Ubisoft quietly drops claim that paid progression is 'more fun' from annual report

Ubisoft's latest annual report has quietly dropped one of its most mocked lines from last year's edition — the claim that paying to progress faster makes games "more fun." Game File's Stephen Totilo spotted the deletion while cross-referencing the two documents.

The removed passage read: "Our monetization offer within premium games makes the player experience more fun by allowing them to personalize their avatars or progress more quickly." The rest of the microtransaction boilerplate remains largely intact — Ubisoft still insists its golden rule is letting players enjoy premium games without mandatory extra spending — but that specific line about paid acceleration being a feature rather than a compromise is simply gone, with the report moving straight to the next bullet point. The new report's fresh additions focus on plans to leverage AI at scale and the challenges of managing hype cycles.

These annual reports are dense investor documents that tend to recycle established language year over year, which is exactly why deletions and additions stand out. The "more fun" framing drew widespread ridicule when it surfaced last year because it dressed up pay-to-progress mechanics — a practice that has drawn regulatory scrutiny from lawmakers in multiple countries weighing whether loot boxes and accelerator purchases cross into gambling territory — as a player benefit. Ubisoft is hardly alone in this space; paid progression has crept from free-to-play and mobile into full-priced games across the industry, and player revolts have already forced course corrections at other publishers.

The same report that quietly buried the "more fun" line also flags lengthening development cycles as a major risk — a concern that lands with some irony given Ubisoft's own track record. Skull and Bones spent roughly a decade in development and created legal headaches with the Singapore government. The Prince of Persia remake went years without a meaningful update before being cancelled outright. Beyond Good & Evil 2 is approaching a decade since its announcement with little to show for it. The report acknowledges that bloated cycles burn through hype and cede ground to competitors — a conclusion that cost the company a great deal to reach. Average wages at the company are also noted as being down.