00:00As you probably know, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resync is coming relatively soon.
00:05And because of that, I stumbled upon this article saying that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resync
00:09isn't some cash grab with a cheap coat of AI upscaling paint. And I think there is a bigger
00:16conversation here that a lot of gaming media doesn't have. When an article opens with this
00:21isn't a cash grab, as far as I'm concerned, it's making a conclusion before people even had a
00:27chance to evaluate a product. And that conclusion needs evidence and simply listing features,
00:32that isn't enough. Because remember, more features don't automatically equal more value.
00:38One thing publishers have become very good at is marketing through feature lists.
00:43And if you read through the article again, you can notice a pattern. If I start listing all these
00:49features, it's going to be a huge list. But for example, we are getting better combat, better
00:54stealth, better parkour, better AI, three naval officers, new hideout, new upgrades, new missions,
01:00ziplines, pet monkey, all kinds of shit. And when you look at it this way, it sounds enormous. But if
01:07you stop and ask yourself, how much time will I actually spend engaging with each of these features,
01:13the picture becomes much less clear. For example, three naval officers sounds exciting. But what if
01:20each one is just a passive perk? Because congratulations, you've just described three
01:25skill tree nodes. Then you have the hideout, that sounds massive. But if upgrading it just means
01:30collecting resources and unlocking percentage bonuses, then it's basically another progression
01:35menu. Also, the new story missions sound fantastic. But how many are there exactly? Is this new black
01:42beer content five hours long or 45 minutes long? You cannot really tell from the article. You could say
01:48basically that marketing counts features, but people count experiences. Because that's what you get
01:54when you're playing the game. And that's the biggest distinction. You can list so many features and it's
02:00going to take some time. But at the end of the day, I as a player, I remember moments. And
02:05when I'm
02:06thinking about Assassin's Creed Black Flag, I don't remember that it had four pistols. I remember other
02:12things and feeling that I had when I was experiencing the whole, let's say, sailing, or pirating, or anything
02:19along those lines. Other things that I might remember is basically hearing the Lee Herjani Shanty, Edward's
02:25character arc. You know, stuff like that. Those are experiences. And you could add 50 new mechanics, but if none
02:33of
02:33them create memorable experiences like I said before, then they don't really increase the value that much. Basically, if I
02:40get the
02:41same feeling playing Assassin's Creed Black Flag and the re-synced version, what did re-synced version
02:46actually accomplish here? Maybe your journey is going to be a bit more smoother, but at the end of
02:52the day, it's still going to be the same thing, no matter what you do. And you know what's funny?
02:57This
02:57feature inflation is happening in almost every AAA game today. Marketing page will say something like
03:03over 100 weapons, or 50 collectibles, or upgraded AI, or immersed reversal, or whatever. And it will sound like
03:10the biggest game ever made. But when you actually play it, you realize most of these systems barely
03:16affect each other. And basically what you're getting is quantity over impact. But you know me,
03:22I like to play Devil's Advocate. Let's assume everything Ubisoft says is true. Now imagine this.
03:29According to Ubisoft, the new campaign additions include Blackbeard questline, Steve Burnett questline,
03:35one endgame chapter, naval officer missions, and animus rifts, whatever the fuck that is.
03:40And that's basically almost every piece of new story content listed. Now let's also assume that it
03:47will take around maybe 5 hours. And that's me being very conservative when it comes to, you know,
03:53the length of the new content. If you compare that to the game that originally takes around, I don't know,
03:5840-45 hours to finish, you are still replaying roughly around 80% of the same game. So while the
04:05amount of development work might have been significant, the amount of new gameplay experienced
04:11by returning players may actually be relatively small. And that's a very important distinction.
04:17Now some of you might say that it's either a lazy cash grab or a passion project, but in reality,
04:24it's probably usually somewhere in the middle. Also, let's not forget, Ubisoft isn't remaking Black
04:29Flag because they suddenly became nostalgic. They are remaking it because Black Flag is arguably the
04:35most beloved Assassin's Creed game ever made. And just because of that, they know it will sell.
04:42Also, they need a really fast and smooth win, because what they have been dishing for, I don't know,
04:48last 5 years or so when it comes to Assassin's Creed, it's not very good, isn't it? Now, that doesn't
04:53mean
04:54the developers aren't passionate, and it doesn't mean the artists aren't doing incredible work,
04:58but it also doesn't mean Ubisoft's primary motivation isn't financial. Because every remake
05:04exists because someone in the counting believed it would generate a strong return on investment.
05:09And when it comes to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resync, the price matters more than the feature list.
05:16You could say this is probably the biggest factor, because Ubisoft will charge for this game $60.
05:22And now, ask yourself, if you already own Black Flag, what are you getting for another $60?
05:30And quite frankly, this is where the conversation should start. Not look at all these bullet points.
05:37Instead, we need to ask ourselves, does this actually feel like a new experience?
05:42Because if 80-85% of the campaign is identical, even with smoother combat and prettier graphics,
05:49I think many people will naturally question whether that's worth the asking price.
05:54Regardless of the situation, I think the most important thing is to first try the game properly,
06:00and then see what's going on. Because we've seen plenty of games with huge marketing checklists
06:05that ended up feeling surprisingly shallow. So until we know how long the new content is for real,
06:11how well it's integrated in the original game, and how much the remake changes the overall experience,
06:17and obviously combine that with the price of $60, then we will be able to say whether or not this
06:23game is a cash grab or not. And that's basically the conversation worth having, because development
06:29effort and consumer value are related, but they're not the same thing. A game can require years of work
06:35and still leave people wondering whether it offered enough that's genuinely new to earn another purchase.
06:41And this is extremely important when it comes to remakes.
06:45And that's basically my take on this news. Thanks very much for watching, and as always,
06:50like, share, subscribe, comment, all that good stuff. And that's it from me, until the next one.
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