Ubisoft. They’re one of the biggest game publishers in the world, and their catalogue on Steam is growing. But what should be good news has been tainted by their decision to ignore Europe. We looked at the potential reasons for this previously, but something else has come up in the news in the last few days that has once again led me to questions Ubisoft’s sanity.
In recent days, Ubisoft have released Beyond Good & Evil on Steam (for those who can get it), and hot on the heels of this announcement, news of a sequel has started to hit the net. This is excellent news; Beyond Good and Evil was critically acclaimed and loved by everyone who played it. The trouble is, while development has started, Ubisoft are yet to greenlight the project, meaning that it may never see the light of day.
You see, the problem is (similar to another classic, Psychonauts) it didn’t seem to matter how good the game was, people just didn’t want to part with their cash. And if people aren’t going to buy the game, why spend money publishing it?
I’ll tell you why! Because since the games original release, many more people have had an opportunity to play the game, and even more people have now been given that opportunity through Steam. Not only that, but since 2003 games are much more popular with the mainstream population, and people are realising that games can (and should) have the levels of depth that Beyond Good & Evil has.
There is however another problem - without a worldwide release of the game on Steam, how can Ubisoft judge the demand for a sequel? All I can say is, let’s hope they don’t have to.
Ubisoft, you’re being evil to us Europeans - you’re not letting us play your games on Steam, please don’t add something else to this list - green light Beyond Good and Evil 2. If you don’t, then you’ll just be Beyond Evil.
We absolutely agree and that is why we have set up the Rest of World community group. It’s almost 6000 members strong and we hope to show the publishers the (base) amount of people that would have bought their games if they published them worldwide (and did other things right such as a equal worldwide price). We already tried to contact Ubisoft and the other publishers but it seems that a group of 6000 people can still be easily ignored. We hope to grow to a point where we can’t be denied anymore and hopefully get a comment as to why they don’t publish worldwide or get them to actually publish worldwide.
If the above doesn’t work we atleast made the problem widely known by getting about 60/70 websites to publish about the problem with respectable sites such as CNET.com.au and major Steam/Half Life related sites.
The group can be found at http://steamcommunity.com/groups/restofworld/
Hi Kapitein Iglo - thanks for drawing my attention to the group - have just joined to show my support!
Feel free to add Steam Report to your list of supporters
They are being evil with europe?
MANY MANY titles aren`t published in Brazil! Why?
I downloaded a piracy copy of Assassin`n Creed because do not exist this game in Steam when I uses my brazilian connection! Why do not publish to all contries if do not exist restritions?
WTFs this miraged globalisation?
Games lists do not avaliable in Brazil from steam:
Act of War: Direct Action
Act of War: High Treason
ArmA: Combat Operations
Assassin’s Creed
Atari 80 Classics in One
BioShock
Championship Manager 07
Championship Manager a08
CivCity: Rome
Civilization IV: Warlords
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Death to Spies
Desperados 2: Cooper’s Revenge
Far Cry
Indigo Prophecy
Prey
Railroad Tycoon 3
Railroad Tycoon II Platinum
RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3: Platinum
Shattered Union
Sid Meier’s Civilization® III Complete
Sid Meier’s Civilization® IV
Sid Meier’s Pirates!
Sid Meier’s Railroads!
The Club
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Tycoon City: New York
X-COM: Terror From the Deep