Free-for-all discussion!
#54323
"April opens a new fiscal year, this is an opportunity for publishers to talk about what they did best.
Ubisoft is therefore a retrospective of its flagship licenses indicating the number of sales of each: unsurprisingly found Assasin 's Creed and Just Dance on top but note the lowly 10th of Driver behind Prince Of Persia but before Rabbits morons with 19 million units sold.

Obviously , the publisher takes into account the sales of the first Driver previously published by GT Interactive and Atari / Infogrames . As a reminder, the last dated Driver Driver San Francisco made ​​sales of around 2 million and above Ubisoft expectations. One can hope that Ubisoft will not let down one of its most profitable licenses but the success of Watch Dogs and The Crew could seal his fate, like Prince of Persia no longer exists since the rise of Assasin's Creed because it was too similar."
TL;DR-When WD and TC end up selling better than DSF, UbiShit will kill off the Driver license. GG UbiShit.
#54326
I agree because Ubisoft has put all the effort into Watch Dogs, merchandising, huge marketing and they even planning a movie despite the game hasn't been released yet, which is a risky decision. Also i've heard that they planning already a 2nd game and make Watch Dogs a anual game like Assasins Creed, which about they said we will keep doing anual games until consumers say stop. So in this situation there's no place for a Driver game, since both Watch Dogs and The Crew have filled its place. About Prince of Persia recently some Ubi Reflections leaked a message on twitter which was later deleted that hinted a new game of the series.

I seriously don't know how Ubisoft will handle so many franchises and yet so similar. Driver still has potential because its style is unique, we haven't seen games similar so far and i think that Ubisoft will kill the Driver license because mostly want to focus in new franchises and the sucessful one's, which bring them more profit instead of making a game for "90s nostalgic fans". Driver still can be a commercial sucess if it's treated good, with good and well perfmormed ideas and diferentiation from other games, other thing is that Ubisoft doesn't want to. I don't want to see Driver as another NFS.
#54327
I doubt they're planning to kill it off *yet* but there is no place for Driver right now, quite frankly, I couldn't agree more. If Watch Dogs is to succeed, naturally there will be a sequel. Maybe the same with The Crew. Gotta say though, if DSF will live on as the last Driver game, the series had the shittiest ending of all times and the most unappreciated. Should've just called it Driver: Sure Fiasco.

Chances are if Driver comes back though, it'll be absolutely HORRIBLY casualized and turned into lame sh*t for kids to bring in more sales.
#54331
0takumetalhead wrote:Good thing Ubishit is on my boycott list together with EA and HaCKtivision
You guys are just bad mouthing ubisoft (or ubishit hahah) but you gotta remember, Driver used to be published by ATARI!!! atari forced reflections to release an unfinished driv3r....Driv3r if it had gotten more time could of been one of the best games ever in the eyes of the public, but because Atari needed the money quick, driv3r was released unfinished and only hardcore fans like us appreciate it. Now i know Ubisoft have been ignoring some bugs (for example the pc version of DriverSF is horrid when it comes to multiplayer bugs) but overall Driver San Francisco was THE BEST DRIVER in the public eye since driver 1...that has to show that it was a good game, maybe not to you guys...but at the end of the day it got decent reviews and sold well so Ubisoft will make another (eventually), Ubisoft are the best of the Evil big publishers such as EA and Activision, we just need to look back on the days of Atari and appreciate what we have ATM.
#54334
Fab2cent wrote:sh*t ton of text
Atari also published Driver 1, 2, Parallel Lines and Stuntman which are considered as good installments of the Driver series (excluding stuntman), if not great. Their overall success beats the heck out of what Reflections has achieved under Ubisoft's hook.

'Frisco is also the game that turned off a huge number of Driver fans away and lead many to believe it was a disappointment, perhaps even a HUGE disappointment.
#54340
Fab2cent wrote:
0takumetalhead wrote:Good thing Ubishit is on my boycott list together with EA and HaCKtivision
snip
Atleast they f***ing learned from their mistakes w/ DPL (the best title together with the first game in the series for me).
#54342
Not to mention Driver 2 was released very early unfinished. Reflections should have been given a few more months to further improve the game and optimize it. Tanner in D2 actually doesn't have a weird "Walk" but he is actually jogging/running. On the very first mission in D2, before you enter your vehicle, you will experience a very high framerate and notice Tanner is really running and the game feels more alive. Besides that, if UbiLimpD#%k kills Driver, I would definitely buy the license for the game and round up the good driver games concepts and make a truly amazing Driver "reincarnated". I could not live without Driver being a living game (Living as in still being worked on, more of them released)
Last edited by VAIMAHDO on Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
#54351
Just found this :) http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... eed-pulled

Reflections working on a Prince of Persia game!! weird...

But this gives me faith in Ubisoft, maybe driver will come back...when the time is right
#54353
0takumetalhead wrote:
Fab2cent wrote:
0takumetalhead wrote:Good thing Ubishit is on my boycott list together with EA and HaCKtivision
snip
Atleast they f***ing learned from their mistakes w/ DPL (the best title together with the first game in the series for me).
Agreed.
#54357
Fab2cent wrote:
0takumetalhead wrote:Good thing Ubishit is on my boycott list together with EA and HaCKtivision
You guys are just bad mouthing ubisoft (or ubishit hahah) but you gotta remember, Driver used to be published by ATARI!!! atari forced reflections to release an unfinished driv3r....Driv3r if it had gotten more time could of been one of the best games ever in the eyes of the public, but because Atari needed the money quick, driv3r was released unfinished and only hardcore fans like us appreciate it. Now i know Ubisoft have been ignoring some bugs (for example the pc version of DriverSF is horrid when it comes to multiplayer bugs) but overall Driver San Francisco was THE BEST DRIVER in the public eye since driver 1...that has to show that it was a good game, maybe not to you guys...but at the end of the day it got decent reviews and sold well so Ubisoft will make another (eventually), Ubisoft are the best of the Evil big publishers such as EA and Activision, we just need to look back on the days of Atari and appreciate what we have ATM.
I've to agree with you in some points, Driver was pushing PS1 hardware to the limit and was a very good game for the time with low pressure on them. After the success of Driver 1 they were forced to release a new game very quick on the same platform and with even new features hard to achieve smoothly on that kind of hardware. In less than a year we saw Driver 2, a great game but could have been way better if they would released for PS2 (as said in one magazine), so we received a buggy game with framerate issues, popping...

Despite of that it suprisingly sold well so Atari thought, "let's do it again", in 2001 GTA III saw a huge success so Atari wanted a strong competitor on the market to take a piece of the benefits of the boom of sandbox games. That proved more after the success of GTA III VC. So close to the release to the next big game of GTA series Atari marketed Driver 3 into Driv3r and called it a GTA killer but in reality game was far of completion, like in the case of Driver 2. With tight deadlines to release the game before and get more sales we received a unfinished product (like unpolished on foot sections or shooting mechanics). Ironically the game released after had way more sales, although it was also buggy it's basic mechanics were way more polished (although driving sections were always sh*tty).

Driver PL was the last effort with Atari, but Atari was already almost bankrupt so the game didn't have huge marketing and had a lower budget. So it had very low sales but despite of that i think is one of the most polished games released by Reflections, but it was already late because Driver brand was already wounded by the criticism of Driv3r. To save themselves Atari sold Driver to Ubisoft, Ubisoft done pretty good with DPL PC version and Driver 76.

About DSF, gameplay wise Driver SF is clearly a very polished game, with attention to the vehicles mechanics, their reaction to different environments... And can be considered one of their best works.
But for me what failed in DSF (although despite of the positive reviews) is that the game tried to be way to casual friendly leaving that mature side we saw in previous installments. In gameplay it felt truly a Driver for me but seeing it from a storyline perspective it didn't fit for me. Maybe it was a decision to bring more audience or either leave the Driv3r critics flop to not experience the same again. For the new players maybe it's a good game storywise since they didn't play the previous games but for the die hard fans it felt different (at least i think so). With that much spent on Driver license they have to get back the investment so i think they maybe planning another Driver game, but not soon. In my opinion DSF came back to its roots with gameplay but not with the way the story was treated.
#54363
I think they called D3 a "GTA killer" because they were pissed off for Tanner being made fun of in GTA 3. Leading to the "Timmy's" all over the place. (By the way, I can't help but to burst out laughing at the kids swimming gear he is wearing.) :mrgreen:
#54491
I can't imagine they wouldn't release another one eventually, after the money they spent on the license, and the fact that DSF did okay.

And even if they do want rid of it, I'm sure someone would buy the rights. (In fact Driver seems like it could be the perfect candidate for a Kickstarter campaign, if no one else wanted it; a game that most older people remember and remember fondly at that).

To be honest, I'd love to even see someone release something like a PS Vita, PC, or download only game for PS3/360/PS4, using most of the stuff from DSF, but with a new storyline; a bit like Ubisoft did with Driver 76.
Crazy Copper Frenzy

https://youtu.be/xAE3QsULyB4

https://youtu.be/AxdGf3F0yIg

Driv3r "Nice Getaway"

https://youtu.be/CYkmGAPoO9s Lucas in Driv3r's Ni[…]

https://youtu.be/Yvc_xKrKhnc?si=k4I5kraarTXctHJp […]