Ubisoft might have a hit on its hands with Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, but not without a familiar storm brewing around day-one DLC and in-game monetisation. Yup, despite this seemingly being an easy win – one that Ubisoft really needs – they still found a way to drop a cannonball on their own foot.
According to SteamDB, Black Flag Resynced has already peaked at 99,451 concurrent players on Steam, putting it within touching distance of the 100,000-player milestone on launch day. That is a very strong start for Ubisoft, especially for a remake of a 2013 game. Mind you, a 2013 game that was bloody awesome.
Of course, there are the obvious caveats: SteamDB is not entirely indicative of players across all available platforms. We have no idea how the game is performing elsewhere. Still, the PC numbers can give us a little glimpse into how well something is doing, and with a game like this, I’m actually expecting the console numbers to be even better.
The bad news is that player sentiment is already being dragged down toward the murky depths of Davy Jones’ locker. But why? Aside from some complaints about the cinematics being locked at 30fps and a few technical bugs, people seem to be loving the remake. The graphics are much improved, the controls are better, the quality of life improvements seem to be hitting the spot – basically, it’s an already awesome game made even better. So what’s the problem?
The game’s DLC and storefront. That’s what.
At the time of writing, SteamBD lists the user review split as Mixed, with roughly 58.7% positive reviews from more than 3,000 tracked reviews. Steam’s own store page is also showing a Mixed rating, with only 45% positive from 1,067 reviews at the time it was indexed.
A quick look at the PlayStation Store shows why some players are annoyed. Black Flag Resynced already has 10 separate DLC packs listed, adding up to £80.50 if bought individually. That includes two smaller packs at £4.29 each and eight cosmetic-style packs at £8.99 each.
Steam has nine packs listed. It’s missing the resource pack, for some reason. That brings the total down to a mere £76.21.
The complaints do not appear to be limited to the DLC simply existing on the platform storefront, either. PC Gamer reports that Black Flag Resynced includes an in-game cash shop, weekly challenges and battle pass-style reward tracks, with players being greeted by the store on the main menu and seeing small adverts when pausing the game. I don’t remember those being in the original game.
This complaint is echoed in the Steam reviews, pointing out adverts for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, adverts in the start menu etc.
If there’s a sliver of good news to be found, it’s that you aren’t missing out on anything important. The DLC is nothing more than some stupid-looking skins and two packs that have a minor gameplay impact.
So, on one hand, Ubisoft has launched a remake that is clearly attracting a big audience. A lot of people are completely tuning out the adverts and the in-game marketplace, hitting the continue button and raiding and pillaging to their heart’s content while listening to sea shanties.
On the other hand, a lot of people are less forgiving of Ubisoft. The remake has also managed to attach a very modern Ubisoft-shaped controversy to a beloved pirate classic before the ship has even properly left port.
This was an easy win, Ubisoft, but you just couldn’t help yourself, could you?
