[fudzilla] Nvidia spends 5 million on Ubisoft deal

[Final8ty]

Assassin’s Creed 5 and Watch Dogs
Nvidia has close ties with Ubisoft and every now and then it tries to voice its support for 4K gaming.

We do know that Nvidia already has some Assassin’s creed demos with 4K textures that are supposed to look amazing as Nvidia agrees with AMD thinking that future of gaming is in 4K gaming.

Our industry sources now tell us that it’s just AMD spending serious bucks on the Battlefield 4 deal. It turns out that the guys behind The way it’s meant to be played and Nvidia ISV (independent software vendor) relationship have spent about $5 million on their Ubisoft deal.

It involves two games, Assassins Creed 5 and Watch Dogs and our sources tell us that AMD was looking into a similar deal with Ubisoft, but it walked away simply as they believed that spending a similar or slightly higher amount on an AAA shooter like Battlefield 4 was a better deal – plus BF4 is the first game to support AMD’s new Mantle API, so it just made more sense.

The PC game industry cannot be happier, as two top companies are competing for attention, practically courting developer and publishers.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/32693-nvidia-spends-5-million-on-ubisoft-deal

 

[Keysplayr]

Cool.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Assassin’s Creed 5?

"AMD was looking into a similar deal with Ubisoft, but it walked away simply as they believed that spending a similar or slightly higher amount on an AAA shooter like Battlefield 4 was a better deal"

Probably is. BF4 will outsell Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed 4 on PC I'd imagine. AC4 has that stupid PC delay even if its "supposedly" pc lead lol.

 

[blackened23]

Yes, this is great for consumers. I just find it pretty funny, you know, that others have suggested that devs line up at nvidia's door to do everything such as physx for free. All of these deals since the TWIMTBP and AMDGE programs have involved contractual obligations, nobody does this for "free". Even dating back to Crysis and Crysis 2, which were both TWIMTBP, those product tie ins involved millions of dollars. Money makes the video game industry move.

That said, the competition for developers between AMD and nvidia creates winners for all consumers. I'm particularly excited about Watch Dogs. If Nvidia can create that as a free bundle for their cards, i'm particularly excited - it looks like a fantastic game.

 

[LegSWAT]

So what's the better deal now - $5-8 million for exclusive BF4 and mantle in Frostbyte 3 or $5 million on Assassins Creed 5 and Watch Dogs?
Either seems far better than $20 million pay-off for Hector Ruiz to leave the company (the alternative, a kick in the butt: *free*) .

 

[Erenhardt]

So, both of these games will tank on AMD cards? Don't like AC but Watch Dogs made me mildly interested in.
At least they will have 2 titles to bump overall game benchmark charts in the upcoming year. I expect every trustworthy site to include AC5 and Watch Dogs banchmarks in graphics cards reviews.

 

[postmortemIA]

good that they subsidize PC gaming, more Steam deals ahead

 

[eyeofcore]

Ah... Guess no buy for these two games... :/

 

[Meekers]

So, both of these games will tank on AMD cards? Don't like AC but Watch Dogs made me mildly interested in.
At least they will have 2 titles to bump overall game benchmark charts in the upcoming year. I expect every trustworthy site to include AC5 and Watch Dogs banchmarks in graphics cards reviews.

Business as usual. Nvidia titles get included in benchmarks but AMD games get left out as it would be "unfair".

AMD needs to spend some of this money paying off the reviewers to get on equal footing with Nvidia.

 

[ICDP]

Business as usual. Nvidia titles get included in benchmarks but AMD games get left out as it would be "unfair".

AMD needs to spend some of this money paying off the reviewers to get on equal footing with Nvidia.

It's amazing how some people blindly spout consipiracy theories rather than facts. If you are reading reviews where only games that work well with Nvidia get benchmarked you are reading the wrong reviews.

Tomb Raider 2013
Hitman Absolution
Deus Ex HR
AVP

All of the above favoured AMD hardware and featured heavily in many reviews over the past few years.

 

[desprado]

So happy to see this competition.Dev are making on PC is good sign for pc and in upcoming PC will most revenue will be by pc on games.

 

[Meekers]

It's amazing how some people blindly spout consipiracy theories rather than facts. If you are reading reviews where only games that work well with Nvidia get benchmarked you are reading the wrong reviews.

Tomb Raider 2013
Hitman Absolution
Deus Ex HR
AVP

All of the above favoured AMD hardware and featured heavily in many reviews over the past few years.

You do not remember when sites suddenly, at pretty much the same time, stop testing games with forward lighting, or tested the games but turned the feature off. This change happened right as the 7xxx and 6xx cards were being released. It also happened around the same time they stared reviewing factory overclocked Nvidia cards vs stock AMD. All in all it was a brilliant move by Nvidia and worth every penny it cost them. I am just saying that since AMD is starting to play ball they should go all the way.

 

[96Firebird]

Quick, get your tin foil hats out!

 

[Slomo4shO]

Yes, this is great for consumers.

How exactly is this great for consumers? Your hardware choices for any particular subsidized title diminishes but you still pay the same retail price for the game...

 

[desprado]

How exactly is this great for consumers? Your hardware choices for any particular subsidized title diminishes but you still pay the same retail price for the game...

U are wrong there.It is benefit for consumers.Remember it just a marketing nothing else.Only the difference will be 5 to 10% on both Nvidia and AMD games.

 

[blackened23]

How exactly is this great for consumers? Your hardware choices for any particular subsidized title diminishes but you still pay the same retail price for the game...

Eh? I bought Metro LL from the classifieds for 15 bucks before it was released. Same for crysis 3, Tomb Raider, any many others. The game bundles that AMD/NV offer make their way to ebay and classified FS/T sites here and everywhere, therefore all of these games, on average, have the potential to be far cheaper. The vast majority of the game codes bundled with AMD/NV cards are not used, and are generally sold at substantial discounts.

Metro: LL was 59$ new? I got it for 15 bucks before it was even launched. I'd say that was great for me, the consumer.

If I can get Watch Dogs for 15$, i'm all for it.

 

[YBS1]

At least they will have 2 titles to bump overall game benchmark charts in the upcoming year. I expect every trustworthy site to include AC5 and Watch Dogs banchmarks in graphics cards reviews.

Yeah, it's all a conspiracy. No one will use Battlefield 4 in any of their benchmarks.

 

[boxleitnerb]

Ah... Guess no buy for these two games... :/

Why? Because of the deal and the proprietary features?
Then skip on BF4, too. AMD spent 8 million on that and has exclusive Mantle features/performance.

 

[Slomo4shO]

Eh? I bought Metro LL from the classifieds for 15 bucks before it was released.

/sigh

Congratulations on scoring a new title for a discount. Would the original owner be better served receiving a cash discount on the card in lieu of the game? Yes. Does your purchase have any impact on the actual retail price of the game? No. Was the game actually $15? Of course not, the buyer of the card paid the premium so you could receive a discount.

Having an understanding of opportunity costs help

Only the difference will be 5 to 10% on both Nvidia and AMD games.

And this has no impact on purchasing decisions? For example, the Titan only performs 5-10% better than a reference 780 but demands a $350 premium...

 

[Aikouka]

Assassin's Creed V confirmed! Although, that was probably "confirmed" once Ubisoft announced that Assassin's Creed would become a yearly series.

If I can get Watch Dogs for 15$, i'm all for it.

There's one problem with that... if you buy an Ubisoft game via a voucher, you have to redeem it on uPlay. :\ uPlay isn't terrible -- I just don't feel like splitting my games among so many different programs. I actually repurchased FarCry 3: Blood Dragon just so I wouldn't have to load up uPlay.

Business as usual. Nvidia titles get included in benchmarks but AMD games get left out as it would be "unfair".

AMD needs to spend some of this money paying off the reviewers to get on equal footing with Nvidia.

Don't most reviewers just do relatively canned benchmarks for Battlefield? I've always found multiplayer-heavy games to be a weird benchmark choice, because it's hard to judge how strenuous the card will be when you're in a huge multiplayer match-up.

 

[smackababy]

Assassin's Creed V confirmed! Although, that was probably "confirmed" once Ubisoft announced that Assassin's Creed would become a yearly series.

NV gonna come out and claim "oops, we goofed again, AC5 isn't announced on PC," like they did with GTA5.

 

[yacoub]

Ah... Guess no buy for these two games... :/

Ehh I already skip Ubisoft titles since I don't want to have to run two DRM systems on top of one another. They're already on Steam, they don't need uPlay. UPlay doesn't even need to exist at all, ever. Until it goes the way of GFWL and stops being used, I plan to continue to avoid Ubisoft titles, no matter how appealing they might be.

 

[tigersty1e]

wonder why they teamed up with ubisoft.

ubisoft is not exactly PC friendly. and they have the uplay which competes with steam.


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[blackened23]

There's one problem with that... if you buy an Ubisoft game via a voucher, you have to redeem it on uPlay. :\ uPlay isn't terrible -- I just don't feel like splitting my games among so many different programs. I actually repurchased FarCry 3: Blood Dragon just so I wouldn't have to load up uPlay.

Good point for sure, I generally buy uPlay titles only on Steam. That said, you still have to use uPlay regardless of whether you're on steam or not - but uPlay does not store keys or user preferences like Steam does so i've always preferred steam for everything. Having to do a system restore and find your uplay games totally borked and unusable isn't fun, whereas even with uPlay games Steam will save your game keys and what not so you don't have to digging around for them after a system upgrade or restore. So it's generally steam for me even if I have to wait a few months for a sale.

It's too bad that Ubisoft doesn't use steamworks for DRM, but i'm generally okay with just buying their stuff on Steam anyway.

On the bright side, it COULD be worse. At least it isn't Games for Windows Live. I have had so many issues with GFWL that I always, without exception, avoid GFWL titles unless I can get it for free.

 

[Dribble]

Personally I'd prefer they both spend 0 dollars on deals giving me free copies of games I mostly don't want and lowered the price of their gpu's instead.