Operation #BrokenSyndicate Operation #BrokenSyndicate is an operation coordinated via twitter targeting the injustices caused by Ubisoft revolving this years Assassin's Creed title, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and listing reasons for why consumers should not give their money to Ubisoft who have been incredibly distrustful regarding the quality of their recent titles and like EA have contributed to misdeeds game journalists over their last major releases. This game will be releasing for PC in November (console versions were out on October 23rd) and this pastebin also shows more information for those who may be considering buying Syndicate on console and shows why Ubisoft is not worth supporting and why this game fails to match Ubisoft's promises for better quality while instead they have continued the same old games of bribery and poor optimization. Background: In November 2014 after the terrible launch of AC: Unity on PC and consoles, Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat came out with a statement apologizing to players for bugs and performance issues that plagued Unity players particularly on PC: https://archive.is/5S52C In order to create a more "balanced" game, Ubisoft reported that AC: Syndicate will not have multiplayer making it the first AC title to not include multiplayer since AC II due to wanting to make Syndicate better in quality as a 1st person experience: https://archive.is/uLju2 Ubisoft also reportedly promised a month before AC: Syndicate's console release that the game will not be "as broken as Unity." and are "working hard to make sure the game is in great shape.": https://archive.is/Z9San 1 month before launch Eurogamer came out and said that Syndicate has fixed issues that plagued Unity and is "running smoothly" in the pre-build that the reviewer got his hands on and that Ubisoft's creative director said that they aim to make the game "run as smooth as possible" and to improve performance: https://archive.is/ahLcX However now with Syndicate's launch, those early reports of Ubisoft saying "we fixed it!" were obvious lies, which are shown in the next section of this pastebin.   Game quality issues: Footage from the games release shows an array of bugs and technical issues shown with the console version of the game, from character glitches, to lighting malfunctions to cut-scenes LITERALLY CRASHING THE GAME: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mdn5Tn1zBo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j613Uo-E93M One reviewer discovered even more problems, ranging from non-existent lip syncing during cutscenes, the grappling hook rarely working as well as framerate issues and multiple crashes during the first few hours of playing along with a cutscene breaking the game https://archive.is/nYvhJ So even with less crowd sizes then Unity and no multiplayer, Ubisoft barely made Syndicate's single player experience barely less bug-filled then Unity but it still looks to be almost unplayable during certain parts of the game. However despite the game being a mess, that fact won't change and fixes will probably not come for another month or more like how it was with Unity and the game will still get a decent Metacritic rating due to reasons below. Accounts of bribery, malpractice and botched reviews: During a press event for the 2014 blockbuster release of Watch_Dogs, Ubisoft gave out free Nexus 7 tablets to attendees who were mainly in gaming media. Later Ubisoft UK tweeted that it wasn't in line with their PR policy, but did not seek to re-claim the tablets and many in the gaming community saw it as a bribe but none of the attendees reportedly gave back the gift: https://archive.is/pSuY1 A German gaming magazine reported that Ubisoft would not secure them access to an Assassin's Creed II review copy unless they were guaranteed a score of "Very Good," https://archive.is/ig8PO Steam users also noticed that the Assassin's Creed Unity metacritic got a number of 10/10s from newly created accounts, which were hinted to be bots or Ubisoft marketers themselves especially after Unity's PC problems were shown on release: https://steamcommunity.com/app/289650/discussions/0/624074858802241287/ [Unverified] Also there was a report about Ubisoft telling students at a college that they kept locks on PC framerate to 30fps, to match consoles, and to have spec requirements so high for PC due to console makers like Sony and Microsoft wanting to keep consumers away from PC gaming which alienates a market of almost 100 million people (aggregate Steam user stats): https://archive.is/NbIWh However surprisingly enough the game ended up with a metacritic score of 76 (6 points better then Unity's 70) and again the user ratings are full of 100 scores from newly created accounts that only have rated that specific game. Even among all this, professional reviewers still gave Syndicate high scores, high 80s to 90s, while acknowledging its very present bugs but never the times when the game breaks, which goes to show that Ubisoft's trend of bribing and altering metacritic scores hasn't changed. Source: https://archive.is/ffR8g So there you have it, these are the reasons I personally won't be supporting Ubisoft by buying this game from their failed promise for positive change to a continuation of bribing reviewers and funding the misdeeds in gaming journalism. If you are looking for an alternative for some historical London fix try MediEvil 2 or Wolfenstein: The New Order, the latter is not set particularly in Victorian London but has a similar industrial aesthetic to the setting, both are incredibly fun games. This is the first draft which may be updated later. Please make sure to share this information on twitter under the hashtag #brokensyndicate, and let other consumers know why Ubisoft doesn't deserve their support and why change must be fueled by not supporting Ubisoft's current practices with your hard earned money. Please post any info you have on Ubisoft injustices, bonus if its linked to corrupt journos, and remember tweet any info under #brokensyndicate