisoft to show a little more from their latest announced Assassin’s Creed title, Assassin’s Creed Mirage. We are also expecting Ubisoft to have at least a few more announcements in their other titles and probably introduce new titles in the upcoming show. It would only make sense for them to have a few more on tap to have an entire showcase of their own.

Computers, Gaming, News

Running Out of Things to Do at Home? Fear not, Ubisoft is Giving Out Free Games starting with Rayman Legends!

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The COVID-19 situation is not looking great, if we are all being honest. In Malaysia, if you have not known yet, is under a state sanctioned Movement Control Order (MCO). In other words, we are on partial lock down. Only essential services and businesses are allowed to operate. You are not even allowed a stroll in the public park; at least you are discouraged to with summons from the authorities. Even kids are not exempted from this ruling.

Source: Mercedes-AMG F1

In other parts of the world as well, the authorities have started encouraging self-quarantines and social distancing. Our neighbouring country has already started issuing fines for those who are not in accordance to their guideline of social distancing. In other words, everyone is doing their parts in combating this global pandemic. Even F1 teams have committed their resources and expertise in break-neck, cutting edge engineering to combat the disease with something they call Project Pitlane as we have covered yesterday.

There are plenty of tips out there about staying sane and productive at home. There are also plenty of guides about staying healthy at home with exercises and what not. One thing that everyone says they have more time for now that they are at home is gaming. We are gamers here too, and we agree; I sunk more than 50 hours already in Death Stranding in the first week of our MCO alone, before realising that I need to be a little bit more productive and active.

Source: Ubisoft

One thing people do not say about gaming though is that it costs money. You need money to buy these games. Some of these games can get quite expensive too. Imagine buying all the AAA titles you can find out there today. That would empty your back account very quickly.

Still, Ubisoft, one of the biggest game developers in the world and running their own UPlay curated game marketplace is doing their part in the battle against COVID-19. One of the things that was encouraged for these few weeks is self-quarantine and staying at home. Ubisoft is all for that and that is why they are giving out free games starting from the 30th of March 2020.

Source: Ubisoft

They start with ‘Rayman Legends’ from the 30th March to the 3rd of April 2020 onward. After that they will line up other games to giveaway at least for a few weeks. That is good news for everyone. All you need to do is sign up for Ubisoft’s UPlay account and download they UPlay app for desktop. For us gamers, that gives us even more reason to stay indoors and even lock our doors to keep playing all the games we have not finished. Now, excuse me while I finish Death Stranding and get to all my other games.