Although many consumers are frustrated with the games-as-a-service-model (GaaS), Ubisoft is one company that is trying to use it to better their games. The company used content improvements and continuous development to evolve post-launch support for games like Tom Clancy’s The Division, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and The Crew.
Laurent Detoc, head of Ubisoft North America, recently spoke on the GaaS model and how Ubisoft uses it to develop their game communities.
“The Division 2 has a very good story to tell from the first game,” she said. “At first, the game was highly anticipated and delivered a lot of content, but then it quickly fell short. We talk about how consumer sentiment went all the way down to 30 percent positive a few months after it shipped.”
“I started an 18-month turnaround with the release of patch 1.4 that tried to fix a lot of those issues,” she continued. “Patch 1.8 was another landmark event. As a consequence of the work we put into the game with those patches and update, customer sentiment is now 80 percent positive.”
“In the case of The Division, we added gameplay,” she said. “In the case of Rainbow Six: Siege, we added content. In the case of Ghost Recon: Wildlands, we built on the PvP mode six months later. You keep on adding to the experience, and you see people talk about it later.After a year and a half people said that The Division was the best it had ever been, and that helped bring in even more new people.”
“A lot of the people who’ve played The Division came to the brand after patch 1.4. They saw the game in a much better state. When you look at that sentiment going from 30 to 80, a lot of people first came to the game when it was doing better. Now we’re looking at Division 2 with a super happy community, very engaged and satisfied, and they’re looking forward to the sequel.”
“That trend is certainly going to continue. Games don’t end. They don’t stop. We have to commit to making sure that they don’t stop. When people understand that, they stay with them.”
The Division 2 is set for release March 15, 2019, and Detoc claims that it will address the shortcomings of the first game’s launch.