Ubisoft's Far Cry titles have long required a significant time investment to complete but it was Far Cry 3 and its madcap antagonist Vaas that saw the formula refined. Now, in the face of rising time-to-completion in the latest entry Far Cry 6, Ubisoft has resorted to sending players mocking emails if they haven't put in enough hours.
Which, in all fairness, Ubisoft probably intended as a fun reminder for gamers. The emails sent to players are written in character as Far Cry 6 antagonist El Presidente Anton Castillo, played by Giancarlo Esposito, essentially mocking the low number of hours some players have put towards liberating the fictional nation of Yara. Some players are not amused. The message reads, "Hola, Rojas. I wanted to thank you for giving me free rein in Yara. Take it easy, and know that Yara is in capable hands."
It follows with the words, "Surely you can do better than this," and then the player's hours spent in-game. From some fans' point of view, it's just a little bit of friendly poking from Ubisoft. For others, the tone smacks of indignance that players have anything else to do in their lives besides liberating Yara from the clutches of the evil El Presidente.
But, as other fans online have pointed out, the email isn't unique to those who have failed to put in the required hours to satisfy the publisher's needs. Similar emails have also turned up in inboxes directly referencing player achievements within the world of Far Cry 6. El Presidente Anton Castillo is shown as defiant and even begrudgingly admiring, depending on how much progress players have made.
Esposito's villain may vacillate between threatening players and reminding them that his rule is inevitable but these jabs don't land as harshly as the one thrown at players with a very low play-time count. Far Cry has long been a time-sink, filled with side missions and distracting objectives that pull players away from the main track. Some of these distractions are forced -- upgrades must typically be earned in order to complete the game's later objectives without having to resort to preternatural skill.
Ubisoft has dispatched encouraging nudges in emails to players in the past, most recently with the launch of Watch Dogs Legion. The lack of outcry there suggests that it's not so much what Ubisoft is doing as it is the tone with which it's doing it that's the problem.
Far Cry 6 is now available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
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