For more than a decade now, fashion has been in the open world. The latest productions of 2022 have proven it again. But to stand out, some studios are trying to offer an ever larger map, with ever more side quests and ever more side activities. Result: the duration of a game is greatly increased and its essence is drowned in a flood of optional surplus. Critics have been flying for years but obviously the message has not been taken into account by Ubisoft.
an exhausted formula
Last week, Ubisoft unveiled Scalar, a unique system that relies on the power of the Cloud. According to the publisher’s press release, Scalar should allow the various studios to create ever more ambitious and complex games whose universe would evolve even more quickly while adapting in real time to players thanks to the power of Cloud Computing. . A Cloud different from the experiences offered by Stadia from Google and Luna from Amazon, with technology aimed not at players but at developers. A solution in addition to Ubisoft’s game engines which aims to “enable Ubisoft titles to use the power of the cloud so that developers are not limited by time or hardware, but by their imagination.”
And in the press release of this announcement, Ubisoft wanted to give the floor to several members of the Scalar team, including Patrick Bach, managing director of Ubisoft Stockholm. It is in its Swedish studio that Ubisoft has developed this technology which will allow its studios to combine their game engines such as Anvil and Snowdrop to offer new captivating experiences. Asked what kind of new games players can expect from Ubisoft Scalar, Bach explained that the games could be even bigger:
It will be possible to have more players in a single shared world, which I think will introduce new social experiences that we have never seen before. It will also be possible to create world simulations on a scale and with a complexity never seen before. If you add this to one of Ubisoft’s pillars and strengths – world building – it allows us to build bigger and richer worlds for players. We will be able to push the boundaries of what games can be. It’s a new challenge for game designers and it will lead to new experiences.
Only, although Ubisoft has excelled, was a time, in the theme of the open world, the latest productions of the publisher are struggling to convince. And for good reason, in addition to the size of its open worlds, which are even larger than in the past, it is because of their relevance that these worlds struggle to stand out. In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, for example, players should explore Norway, England, Ireland and then Paris. The hours accumulate and the counter quickly exceeds one hundred hours. Only, part of the content is only intended to increase the life of the title without being really essential. Worse still, these open worlds feel like they’ve all been alike since Far Cry 4released in 2014.
The points of interest struggle to distinguish themselves, the random events are all alike and the formula has a warm aftertaste. Although critics, and players, have been multiplying remarks for years, Ubisoft does not seem to take them into account. Worse still, Ubisoft was faced with a largely audible frustration with Ghost Recon Breakpointwhose lackluster performance has put the franchise on edge. And with Scalar, Ubisoft now seems ready to create even bigger worlds. Only, if the formula does not change, a substantial size will only end up tiring players even faster. Where Ubisoft needs to pull itself together is in the very identity of its productions, which tend to take the same formula, change its form to give the impression that the game is different, relying on franchises established for years, even decades.
But with the talented competition now populating the gaming horizon, bigger cards aren’t necessarily necessary. And although Scalar and its proposal is intended primarily for video game developers and creators, Ubisoft didn’t seem to mind the idea of communicating around even bigger worlds for these titles. But what’s the point of offering ever more consistent games if players are struggling to see the end?
On your side, would you be interested in even bigger open worlds? Would you prefer that Ubisoft revise its main formula even if the worlds are smaller? Do not hesitate to share your opinion with us via the comment section.
