Instead Of Making Better Games, Reports Allege That Ubisoft Wants Steam To Hide Certain Data...Like Player Counts

Here's a "fun one" to get you started in gaming news today. Fandom Pulse is reporting (paywall), according to a "Ubisoft insider", that the beleaguered video game company is pushing back on Steam to try and get certain data points removed from public view. This would include data points like peak and concurrent users. The insider continues by saying that Star Wars Outlaws has still failed to surpass the 2 million units sold point having been released for almost 3 months. That's a far cry (get it?) from the 5 million in the first month some investors were hoping for at launch.

The report also alleges that Ubisoft isn't alone. Other companies would also like Valve to stop reporting numbers that they'd rather paint their own way on investor calls, or just dodge entirely like Ubisoft has done on recent calls where the lackluster performance of Star Wars Outlaws has come up.

Ok, so an unnamed source reported on behind a paywall. Let's just file this one under "rumor" or "allegation" for now then and just look at this type of behavior as a whole, rather than specifically ascribe it to Ubisoft directly.

You have to love the mentality that this type of "ask" entails, right? Instead of turning internally and saying "our products haven't been as successful as we planned," this mentality would rather look for external reasons and how to stop those things from happening. This is literally blaming the messenger. Data showing our product not being great is available to the public and investors, people are reporting on that, and in turn sales slow down. It's all because Steam made the data available, right? It couldn't possibly be because the product was subpar.

Rather than look inward, companies would rather get the data hidden so they can present it the way THEY want to, whether that's to the public or to investors. You know, put the old "marketing spin" on the shitshow. Or, like in the case of Star Wars Outlaws specifically, just ignore the sales question entirely and give a non-answer to investors that dare to ask.

On the latest earnings call when asked directly about Outlaws' sales, CEO Yves Guillemot replied, “On Outlaws what we can say is that the three title updates that we’ve delivered at the same time we’ve been observing substantial positive community sentiment improvement. The biggest update is still to come by November 21st. And it will come on the same day as the first big story pack and the launch for Steam. So we are putting ourselves in a position to have a must-play game that should address a mainstream audience for the busy season. Also to be a long-term seller.”

I'm sure you noticed that wasn't an answer to the question. Now if only those pesky Steam numbers weren't visible, that would be the end of it, right?

Also, when Star Wars Outlaws did launch on Steam, it came with a sale. It's still on sale at 25% off as of this writing.

Look, I don't know if Ubisoft is actually doing this or not. I've reached out to ask if they have a comment on the allegation and I'll update this piece if I hear back. It certainly wouldn't be surprising, though. As much fun as it may be to look at Ubisoft's dramatic fall lately, they wouldn't be alone in wanting to obfuscate the numbers, I'm sure.

(UPDATE: In response to our inquiries, I was directed to the Ubisoft press page that had no comment on this topic and when I further inquired, I was advised to contact a local office, but wasn't given suggested contact information.)

Sadly, if Ubisoft did topple, it won't be the people at the top that suffer. That's why I personally don't take too much joy in their pain right now. The CEO will be fine, people like us at the company won't be.

I leave you with the current Steam Charts view of Star Wars Outlaws as of this moment.