Assassin's Creed Origins, released last month, is a very good video game. In it, players take on the role of Bayek, a law-enforcing Medjay in ancient Egypt, bent on getting revenge against a mysterious order that caused the death of his son.
It’s the latest instalment in Ubisoft’s blockbuster series, which has sold more than 100 million units since its debut in 2007.
The reason it’s so good? It’s because there wasn’t an Assassin’s Creed game last year.
Sensing that the gaming public was tiring of its annualised releases – and that the franchise was starting to buckle under the weight of repetitiveness – France-based Ubisoft decided to take the year off.
Doing so meant a big hole in its all-important holiday season lineup, where game publishers make the lion’s share of their annual revenue.
But it also delivered some big upsides. Assassin's Creed Origins feels fresher. It's expansive, impressive and lots of fun to play.
Every game is also bound to have its share of bugs, but this one runs particularly fluidly, an amazing achievement given its size and scope. Ubisoft’s developers clearly benefited from more time to work on their product.
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The hardware industry – especially smartphone makers – could learn a thing or two from the game maker’s approach, given the rash of malfunctions, missteps and problems they’re currently dealing with.
The latest came last week, when it emerged that Apple’s newly released iPhone X is having problems functioning in cold weather. Several users reported on social media that their keyboards were freezing up when it was freezing out.
Apple has copped to the issue and is promising a fix, but the timeline is unknown for now. This is obviously not a issue for customers in the UAE, but with winter coming in the northern world, it’s not a good look for the company and its US$1,000 flagship device.
The iPhone news comes shortly after revelations of screen troubles with the recently released Pixel 2 XL smartphones.
As several media outlets reported a few weeks ago, some of Google’s devices have a tendency to suffer from burn-in, which is where traces of an image can remain on the screen after being displayed for too long.
The company says the issue is affecting only a small number of review handsets. But as with Apple’s snafu, it isn’t the sort of thing that inspires confidence with consumers.
The two issues seem minor, so far at least, when compared to Samsung's battery apocalypse last year, where Galaxy Note 7 phones spontaneously burst into flames. The situation ended with a recall that cost the company at least $5 billion, not to mention a damaged brand and the goodwill of many customers.
Put the incidents and other similar ones together, and it seems like there's a quality-control problem in smartphone production today. It begs the question as to why deep-pocketed technology giants can't release products that work properly, without developing major malfunctions.
The answer is likely that they’re all feeling competitive pressure – a need to release new products on an annual basis whether there’s a call for them or not, simply because the other guys are doing so.
Google can’t take a year off because Samsung won’t. Samsung can’t take a year off because Apple won’t. And Apple won’t take a year off because an overwhelming portion of its revenue – more than 60 per cent – is generated by the iPhone.
Apple is in fact going in the other direction by releasing more than one smartphone annually, with the iPhone 8 joining the iPhone X this year. But that also seems like a wrong move.
The year isn’t over yet, but consumer demand for the more advanced and costlier iPhone X is looking healthy. Demand for the more iterative iPhone 8, however, hasn’t been as hot. As one Canadian cellphone carrier recently put it, it’s actually been “anemic.”
Apple is unfortunately in the driver's seat here. As a company that is largely dependent on hardware, the likelihood of taking a year off is close to nil, despite the fact that consumer demand is indeed hitting a plateau. This year, smartphone sales have alternated between low single-digit gains and slides, depending on the quarter.
That’s too bad, because all of the major manufacturers could benefit from fewer releases. Giving developers an extra year could result in fantastic products, just like the latest Assassin’s Creed game, and possibly even stronger consumer demand.
At the very least, the extra time could mean phones that neither explode, nor malfunction when the weather gets cold.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
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Challenge Cup result:
1. UAE 3 faults
2. Ireland 9 faults
3. Brazil 11 faults
4. Spain 15 faults
5. Great Britain 17 faults
6. New Zealand 20 faults
7. Italy 26 faults
Places to go for free coffee
- Cherish Cafe Dubai, Dubai Investment Park, are giving away free coffees all day.
- La Terrace, Four Points by Sheraton Bur Dubai, are serving their first 50 guests one coffee and four bite-sized cakes
- Wild & The Moon will be giving away a free espresso with every purchase on International Coffee Day
- Orange Wheels welcome parents are to sit, relax and enjoy goodies at ‘Café O’ along with a free coffee
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SQUADS
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Azhar Ali, Shan Masood, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Bilal Asif, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Wahab Riaz
Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (capt), Lahiru Thirimanne (vice-capt), Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella, Rangana Herath, Lakshan Sandakan, Dilruwan Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Gamage
Umpires: Ian Gould (ENG) and Nigel Llong (ENG)
TV umpire: Richard Kettleborough (ENG)
ICC match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
England squads for Test and T20 series against New Zealand
Test squad: Joe Root (capt), Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Dominic Sibley, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes
T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Pat Brown, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Lewis Gregory, Chris Jordan, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, James Vince
The biog
Name: Gul Raziq
From: Charsadda, Pakistan
Family: Wife and six children
Favourite holes at Al Ghazal: 15 and 8
Golf Handicap: 6
Childhood sport: cricket
Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
LOVE%20AGAIN
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BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
