UbiSoft: Competition for Worst Publisher?

When the whole Batman: Arkham Knight issue boiled over several months ago, I'll admit I was completely bowled over. Before you even get into the fact that the company released a game in such piss-poor quality they had to take it off of Steam to convince a few customers not to refund it and before news came out they basically had 12 people total porting this game, you have to concider WB released a game that they knew was at best in Beta stages, and the best evidence for it is that literally two hours before the game came out, they increased the minimum requirements to play the game. Such action is despicable as it really can only be seen at best as an attempt to decieve people into think this is what the game was supposed to need to begin with and so it's ok if it runs like shit everywhere else, and at worst, it's an attempt to make people who are not paying attention believe it's their own fault for not reading the requirements and therefore they should just keep the pile of shit WB just shoveled out to them. It was perhaps the single most shameful display of bullshit from a AAA publisher I had ever seen... ...at least until today. After all, WB's bullshit manuver was done in a place where: The gamer could return the game for a refund once they realized how big a shit it was, no questions asked. In fact many did just that. The retailer did NOT have to swallow the loss because the AAA publisher tried to pull a fast one on their own audience. Since Valve pays the publisher in bulk for sold copies, those returned counted against them directly. And since that's the case, the publisher themselves had to feel the sting of their own actions. This kind of thing should honestly be celebrated, as we all know several titles in just the recent past where this was not the case. And since it worked and got the publisher the money, you know they will feel ok trying again, especially if they can pacify the pissed off audience with a free older game they are no longer getting any real sales from anyway. What Ubisoft has done recently (and interestingly enough I could find NO REPORTS ON IT WHEN IT HAPPEND) has none of these secruities. This newest scandal is around the PC exclusive title Heroes of Might and Magic 7, which was released back at the end of September. Leading up to this moment, the company announced three versions of the game: regular, deluxe, and Collector's editions. The last of which had to be ordered directly from Ubisoft via the uPlay store. And this version was promised according to PR information available to ship a boxed version of the game as well with a lot of physical extras. As if to confirm that, the company had a Twitch unboxing for the world to see, but if you ordered this edition of the game and live in the United States, what came to your door was something VERY different. What you got was a box that looked like it had already been opened and the disc was missing, despite a clear space for the game being there in the box and no codes. According to the 10 page-long forum on Ubisoft's own page, many people immediately came began to suspect someone who worked at the Ubisoft warehouse these were stored in had stolen the discs! However, by page 2, someone reported that they got a response from Ubisoft saying the US CE version was digital only... At this point, UbiSoft has basically shown themselves to be liars. Page three of this forum includes a picture of the store page, showing the physical content missing from what customers actually recieved, the only hint of ANYTHING maybe not being physical being the sound track... but hey, not a big deal, just return the box, right? Wrong! It already looked opened to begin with, but on top of that, the way they handled digital distribution is that the copy you bought physical and got digital is now already a used code in your uPlay account... no refunds. Yep, Ubisoft basically trapped their audience with a bullshit $100 DIGITAL COPY of a game they lied about being digital to begin with, earning them at least competition for worst publisher with WB, leaving the usual suspects in the dust.... And who talked about it? Well no one until today... when Ubisoft finally had to respond and try to appear sorry. With enough complaints, they are FINALLY offering refunds two weeks later. But of course they are also offering a free copy of one of several older games, not nearly worth the $100 these people will lose.  In the meantime, Ubisoft has redone the image to either no longer lie to their audience OR to cover up their lies during the time this game was in pre-order mode depending on who you talk to.  Considering the behavior I have witnessed in the past, I think you know what I believe happened. Sources: TechRaptor: Ubisoft Issuing Full Refunds After Heroes of Might and Magic Collector's Edition Controversy Imgur: Ubisoft uses misleading advertising for Heroes of Might & Magic 7 Collector's Edition in the US and refuses refunds to disappointed customers Ubisoft forums: [Official Statement] M&M Heroes VII - US Collector's Edition Ubisoft forums: Collector's Addition - No CD? Ubisofft store: Heroes of Might and Magic 7