WEBVTT - Ubisoft Grows Up 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.800 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:17.959 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.840 I love all things tech and welcome to our third 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.119 installment on the history so far of the video game 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:30.040 developer company Ubisoft. Now. In our first episode, we learned 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.800 how five brothers in France diversified the family business of 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:39.440 selling farming equipment by getting into hardware and software distribution. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:43.120 You know computer hardware and software as you do. We 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.839 also learned how they took that business and then they 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:50.159 built a new company centered around developing and publishing video games, 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:54.240 and how that company, Ubisoft, grew steadily. And in the 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.840 second episode, we followed up on Ubisoft having a success 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.040 with a game called Raymond and an early acquisition of 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.800 a US based video game developer called red Storm, and 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.280 how the company launched into an era of expansion that 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:14.240 was impressive by any measure. The company opened up new studios, 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:18.640 they bought out other companies, they acquired assets from organizations, 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:23.480 some of which were also coincidentally founded by those brothers, 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.880 and all while a bigger fish in the form of 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:31.039 Electronic Arts was circling the company with a threat of 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.120 a hostile takeover. Now, at the end of that last episode, 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.720 we learned that e A divested itself of a large 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.640 number of shares and Ubisoft, and with the threat of 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.560 a hostile takeover fading away, Ubisoft pushed even harder to 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:49.080 grow while launching and advancing franchises like Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:53.840 and numerous Tom Clancy related video game titles. Another asset 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.400 that originally belonged to a different company founded by one 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.400 of the Gilmo brothers was a Quebec studio that had 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:05.000 been part of long Tail Studios, and that trace its 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.560 origin back to Gerard Guillman. And that's a case in 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.920 point right. Anyway, Ubisoft would purchase that Quebec studio from 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:16.320 long Tail, and long Tail would retain its other studios 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.520 for the time being, and then you know, Ubisoft just 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.960 folded that into Ubisoft's Quebec office. And I realized, I 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:28.720 keep saying Quebec and Quebec and that's just me, I guess. Anyway, 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.839 as I mentioned in the last episode, ubi Soft had 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.960 recently purchased a company called Alliant, which what made free 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.799 to play games, and we would soon see elements of 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.040 the free to play micro transaction strategy work its way 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:46.359 into various Ubisoft games, even those that are not themselves 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.000 free to play games. We would see that micro transaction 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.880 make its way into Triple A titles. So let's see 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.560 what happens next, because this episode should bring us up 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.040 to present day, and it's going to include some particularly 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:03.520 dramatic story, including another possible hostile takeover and widespread allegations 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.680 of serious misconduct within the company. In two thousand twelve, 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.919 Ubi Soft released Far Cry three. Now, if you recall, 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.400 the original Far Cry game came out of a different 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.640 development studio called Crytech. Cry Tech built a game engine 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.600 called the cry Engine and built the original Far Cry 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.959 in that game engine. Then Ubisoft bought that i P 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:27.600 for the Far Cry series, as well as the right 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:31.640 to use that particular version of the cry Engine, and 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:36.160 from that moment forward, the cry Engine forked into two pathways. 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.320 At Crytech, it remained the cry Engine and continued to 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.480 evolve there. Under Ubisoft it would turn into the game 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:47.480 engine called Dounia, and it would evolve separately. So these 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:51.560 diverging pathways, UBI Soft continued to tweak and build onto 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.080 the Dounia engine, and far Cry three came out of 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:58.760 Dounia two, which included some new features like global lighting 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.600 and lighting and video games is a really big deal, 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.840 which I get sounds pretty obvious, because, after all, our 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.800 vision is based off of how light interacts with the 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:12.480 environments around us. A lot of recent focus on video 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.120 game graphics has really been about the interplay of light 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.279 with different surfaces. You may have heard of ray tracing 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.440 that mostly refers to the way light behaves with specific 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.640 types of surfaces, like a pane of glass or a 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.400 reflective puddle of water. Well, the Dounia two engine was 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.840 kind of a step toward that direction, although ray tracing 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.120 wouldn't really be a thing you would hear about in 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.320 the video game world for a bit longer. Far Cry 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:45.640 threes pre sales were a little bit underwhelming. Now, just 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.680 in case you're not aware somehow, pre ordering or pre 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.640 sales that just means you lay down your cold hard 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.960 cash for a game before that game is even available, 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.920 and the idea is that the moment the game does 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.599 come out, you've secured your coppy. Now, in the old days, 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.920 when physical media dominated the video game market, this was 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:09.479 something that gamers would do at retail stores, so that 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:13.359 when those game copies showed up to their local store, 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.360 they would have a reserved copy of their own, and 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.480 in theory, they wouldn't have to worry about the store 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.080 having sold out of the game before they were able 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:27.000 to get there. Today, in the era of digital delivery, 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.640 a pre order means that again in theory, anyway, you 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.520 should be able to download a game the moment it 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.800 goes live, and so your gaming experience will start as 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.359 soon as you've got enough of the game downloaded to 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:41.839 launch it, and so it's kind of dependent on your 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:46.359 internet connection speed. In recent years, companies have even allowed 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.680 downloads to begin way ahead of schedule. And then the 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.480 moment a game goes live is kind of like a 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.960 switch turning off, and it allows gamers to access a 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.719 game that has already been installed on their systems. So, 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.240 let's say a game goes live of at midnight, the 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:05.000 game has already been downloaded to the gamer's machine. It's 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.080 just that the activation code isn't uh isn't actually active 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.480 until midnight, and then boom, you can start playing game. 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.680 Companies love pre orders because it looks great on a 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.839 balance sheet, you know, to get those revenue numbers up early. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.720 It's a great thing to share with shareholders, to say 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.000 to your your stockholders, hey, this game is going to 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.840 do incredibly well. It helps bring the share price of 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:32.320 your company up, The value of your company goes up. 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.960 Lots of positive things can happen due to those numbers 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.920 from a corporate standpoint, and it really helps balance out 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.800 the costs of development. And I mentioned that in the 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.279 last episode that those can get really high. We're gonna 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.000 talk more about that in this episode. But from a 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:52.960 gamer perspective, it satisfies an urge for gratification, at least 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.479 for the feeling that you get when a game comes 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.760 into your possession, But it also comes along with risks. 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.800 But as of the game isn't very good or if 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.159 it has a lot of bugs or other issues, then 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:07.840 the gamers who pre ordered it are stuck with it. 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.600 You didn't give the industry time to dive into and 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:13.960 dissected the game, right. You didn't get a chance to 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.920 read the reviews and find out if the game was 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.119 actually any good or if it was well made. Maybe 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.600 you saw an awesome trailer for the game and that 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.480 sold you on the experience, so you PLoP down your 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.800 sixty dollars or whatever to pre order the game. Only 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.360 when the day comes and you finally get it, you 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.080 realize that the playing experience just doesn't live up to 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.200 that trailer. If you pre order, you also typically pay 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:41.080 whatever the highest price is for that version of the game. 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.040 And sometimes games will launch and for whatever reason, it 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.760 becomes clear that there's just not a big place in 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.680 the market for that game, at least not as big 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.040 as what the company was anticipating, and typically companies will 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.680 mark down the price of a game when that happens. 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.440 Recapturing some of the cost of development is better than 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.640 not getting anything, so it can pay if you just 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.360 wait a little bit, even just for a short while, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.040 to make sure that one the game is worth it, 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.400 and to maybe the price comes down so that even 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.760 if the game wasn't perfect, with the lower price, it 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.560 is worth it. Pre Orders would later introduce other issues 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.080 in the gaming industry in general. For example, one way 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.120 to encourage people to pre order a game is to 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:30.880 pay exclusive content to a specific outlets pre order system. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.319 So if you were to pre order a game with 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.400 one retailer, then you would get one set of exclusive content. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.599 But if you had gone with a different retailer, you 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:44.000 would get a different set of exclusive content, and there'd 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.920 be no way for a completionist to get everything because 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.520 of how that content gets sliced up like that. Now, 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:53.440 later on you might get a Game of the Year 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.000 edition that groups them all together, but that's much later, 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.959 and this would be something that gamers would complain about 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:05.200 with Ubisoft titles further on, particularly with Watchdogs. The Far 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.160 Cry three numbers, as I mentioned, were a little disappointing. 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.800 Now that being said, once the game came out and 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.559 reviews started coming in, sales actually started to pick up. 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.400 Most reviews praised the game play and the setting. There 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.640 were some criticisms that were leveled more against the story 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.440 and the characters, which saw gamers take on a protagonist 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:27.760 who is trying to rescue his friends who have been 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.640 captured by modern day pirates and smugglers. Some critics felt 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.040 that the speed at which your character, who kind of 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.520 starts off just as a normal average guy, suddenly becomes 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.719 like an unstoppable killing machine was just unrealistic. And it 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.439 also follows the trope in which you've got a group 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.800 of natives who are incapable of helping themselves, and so 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.760 they have to rely upon some white champion to come 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.800 into the picture and save them. Ubisoft developers were creating 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.719 a game in which morality wasn't an absolute, so you 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.600 could play in a way that was, you know, considered 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:04.280 morally good or morally evil. But in the process they 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:09.480 also relied kind of heavily on some pretty negative narrative elements. 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.280 So far, Cry three would end up being a success, 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.360 but it would take a little more time for those 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:18.360 sales numbers to come up. Meanwhile, Ubisoft was really leaning 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:22.760 heavily on the Assassin's Creed franchise, releasing Assassin's Creed three 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.599 in two thousand twelve. Now, you might have heard me 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:28.559 say in the previous episode that Ubisoft is a company 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:34.080 frequently associated with crunch around this time, and crunch refers 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.040 to the amount of intense work that leads up to 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.480 the release of a game. When you look at the 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.520 release schedule of Assassin's Creed games, you start to realize 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.320 that this could be a pretty grueling schedule. Uh. I'll 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.120 just talk about the main release games in the Assassin's 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.840 Creed series. These are the ones that came out for 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.480 consoles and computer systems. But keep in mind there were 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.800 a ton of Assassin's Creed games, some of which were 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:03.080 released for handheld systems, some for mobile devices like smartphones, 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.200 some for computers and consoles, but they weren't part of 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.560 the main storyline. So I'm just gonna look at the 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.360 main one. You've got the first game in two thousand seven, 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.560 you had Assassin's Creed two, which came out two years 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.640 later in two thousand nine. Then you've got Assassin's Creed 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:21.720 Brotherhood and add on kind of to Part two that 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.160 came out in two and Assassin's Creed Revelations in two 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.440 thousand eleven, which also tied back to Assassin's Creed two. 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.760 Now I just mentioned that Assassin's Creed three came out 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.960 in two thousand twelve, Assassin's Creed four Black Flag, which 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.000 was again my personal favorite of all the Assassin's Creed 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.480 games that I have played, but I have not played 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:45.600 all of them. That one came out in Assassin's Creed 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.080 Rogue and Assassin's Creed Unity both came out in two 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:53.000 thousand fourteen, so we got two Assassin's Creed mainline games 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.719 that year. I have a little bit more to say 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.240 about unity in here. But just imagine two major releases 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.200 of a flagship franchise in the same year. That is crazy. 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:06.200 Assassin's Creed Syndicate would follow in two thousand fifteen, and 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:10.439 then we finally would get a one year gap between 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:14.200 major releases in the main storyline, with Assassin's Creed Origins 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.920 hitting in two thousand seventeen. Then we get Assassin's Creed 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.440 Odyssey in two thousand eighteen, then we get another one 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:26.520 year gap, and this year we got Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Now, again, 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.280 those are just the major games. There are at least 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:34.280 an equal number of other titles that are spinoffs of 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.240 this franchise, but they don't qualify as part of the 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.920 main sequence of Assassin's Creed titles. Now, it was almost 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:45.280 as if the Assassin's Creed franchise was like a sports game, 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.600 because you know, every year we expect to see a 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:52.480 new version of specific sports franchises like Madden right, and 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:56.240 we expect to see an updated player roster to reflect 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.560 the most current version of teams in various sports. But 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.160 we were getting that in this fantasy sci fi Assassin 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.760 based game series. There was a real danger of oversaturating 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.720 the market and burning out the player base, not to 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.360 mention working the developers into an early grave. Though to 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:17.760 be fair, it wasn't like the exact same group of 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.600 developers were making every single game in the series. This 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.800 was spread out across the global network of studios at 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:29.320 UBI Soft, with specific studios kind of taking point on 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.959 the big titles. Ubisoft Montreal was largely responsible for the 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.560 main development of the main series, but this also meant 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:39.560 that as Zubi Stuft tried to keep up the pace, 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.200 it would occasionally release games that, at least initially were 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:48.440 pretty darn broken. Assassin's Creed three had its historical setting 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.920 take place during the American Revolutionary War, so it actually 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:56.480 took place in the American colonies. The game added lots 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.640 of new features to the Assassin's Creed franchise, including the 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.640 ability to command a ship like a sailing ship, and 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.920 that would become a much larger part in Black Flag later, obviously, 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.800 because that's a that's a pirate game. But it also 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.640 featured a pretty long lead up to the point where 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:17.040 anything assassiny happens. You're playing that game for a long 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.880 time before you start getting into something that feels like 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:24.960 Assassin's Creed. Now, overall, the game got positive reviews, though 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.200 a lot of articles that rank the various entries of 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.200 the Assassin Creed series will frequently put Part three in 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:36.000 the bottom half. It's not the bottom bottom, it's not 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.440 the worst of the games, but it typically does not 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.480 merit inclusion in the top fifty percent on a lot 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.640 of lists. In two thousand thirteen, Ubisoft made another pair 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:51.000 of acquisitions, purchasing the Future Games of London studio out 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:55.160 of um well it says here London, the UK, and 0:14:55.280 --> 0:15:00.280 also the Digital Chocolate studio that was in Barcelona, Spain. Now, 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.360 these studios focused primarily on developing games for mobile and 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:09.960 social networking platforms. Also side note, the company Digital Chocolate 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.880 was founded by Trip Hawkins. Now that's the guy who 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:18.280 founded Electronic Arts, which coincidentally was the company that for 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:20.040 a while looked like it was on the verge of 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:24.360 doing that hostile takeover of Ubisoft. But Trip Hawkins had 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.160 left long before that. And he's also the guy who 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.240 was behind the failed three D O console, which I 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:35.040 covered in a recent tech Stuff series. Anyway, Ubisoft acquired 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:39.560 the Barcelona studio, but not the overall company of Digital Chocolate. 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.160 Hawkins had already stepped down from leadership at Digital Chocolate 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.960 a year earlier, and the company would only be in 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.680 business for one more year before it sold off its 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.840 games to another company, so it didn't stick around for 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.480 very long. That summer, Ubisoft went public with some news 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.040 that wasn't so pause. Someone had managed to find a 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:08.120 vulnerability in Ubisoft's corporate network, probably through a web vulnerability, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.800 and they breached Ubisoft systems. According to the company, this 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.440 meant that up to fifty eight million people may have 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:19.440 had their user names, their email addresses, and their encrypted 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:24.080 passwords exposed. Now that's obviously not great, but it could 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.680 have been a lot worse. The fact that the passwords 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.640 were at least encrypted means they weren't immediately useful to 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.480 the hackers. The hackers would first need to break that 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.760 encryption to get at the passwords that were encrypted underneath. 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.360 But it serves as a great reminder for all of us. First, 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:46.640 we should all choose strong passwords for the services we use. Second, 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.440 we should use a unique password for every single service, 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.560 because if someone manages to breach a service you use, 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.560 they could potentially get at your password, And if you're 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.800 using the same password everywhere. You've just handed them the 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:03.240 key ease to everything, right. You don't want to do that. 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.760 It can really put you at risk. Or if you're 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.880 trying to be really careful and you find out that 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.199 your password was potentially stolen, then you have to go 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:17.000 through the hassle of changing that password for every service 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.320 you use, which is not super fun. The third point 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:22.720 I would like to remind people to do is to 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:26.399 get a password vault program to keep all your passwords. 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.080 A lot of them also have password generators built in, 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.360 and those will create really strong passwords on your behalf 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.200 and keep track of them. Uh. It takes a lot 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.760 of the work out of trying to practice good security habits, 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:43.399 so quick reminder there. Ubisoft stated that this security breach 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:47.000 did not touch any systems that stored payment information, so 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.159 that was also a big relief. People with accounts on 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.200 Ubisoft services received messages that urged them to change their passwords, 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.440 since a determined hacker might actually go through the trouble 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:00.280 to decrypt passwords if they had enough time. I'm in 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:05.639 processing power. Security experts criticized Ubisoft, saying that it failed 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.760 to be transparent about what security measures were actually in place. 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.040 A few experts pointed out that while passwords may have 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.959 been encrypted, there was no indication as to how Ubisoft 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:21.440 was encrypting them, and weak encryption could really be an issue. Generally, 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:26.280 the response was that Ubisoft's approach didn't inspire confidence, and 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.639 a more recent hack this year seems to give a 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.160 bit of credence to those concerns. Now, when we come back, 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.760 we'll revisit the subject of hackers, except this time it 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.000 will be within the context of playing a hacker in 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.159 a video game. But first, let's take a quick break. 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:54.520 In Ubisoft launched a new I P in the form 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.280 of Watchdogs. The game series is set in a world 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.199 not too different from our own, one in which electronic 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:06.720 devices gather endless amounts of data that corporations then used 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:11.560 to make let's see, I think the technical term is 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:16.440 gobs of money. In each of the games, you play 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:21.720 as a hacker protagonist or sometimes multiple protagonists, who has 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:27.320 to navigate this dystopian surveillance world and compromise systems and 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.199 turn the technology against the corporate overlords, and navigate the 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:36.000 seed criminal underbelly of society, and generally try and accomplish 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:40.520 specific goals that may or may not be selfish. Ubisa 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.040 Montreal was responsible for the first title in the series, 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.240 and they would also create the sequel that would come 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.679 out in the third game in the series, watch Dogs. 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:56.520 Legion just recently launched in but this one actually came 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.840 out of Ubisoft Toronto, not Montreal. Now, I've mentioned a 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.280 few times about how games have become incredibly complex and 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.520 as a result, the cost of development goes up, which 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.119 in turn puts a lot more pressure on finding ways 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:12.879 to make a profit from a game. And just to 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:17.119 give you some perspective, the budget for the first Watchdogs game, 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:22.960 which had been in development since before, was nearly seventy 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.879 million dollars. Now these days, it's not unusual for a 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.720 triple A title to have a budget comparable to what 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:34.320 you would see for a feature length film, which is incredible. 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:39.840 In addition, around one thousand people worked on Watchdogs, and 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.479 Ubisoft Montreal built it using a brand new game engine 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:49.000 called Disrupt, which Ubisoft Montreal had also built. Those guys 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:53.359 are pretty busy. The title sold four million copies in 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.000 its first week, which broke the company and the industry's 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.320 then record for most copies of a brand new I 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.679 P sold within that first week. It would then go 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:07.040 on to sell at least another six million copies, So 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:11.920 that first Watchdogs game wasn't without some road bumps upon 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:15.560 its release. Some people were upset that Ubisoft created not one, 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.359 not two, but four different Collectors editions of the game. 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.520 In addition, a few people alleged that Ubisoft had purposefully 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:28.760 and artificially made the game look better graphically when they 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.240 did a video preview of the title at E three. 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:35.840 They claimed that the end game, the one that actually 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:39.960 came out, that the graphics had been downgraded. Ubi Soft, 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:45.639 for its part, categorically denied this claim. Critics praised the 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:49.560 game's gameplay and the setting of Chicago, but there was 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:53.119 a less of a positive consensus about the story and 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:55.919 the characters of the game. Now, I'm going to go 0:21:55.960 --> 0:22:00.240 ahead and close out the Watchdogs discussion here because as 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.159 I just think it makes more sense to to follow 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.360 up on that rather than the go year by year. 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.800 So the sequel, Watchdogs Too, came out two years after 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:11.040 the first game. So this one came out in Twix, 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:14.879 and this one was set in San Francisco, and the 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.640 protagonist was again a hacker, but a different character than 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.440 from the first game. Would be Soft tweaked a lot 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.639 of the gameplay elements after having received feedback on the 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.800 first Watchdogs game, and Watchdogs two would launch with a 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:33.400 few glitches and bugs, which frustrated critics and fans, but 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.320 it would be Soft would fairly quickly follow up the 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.679 launch with a game patch that helped smooth out these problems. 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.160 Generally speaking, critics also seemed to like the tone of 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.720 the second game more than they liked the tone of 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.560 the first game. The original Watchdogs had a fairly serious tone, 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:54.080 and the sequel had some more lighthearted and silly moments, 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.680 and also had a protagonist who wasn't so stoic as 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:00.399 the main character of the first game. Many people, however, 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.600 also pointed out that the main character of the second game, 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.720 his name is Marcus, was written in such a way 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:10.440 as to make him a good person within the narrative 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.879 of the game. And that's fine, except the game also 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.800 allows players to do stuff like harm or kill innocent 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:22.080 bystanders that doesn't affect the way the story unfolds, So 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:27.600 you could play Marcus like a homicidal maniac, but narratively speaking, 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:30.000 within the game, you would be treated as if you 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:33.320 were still this really good guy with a strong moral code. 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:36.680 So there's a bit of a disconnect there. Like Far 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:39.959 Cry three, the pre or sales for Watchdogs two didn't 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:43.680 meet company projections. It would take more time for players 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:46.520 to commit to buying the game and reaching the sales 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:50.040 figures that Ubisoft had been hoping for. And then we've 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:55.359 got watch Dog Legion, developed primarily by Ubisoft Toronto. This 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:58.800 title came out in late October twenty twenty after being 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:01.919 delayed half a year. Um and I'll talk a little 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:05.640 bit about the decision to postpone games towards the end 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:08.960 of this episode, and I'm sure the pandemic didn't help 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:13.960 at all, But this game shifts the action to London, England, 0:24:14.320 --> 0:24:17.840 and it also features a pretty neat concept for the protagonists. 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:22.120 So instead of playing as an established main character and 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:25.120 playing that character all the way through, in Legion, you 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:29.359