Ubisoft has made the news thanks to some comments from its Director of Subscriptions Philipe Tremblay.

During a recent interview, Tremblay made comments regarding the future of subscription-based streaming services in gaming. Coverage of his comments spread rapidly and sparked an entire Internet movement.

It may seem weird that a topic as nuanced as subscription-based streaming could spark so much outrage. Unfortunately, the ire wasn’t ever directed at that topic, it was directed at one line.

Many took issue with a bit where Tremblay said gamers need to get comfortable not owning their games. The comment seemed to be in response to what would need to happen for subscription-based streaming services to take off in gaming.

Many readers perceived the quote as a threat of an ominous future. Without the proper context, they wouldn’t be wrong in that assessment.

There is a real debate around physical and digital purchases and what that exactly means. Any person would be fully justified in being upset that a major game developer would say something like this.

The problem is much of the gaming media got its coverage terribly wrong. It left out vital context and went the route of a clickbait headline.

In this day and age, many people sadly do not read past the headline thus sparking the outrage. You can’t have these necessary conversations without accurate information. Running with out-of-context quotes only cheapens a monumentally important conversation.

Gamers deserve much better.

I’m not here to defend Tremblay or Ubisoft. I’m not here to tell you if subscription-based services are good or bad. I’m for sure not here to debate physical vs. digital. I am here to discuss how coverage of these comments failed and will direct my comments to addressing the inadequate reporting.

As a former journalist, it pains me to see how poor the coverage was and, in turn, how much people do not read past the headline. That is largely the motivation behind this editorial.

The Missing Context: Ubisoft and Phillipe Tremblay

Tremblay recently sat down for an interview with Christopher Dring of GameIndustry.biz. In that interview, Tremblay discussed the shift in Ubisoft’s recent subscription service Ubisoft+ Premium.

This new subscription service allows players access to day one titles from the developer for $17.99 a month. This is available on Xbox, PC, and Amazon Luna.

In explaining the new service, the conversation shifted to streaming services in gaming. Tremblay talked about how Ubisoft had seen consumers trending toward these types of services.

He also discussed how some use these types of services, remarking that he’s seen many play a game via a subscription service and end up buying it later.

The point is not to force users to go down one route or another. We offer purchase, we offer subscription, and it’s the gamer’s preference that is important here. We are seeing some people who buy choosing to subscribe now, but it all works.

Philippe Tremblay

The conversation then shifted to the potential of subscription-based services and why they haven’t taken off like in other media such as TV, movies, and music.

Tremblay said he believed it is because gamers aren’t yet comfortable giving up their game collections. In other media, it worked because many consumers were ready to give up their DVD or music collection for streaming services.

He then said that attitude is what needs to happen for a subscription-based services to take off in gaming.

One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That’s the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That’s a transformation that’s been a bit slower to happen [in games].

Philippe Tremblay

He later said he understands where gamers are coming from in this respect.

I still have two boxes of DVDs. I definitely understand the gamers perspective with that. But as people embrace that model, they will see that these games will exist, the service will continue, and you’ll be able to access them when you feel like. That’s reassuring.

Philippe Tremblay

The article then goes on to discuss challenges in gaming subscriptions and included quotes from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot from a previous interview.

The interview wraps up with Tremblay discussing his interactions with subscription services and how subscription fatigue does pose a lot of challenges moving forward as Ubisoft reenters this market.

Tremblay ends with an invitation to gamers to join Ubisoft’s new subscription service.

“We’re asking for a low commitment from gamers,” he said during the interview. “We welcome them whether they want to stay a month or multiple months.”

To My Colleagues in the Media

News coverage is a passion of mine. I think journalism, at its purest, is vital to a functioning society. Without it, the governed can’t properly give their consent as Thomas Jefferson envisioned in the Declaration of Independence.

Of course, we’re talking about video games and not political coverage. Still, the responsibility of a journalist is to take information from those who have it and give it to those who ought to have it. You can’t properly do that if you’re leaning so obviously into clickbait.

The Society of Professional Journalists’s Code of Ethics outlines four major points that all journalists should follow. One of them is to Seek Truth and Report It.

Under this point, SPJ outlines how journalist can properly Seek Truth and Report It. One such way is to “provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.”

I believe gaming media failed in this aspect. The headlines seen throughout the news media all misrepresent Tremblay’s words and minimize an entire conversation down to an inflammatory sentence.

We live in an age of “Angertainment,” or media solely meant to rile up its viewers or readers. This is prevalent in political coverage and has worsened over the last 16 years.

My friends in the media, don’t fall into angertainment. Seek truth and report it accurately and fairly. Sure, it might not be as sexy as a controversial headline, but your credibility depends on it.

Trust in the news media is laughably low. You may not see video game coverage on the level of other topics, but to me, credibility is the same across the board and the reader doesn’t see much difference between a games reporter and a political correspondent. To them, it’s all just the news media.

Be the change that could help restore more credibility to news coverage. The more gamers can trust you, the more successful you will be.

To My Fellow Gamers

Social Media has trained us to look for the smallest amount of information and run with it. People know this and they are banking on you not doing your proper research as is the case of what happened with Tremblay’s comments.

We’ve got to be better in this aspect.

Many may say, “what is the harm in not understanding the full context? There is a real problem with losing access to digital games.” That may be the case but don’t use out-of-context quotes to justify your outrage.

I’ve been through many gaming Facebook groups over the last week and have seen this quote pop up a lot. Then, people started posting that “if buying a game isn’t owning it, then piracy isn’t stealing.”

Everyone has their own thoughts and morals on the topic of piracy, but don’t use an out-of-context quote to justify it. You owe it to yourself to get the full picture because no where in Tremblay’s comments did he explicitly threaten your games with an ominous future. He was merely exploring a hypothetical, likely with an agenda, but he spoke with nuance.

We need to understand that gamers are diverse. We all have different backgrounds, situations, and locations. You might not agree with subscription-based services, but there are plenty who do.

It is OK to have differing views and practices on this. Obviously, Tremblay has a stake in subscription services so he’s going to champion them. There are plenty who agree with him.

Rather than fighting among ourselves over an out-of-context quote, we should actually have meaningful debate. This would require reading past the headline, but it can work wonders because you can have an in-depth conversation.

The gaming media absolutely needs to be more responsible in its coverage. That said, there is some ownership we should take in this.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion and to express your displeasure with the issue one way or the other. I’m not asking you to change your views. Rather, I’m asking you to do your proper research and don’t let clickbait unnecessarily rile you up.

If you’re going to hate, hate responsibly.

In Conclusion

I thank you for coming to my soapbox.

My purpose is not to persuade you one way or the other on the topics Tremblay discussed. Rather, my beef is with how it was covered and the reaction to an out-of-context quote.

We just went through this with Martin Scorsese and his comments about cinema. How many times is it going to happen before we finally get it?

There are absolutely conversations to be had about what Tremblay discussed and other related topics. It just needs to be done with accurate information and full context.

At the end of the day, we all just need to be a little better.

Featured Image: Ubisoft (via GameIndustry.biz)

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