I don't like Yves or any of the brothers. Recent news(yes those are recent) just proves it how greedy they are:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10374867.stm

So you are perfectly okay with only ever seeing Halos, Call of Dutys, and World of Warcraft?
The purpose of the tax breaks were to minimize the risk involved.
It is getting more and more expensive to make games every year (all those shinies cost money). That means, a lot of the studios are pretty much forced into a mentality of "make a blockbuster or fail". And what is the safest way to accomplish that? Go with "more of the same"
A tax break would help to lessen the costs, which would lead to big companies being able to take risks on things like insanely polished versions of STALKER and other games that might not necessarily be "universal goods".
Not saying I fully agree with the tax break itself (I don't know enough to make a proper decision), but it really isn't the evil money-grubbing thing that you attribute to your big bad wolf.
See, crap like this is what annoys me. People don't pay attention to what they are actually complaining about, they just see that something they don't like is commenting (not even directly involved), and that it must be inherently bad.

Oh right, as if all those 3 mentioned games are THAT different from Ubisoft's recent releases.
Anyway, games are becoming more expensinve because of the graphics, so companies want more money to make games with better graphics.
See the catch-22 ?
Ubisoft fucked PoP'08 up because they wasted all the budget on graphics as I need tor remind you and this was one of the little steps leading to our DRM to begin with since no one except Sony and MS-lovers wanted to buy boring casual games.
I think this break in is a good thing. For Ubisoft. If their headstaff and the devs got some of their old spirit back, it will mean they'll focus less on graphics and more on gameplay. Like in good old times.
But I am getting to hopeful again.

Really? I liked the PoP'08 (or was it '09?). The only problem I saw was that the sand-replacement (to minimize how frustrating the game was) was too blatant. Using the sands felt like you survived due to your own intelligence. Having The Princess rescue you was just embarrassing.
Plus, the game was kind of a forced-completionist thing. Too much backtracking. Broke the flow.
And it was actually a step toward no DRM, but let's forget about that.
And while it is true that some studios would use it to make things even shinier, that would still let them have more freedom. If you don't need to make Modern Warfare 2 to turn a profit, you can make King's Bounty.

I say PoP'08(yes it was released back in '08) had good potential, but like I said Ubisoft fucked it up by wasting the budget on the graphics.
The gameplay was pretty much boring. Automized plattforming, rip-off from Mechner's combat system but simplyfying it, same enemies, same bosses over and over again, like you said, to much backtracking, annoying lightseed hunting,repetitive after one hour, no dying. PRINCE OF PERSIA IS ABOUT DYING, THIS ISN'T A PRINCE OF PERSIA GAME!!!1
As a side note, the script was waaaaaay to cheesy and medicore. I expected Mechner's wit as in SoT, but I see only some Dante-wannabe forcing his lines to make him appear "funny" and some script probably coming from Sitcom writers. I am sure it would be more convincing if they added a "shallow laughter" option after every line of the Thief(yes, that's his canon name, not Prince but Thief.)
It had potential to be another Beyond Good and Evil, but we get a shallow shallow Sands of Time clone, a dead duck as Yahtzee described it at best.

The bigger they get the more arrogant they become, and Ubisoft IS a BIG one! In 2009 they declared over a $1b in revenues and close to nothing in profit, around march (2009-10) they had over $750m in revenues and declared losses... c'mon.... Here in Montreal the gov pays close to half of the salaries for a number of years to game developpers coming here, you read right: close to HALF... So what do you think happens? They all flock here like flies on shit: Ubi, EA, TakeTwo, Eidos, you name it. And still no profit... The only reasons they don't declare profit is that on one hand bosses line their pocket as much as they can, secondly they can hire a barrage of accountants and lawyers to put the numbers they want on paper.
While we have a game industry financed with public money we see cuts to health care and education. My neighbor, a pensioner , had an increase this year to his gov. pension: $1.26, not enough to even buy a liter of milk. That's the world we live in and the day the gov. stops paying salaries they will all flock elsewhere blaming the gov. for the lay-offs they had to do, a tear in their eyes...
So when you play Assassin's Creed 1 & 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, Prince of Persia, etc... remember they have been paid with the sweat of the nurses who have to wipe 12 patient's asses since the hospitals don't have the money to hire staff (like my wife).

Maybe he is just one of them guys that was born with a Silver Spoon in his mouth and $ is no object to him nor is ownership or freedom as he can buy all that he wants. That is of course if he was born with a Silver Spoon in his mouth you know one of them for·tu·nate ones

Sands was witty? Only if you consider "Hmm, I have a scratch on my shirt, time to rip it off and flaunt my six-pack to the hot girl" witty. :p
And PoP hasn't been about dying since SoT. In fact, people got frustrated by Warrior Within since the endgame got so incredibly difficult (fighting The Empress and Dahaka, the chases where even a single mis-step led to irreversible death and having to restart the entire chase, etc). if anything, PoP08 made things better by minimizing that. It just did a poor approach which made people feel cheated.

/me wonders how this thread came back to life :P