1 - Repetition and difference in the box art for the Assassin's Creed franchise
Steve Neale argues that genre is formed from repetition and difference. Genre refers to a type of media production. This is especially true of the Assassin's Creed franchise. On each and every cover we see the MES of a secretive man his face shrouded in a hood. The the background of each image, a historical landmark. An identical font is used for each and every game, and the pose of the character all construct a remarkably similar brand identity. By building a distinctive brand identity, Ubisoft have constructed a positive reputation among fans. The difference is superficial. A different location, a different name... This suggests quite simply that the franchise is highly profitable
2 - Economic factors - how to write an opening paragraph
How significant are economic factors in the magazine industry? Refer to Woman and Adbusters in your answer.
How significant are economic factors in the videogame industry? Refer to the Assassin's Creed franchise in your answer. [8]
Economic facts refer to anything to do with money. For example, success success for a videogame can be measured in the number of copies sold, the total user base, but most importantly, the total money earned. Curran and Seaton argue that the media industries are based around ensuring profit and power rather than art and entertainment. Economic factors in the videogame industry are therefore very significant. In order to explore this idea, I shall look at the example of the Assassin's Creed Franchise, a major, AAA videogame constructed by a multinational conglomeration, Ubisoft.
3 - Assassin's Creed Valhalla - key facts
- Made $1billion dollars in revenue up to February 2022. For a world wide gross, this is phenomenal.
- A choice of characters allows the player to choose their gender, and potentially allows the game to appeal to a wider audience
- Based around Nordic mythology, a hot property at the time
- The second most profitable title in Ubisoft's history
- Set in two different time periods: the 'Viking age' (855AD) and the present. This is characteristic of all AC games
- Very positive critical reviews (82% for PC)
- Released for PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox one, Xbox series. Not released for Nintendo Switch, a huge and successful console, due to hardware limitations
- Released November 2020, a key Christmas release window
- 1.8 million players in the first five days
- The cost of producing the game is difficult to discover. However, it was clearly a lot! By way of comparison, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey reportedly cost $500 million. Valhalla potentially cost more than this to produce!
4 - Ubisoft - research
- Ubisoft are a French multinational conglomerate that specialise in videogame production and distribution.
- Annual net sales 2.3 billion Euros
- Founded in 1986
- Recently, the company have had many financial problems, including reducing the amount of their employees by over 1000. This is a perfect example of Ubisoft being driven by profit and power
- Used to be called Ubi Soft, then rebranded to Ubisoft
- Industrial action in 2024 in France over changes to working conditions
- Started off with six developers in 1986, expanding to over 18,000 in 2024
- Major allegations of sexual misconduct have been against many high up employees, including the creative director of Valhalla
- A number of sexual assault allegations have been made against Ubisoft in recent years, in a number of countries
- Additionally there have been a number of allegations of terrible working conditions at Ubisoft, with developers being expected to work significant hours of overtime : Crunch
- The head of the editorial department has been accused of drugging workmates
- The videogame industry, like many creative industries, is completely based around hierarchies, with those in power having lots of power, and those at the bottom, having little. Many of those in power have significant resources that allow them to exploit and to get away with serious crimes. For Curran and Seaton, while the media industries are based around power and profit, we will always have issues with exploitation.
- Controversy about characters in upcoming AC games. Yasuke the black samurai instigated a massive debate about historical accuracy and not having an east Asian protagonist.... although there is an East Asian protagonist the player can select!
- Ubisoft diversified in 2016 and released Assassin's Creed, a film. The film did not live up to sales expectations, and was poorly received for having little to do with the game series. Films and videogames are two wildly different media, and have little to do with one another
5 - Game research
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| This print advert for the Ubisoft game Rayman 3 is widely considered to be one of the worst video game adverts ever made... |