Photo: Ubisoft
After Ubisoft released The Crew Motorfest, the French publisher said it was the most successful launch in franchise history. Apparently, it wasn't just the best-selling iteration, but it also got the highest overall score from the press at 76 on Metacritic at the time, now 75, and a 76 on OpenCritic. While it seems low for AAA standards, The Crew Motorfest is an excellent relaxation game where you can unplug from your daily routine and race the stress away.
While Motorfest was "best-selling" and all the jazz, Ubisoft made some eyebrow-raising decisions regarding the marketing for the game during and post-launch. They could all be justified in bringing in more people, but at the same time, it might be a sign that it lost its steam too quickly. Let's break it down.
On September 14, Motorfest was released on PC through the Ubisoft Connect app, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. It didn't come to Nintendo Switch, but that's understandable, given that it's running on hardware from 2015.
A couple of days after its release, Ubisoft wanted to bring everybody to the party. So, they made it "free" as a trial version for 5 hours of game time. Curiously enough, the company put out another trial spanning 10 days. The only catch was that you couldn't partake if you signed up for the first freebie.
Even more curious is that Motorfest is already 20% off. As I mentioned earlier, this could be for a number of reasons. The most pessimistic scenario would be that with all that success at launch, the game ran out of steam, and Ubisoft is trying as much as it can to get into people's hands.
However, my Inspector Clouseau-like intuition tells me this is actually quite the marketing move. Bear with me, please.
Let's assume the trial went fantastic, and a bunch of new people joined the 5-hour trial party and played to their hearts' content. After all was said and done, wouldn't the correct move be to offer the game for a limited time at a discount, so players will be more willing to buy it?
The promotion is only available until October 24, so this could be a valid indicator for the hypothesis I just laid out. If you were thinking about it, the standard version is 56 bucks instead of the regular $70.
Now, here comes the kicker. People who paid the full price a little over a month ago have already started to feel the sting of this discount as an insult. Most forum comments aren't filled with childish and irrational hate, either. It makes sense when you put yourself in their shoes.
This is why I always recommend subcription-based deals like the $15-a-month Ubisoft+, which gets you every game they ever made, along with deluxe editions and DLCs for a ton of titles. Who knows, maybe now that Ubi has the rights to stream Activision Blizzard games, they're trying all sorts of maneuvers to make people join the streaming side of things.
On September 14, Motorfest was released on PC through the Ubisoft Connect app, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. It didn't come to Nintendo Switch, but that's understandable, given that it's running on hardware from 2015.
A couple of days after its release, Ubisoft wanted to bring everybody to the party. So, they made it "free" as a trial version for 5 hours of game time. Curiously enough, the company put out another trial spanning 10 days. The only catch was that you couldn't partake if you signed up for the first freebie.
Even more curious is that Motorfest is already 20% off. As I mentioned earlier, this could be for a number of reasons. The most pessimistic scenario would be that with all that success at launch, the game ran out of steam, and Ubisoft is trying as much as it can to get into people's hands.
However, my Inspector Clouseau-like intuition tells me this is actually quite the marketing move. Bear with me, please.
Let's assume the trial went fantastic, and a bunch of new people joined the 5-hour trial party and played to their hearts' content. After all was said and done, wouldn't the correct move be to offer the game for a limited time at a discount, so players will be more willing to buy it?
The promotion is only available until October 24, so this could be a valid indicator for the hypothesis I just laid out. If you were thinking about it, the standard version is 56 bucks instead of the regular $70.
Now, here comes the kicker. People who paid the full price a little over a month ago have already started to feel the sting of this discount as an insult. Most forum comments aren't filled with childish and irrational hate, either. It makes sense when you put yourself in their shoes.
This is why I always recommend subcription-based deals like the $15-a-month Ubisoft+, which gets you every game they ever made, along with deluxe editions and DLCs for a ton of titles. Who knows, maybe now that Ubi has the rights to stream Activision Blizzard games, they're trying all sorts of maneuvers to make people join the streaming side of things.
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