https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019 ... ogs-legionUbisoft has once again partnered up with HitRecord to give fans the opportunity to have their songs featured in its upcoming hacktivist sequel, Watch Dogs Legion.
"From the very beginning, we have always wanted to include our fans and the community in the making of our game," Ubisoft said (thanks, RPS). "Thanks to our partnership with HitRecord, our talented Watch Dogs fans and the HitRecord community have the opportunity to participate together in the creation of the musical landscape for our open world version of London.
"Whether you're a musical composer, writer, singer, player, or someone with big ideas and a lot of passion... we are super excited to hear your music composition. You can get started right away!"
This isn't the first time Ubisoft has collaborated with HitRecord, an "open community for creative collaboration"; you might remember that a similar promotion was launched at Ubisoft's E3 briefing last year.
Contributors can offer songs - or parts of songs - for themes like "Aggressive Grim Punk Song" or "Teasing Funk Pop Song", with the winning contributors expected to receive payment by January 2020.
This time around, however, HitRecord has been clear that it will pay $2,000 (which is around £1600) for each song that makes the cut, split between the people whose "contribution is in the final version that's in the game". This means you might secure hundreds of dollars, you might end up with just enough to buy a pizza, or you might end up with nothing at all; "as with every creative endeavour, some ideas won't develop or work out as we expected, and some pieces won't be the right fit for the game," Ubisoft said.
https://www.kotaku.co.uk/2019/07/15/ubi ... ion-debateUbisoft first tried this model with the science-fiction game Beyond Good and Evil 2, which is still in development. It has been criticised as a way to replace salaried or contracted work with “spec” work in which creatives volunteer their time and labour without knowing for sure whether they’ll be paid.
“This sucks,” tweeted Mike Bithell, developer of Thomas Was Alone and the upcoming John Wick Hex game, under the “nospec” hashtag. “Pay people for their labour. Stop exploiting fans and hobbyists, while devaluing the work of those with the gall to actually expect consistent payment for work done. Do better Ubi, we’re counting on you.”
Seems shadey to me