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[nani17]

Last week, Ubisoft announced in an emergency meeting with its investors that the company will be cutting around $215 million in costs over the next two years. As a part of these cuts, it was revealed that three unannounced games have been canceled – with four more games announced as cancelled last year. As well as these cancellations and in what could be considered an unsurprising announcement, the publisher also revealed that Skull and Bones will be delayed again until FY24 (April 2023 – March 2024).

It’s not uncommon for games to be cancelled to reduce costs, but why is Ubisoft delaying and cancelling its games at what appears to be an unprecedented rate?

Over the past week or so, I’ve been speaking with five current and former employees at Ubisoft, who have requested to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak about company information, to get their thoughts and understanding of what exactly is the reason behind the delays and cancelations.

In a company-wide email sent to employees on January 11 (first reported by Kotaku and seen by Insider Gaming), Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot called on employees to have their “full energy and commitment to ensure we get back on the path to success”.

In the email, it was said that the company plans to release “Skull and Bones, AC Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and other yet-to-be-announced projects – including one major game – as well as our first AAA mobile games with R6 Mobile and The Division Resurgence”, in FY24.

Following the announcements and as of January 16, Ubisoft stock fell to 20.79 euros – the lowest its been since late 2015. In fact, Ubisoft’s stock now sits at -78% from its all-time high of 94.44 euros in July 2018.

One employee, who said they hadn’t been affected by the current news, revealed that management has seemingly been pushing the narrative that delays have been caused by hybrid and fully remote working, which were adopted during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it was said by the employee it was “early days” for Ubisoft to rectify this issue, the changes currently being discussed would eliminate fully remote work from next year.

The consensus among the employee’s Insider Gaming talked to though, was that the reason for delays and cancellations was that most of the games were “not what gamers wanted”, which was reflected in feedback during QA and playtests. Battle Royale has been a hugely popular genre these past couple of years and Ubisoft has seemingly been trying to capitalize on its success, to no avail. One employee had said they had known of at least a dozen Battle Royale games in various stages of development at one time but didn’t know the fate of most of these games.

A Glimmer of Hope
On a surprising note though, almost all of the employee’s Insider Gaming spoke to had said that the reason behind the delays and cancellations was due to games needing more polish.

One employee said, “We certainly aren’t running short of games, they are just taking forever”. The employee revealed that they’ve been working on an unannounced live-service game since 2019, but the game isn’t forecasted to release until 2025/2026 at the earliest. Other games, which are also yet to be announced, have already been given 2027 or longer release dates.

So moving forward, at least for the current time being, Ubisoft is likely to be known for delaying its games – But fingers crossed it means its games are more polished.

Employees at Ubisoft have told Insider Gaming that Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are expected to do incredibly well for Ubisoft in FY24, and that follow-up emails and meetings following last Wednesday’s announcements were to “set expectations” of the companies pipeline of content.

Although not yet confirmed, it’s believed that Ubisoft’s yet-to-be-announced major game is likely Project Orlando – Which is a new The Crew title. Assassin’s Creed Project Nexus is also scheduled to release during FY24, too, but technically the game has already been announced.

Source

 

[winjer]

And they all failed...

 

[dDoc]

 

[Fuz]

Just when I was starting feeling bad for them.

A dozen of the same shitty game

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

Was the idea to make 99 battle royale games go up against each other? In the end, only one needs to survive to generate billions.

I like it.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

These guys are tragic. 12 of the same style game in development is exactly why their studio is failing miserably.

Although, it’s nothing new for them because most of their big franchises follow the same formula. Open world that has a small amount of content multiplied by 1000 to fit the huge map, level gating and enemies with health bars.

 

[nani17]

Assassins creed BR
Splinter Cell BR
Rayman BR
For Honor BR
Seige BR
Division BR
Anno BR
Rocksmith BR
Skull and Bones BR
Far Cry BR
Watch Dogs BR
Just Dance BR

 

[chromatic9]

This is pretty normal, multiple projects are started and probably one or two get picked to continue or sometimes non. All depends how far they get and how much money is spent really.

 

[Wildebeest]

Even the Lawbreakers devs managed to squeeze out one BR game before they folded.

 

[Spyxos]

Did i read it right no new games in 2023?

 

[Buggy Loop]

 

[VN1X]

Even the Lawbreakers devs managed to squeeze out one BR game before they folded.

Man... really wish Lawbreakers didn't crash and burn as much as it did as I thoroughly enjoyed that for the brief moment it was allowed to live.

It was "my Overwatch" basically where the focus was on shooting rather than the MOBA aspects of it all and I was actually good at it lol. Loved dominating in that game.

 

[Heisenberg007]

And they had to cancel a dozen Battle Royal games?! I'm so sad!

 

[rofif]

It’s so typical that all these devs totally forgot that they got huge because of single player games.

br place is taken

 

[Wildebeest]

Man... really wish Lawbreakers didn't crash and burn as much as it did as I thoroughly enjoyed that for the brief moment it was allowed to live.

It was "my Overwatch" basically where the focus was on shooting rather than the MOBA aspects of it all and I was actually good at it lol. Loved dominating in that game.

Overwatch was popular with kids though, so had an active player base with nothing better to do. Same with Fortnite.

 

[nani17]

Don't forget when multiplayer started getting big on consoles devs thought their games needed it. Uncharted had it and so did Assassin's creed and I feel BR started a similar trend.

 

[Hendrick's]

Damn remote employees and their mouse jigglers.

 

[akaFullmetal]

Damn, that's a lot. Only really need one to make it big to recoup their money. However it's like catching lightning in a bottle.

 

[AJUMP23]

They know it only takes one to hit. Just throwing stuff out there to see what hits.

 

[Fbh]

A dozen projects and the best they could make was hyper scape? lol

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Ubisoft is trash. Won't be missed if they die.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Hopefully 3 or 4 of them are still in production. It would be interesting to see what they can do with the formula. It's still such a nascent genre.

 

[cireza]

People were all working on the same, they simply didn't know it because communication was not clear.

 

[crackajack]

Trying to follow a highly profitable trend is probably no bad idea, even spreading it to several teams, but if you have a dozen prototypes at some early stage and not one of them is good enough to proceed you clearly have to look for better game directors, or whoever failed at forming something, none seem competent enough, at least not for those BR games and most should probably not have been given any green light and stayed with whatever they probably are more capable of. Doing Splinter Cell, Rayman or something else safe, anything people actually ask for from Ubi.
But eg Fortnite did also take kind of forever before release and transformed a bit. Or was that something else? Maybe one or two are still coming?

 

[Spaceman292]

Assassins creed BR
Splinter Cell BR
Rayman BR
For Honor BR
Seige BR
Division BR
Anno BR
Rocksmith BR
Skull and Bones BR
Far Cry BR
Watch Dogs BR
Just Dance BR

Just Dance BR would be fun as fuck and you know it

 

[Gambit2483]

They used to be Trendsetters, now they are trend chasers. This is why they are failing in the industry

 

[TVexperto]

yves needs to step down

he is probably too busy drinking champagne with his other brothers on a boat

 

[FUBARx89]

Didn't they realise they can't do a BR when the last 2 failed. Idiots.

Management needs changing cause Ubisoft is in such a shit state.

 

[Kataploom]

Just Dance BR would be fun as fuck and you know it

No joke, it would, actually

 

[NickFire]

Just Dance BR

I'd hate it to death (can't dance, won't dance). Would probably become a worldwide sensation though. The spiritual successor to Wii even.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

They used to be Trendsetters, now they are trend chasers. This is why they are failing in the industry

I agree. In the Xbox/PS2/GC era, they did feel like they had their finger on the pulse of something. Even Assassin's Creed felt really tuned to the moment when it first launched.

I believe the destruction of Ubisoft is the story of a company that was very much intune with the direction of the monoculture. Then the monoculture evaporated.

Now they either rely on spaghetti on the wall art styles trying to be hip to teens (who spot the boomer), chasing the latest trends, or otherwise get by on being the history channel of video games.

 

[DonF]

Ubi gonna soft

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Can't blame them. they need to chase that dough.

 

[MiguelItUp]

This isn't surprising at all. They were trying to get a slice of that pie and hoping they could knock it out of the park with one.

I'm glad they failed. No one of should work on a project that is strictly driven by a hope to "make it" and I'm sure that's what they were doing considering a dozen BRs is pretty telling, lol.

 

[DeepEnigma]

 

[gothmog]

So Fortnite really did kill Ubisoft...

 

[ComputerBlue]

This is why I don’t like Ubisoft as much anymore, they used to be a really creative studio, they tried to innovate, now they just basically try to copy. Even worse, if they’re not copying someone else, they’re copying themselves. Innovation is essentially dead there.

 

[diffusionx]

When it comes to these genres, there are usually two big games, and maybe room for a third, but almost never room for a fourth. Think C&C/AOE/Blizzcraft back in the day with the rest fighting for scraps (and to be clear there were a LOT of good RTS games). Sometimes you cant even have a third, like MOBA where it just became DOTA/LOL with HON and HOTS falling off instantly.

Obviously this isn’t a hard and fast rule, but PUBG established the genre, then Fortnite swept in, then EA released Apex which blew up. There are your three games. There was no way some Ubishit cookie cutter game was going to push one of those out. You’re just wasting your time and money at that point, but it’s probably an easy sell to management because they look at a game like Apex and say “well i want one of those.” Especially if your management is bad because you just pushed out a bunch of people who helped build your company.

 

[Kerotan]

Imagine a siege royale with all maps stuck together shrinking in.

Imagine ghost recon Wildlands map with a zone closing in.

Lot's of potential there but not sure how the fuck they had another 10. Rabbids royale lmao.

 

[Sybrix]

Ubisoft's "Project Q" Has Been Canceled

Insider Gaming has learned that Ubisoft's Battle Arena title, codenamed Project Q has been canceled by the publisher.

insider-gaming.com

 

[eastcoastkody]

Assassins creed battle royale could be cool. I remember loving the multiplayer in Brotherhood. Where you could blend in with the NPCs.

imagine a team running to get to the next circle. And there is a group of NPCs conversing. But its really a full 4 man squad that you ran by unknowingly

 

[Gambit2483]

This is why I don’t like Ubisoft as much anymore, they used to be a really creative studio, they tried to innovate, now they just basically try to copy. Even worse, if they’re not copying someone else, they’re copying themselves. Innovation is essentially dead there.

They lost a lot of really creative talent over the years. The people who innovated and first created many of their franchises; Rayman, Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed...that pool of talent is no longer there (and hasn't been replaced).

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

When it comes to these genres, there are usually two big games, and maybe room for a third, but almost never room for a fourth. Think C&C/AOE/Blizzcraft back in the day with the rest fighting for scraps (and to be clear there were a LOT of good RTS games). Sometimes you cant even have a third, like MOBA where it just became DOTA/LOL with HON and HOTS falling off instantly.

Obviously this isn’t a hard and fast rule, but PUBG established the genre, then Fortnite swept in, then EA released Apex which blew up. There are your three games. There was no way some Ubishit cookie cutter game was going to push one of those out. You’re just wasting your time and money at that point, but it’s probably an easy sell to management because they look at a game like Apex and say “well i want one of those.” Especially if your management is bad because you just pushed out a bunch of people who helped build your company.

Don't forget H1Z1, Blackout, Warzone, Warzone 2, Fall Guys, and Naraka Bladepoint as well. The failure to success ratio among BR games is actually pretty impressive.

I see this comparison a lot (MOBAS = Battle Royale) when discussing market saturation and I'm not sure it applies.

Aren't MOBAs pretty rigid in terms of design? The design pillars are essentially 5 v 5 with towers slowing offensive advancement?

The BR framework seems much friendlier in terms of design creativity. Player drops in with nothing, circle pushes players towards eachother until 1 remains. That feels like a canvas with much more room to work from does it not?

The next wave of BRs could work on...
- More asymmetrical gameplay.
- Permanence between rounds.
- Much higher player counts, map size, game length.
- Mechanics between players that are not simply (kill them first)

 

[diffusionx]

Don't forget H1Z1, Blackout, Warzone, Warzone 2, Fall Guys, and Naraka Bladepoint as well. The failure to success ratio among BR games is actually pretty impressive.

I see this comparison a lot (MOBAS = Battle Royale) when discussing market saturation and I'm not sure it applies.

Aren't MOBAs pretty rigid in terms of design? The design pillars are essentially 5 v 5 with towers slowing offensive advancement?

The BR framework seems much friendlier in terms of design creativity. Player drops in with nothing, circle pushes players towards eachother until 1 remains. That feels like a canvas with much more room to work from does it not?

The next wave of BRs could work on...
- More asymmetrical gameplay.
- Permanence between rounds.
- Much higher player counts, map size, game length.
- Mechanics between players that are not simply (kill them first)

Warzone was basically able to muscle in because of the brand name. Ubisoft doesn’t have this luxury. The core issue here is that these are multiplayer games with a certain theoretical audience, and for the most part people are going to one to play the game that everyone else is playing. Nobody is going to drop a game everyone is playing for one that is empty, even if it is superior in some way.

The other ones, like I said, fighting for scraps. I look at the Steam charts and PUBG has ~200k people playing right now while Naraka Bladepoint has ~25K. It doesn’t mean the games are bad, it doesn’t mean they don’t bring interesting ideas to the table, it just means that there are clear tiers in popularity. Ubisoft is not breaking into those top tiers. Hell they already tried once with Hyper Scape.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Warzone was basically able to muscle in because of the brand name. Ubisoft doesn’t have this luxury.

The other ones, like I said, fighting for scraps. I look at the Steam charts and PUBG has ~200k people playing right now while Naraka Bladepoint has ~25K. It doesn’t mean the games are bad, it doesn’t mean they don’t bring interesting ideas to the table, it just means that there are clear tiers in popularity. Ubisoft is not breaking into those top tiers. Hell they already tried once with Hyper Scape.

I don't know. I feel like I've heard this same argument after Fortnite launched back in 2017.

"There's no more room for new BRs."

And then we saw 6 - 10 of them pop up after that and become huge successes.

That's the thing with multiplayer. You can't release a copycat title or inferior game and expect to succeed like you can in single player. Multiplayer games need to do something special in order to get players to notice. Elden Ring won a bunch of GotYs last year but 99% of Elden Ring players were ready for the next single player game 3 months after its release.

I also don't understand "they already tried once with Hyper Scape" as a suggestion that they should stop. HyperScape didn't fail because it was a BR. It failed because it was a bad BR. It was a BR designed for arena shooter players...and there aren't many of those people left. Fall down 6 times get up 7.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

It’s like when Gearbox made Battleborn because of how popular Overwatch used to be. Like, seeing another company have an innovative hit and you go “Hey we can do that too!”

Except, no it doesn’t work a second time. It doesn’t work for copycats. You can only catch lightning in a bottle once, and it’s all about timing.

Ubisoft, like Gearbox, should refocus on what they do best, and not worry so much about chasing trends. Nintendo literally runs from most trends and they’ve literally never made more money or been more successful than they have been the last 5 years, as a result of doubling down on being unique.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

It’s like when Gearbox made Battleborn because of how popular Overwatch used to be. Like, seeing another company have an innovative hit and you go “Hey we can do that too!”

Except, no it doesn’t work a second time. It doesn’t work for copycats. You can only catch lightning in a bottle once, and it’s all about timing.

Ubisoft, like Gearbox, should refocus on what they do best, and not worry so much about chasing trends. Nintendo literally runs from most trends and they’ve literally never made more money or been more successful than they have been the last 5 years, as a result of doubling down on being unique.

That's not really accurate.

There are so many examples of hit games spawning successful genres. You can't just look at one time it didn't work and say "See? Doesn't work."

Blizzard made the WarCraft RTS games after Dune II, and that genre flourished for a time. They also modelled Overwatch after TF2 and that game was ridiculously successful.

The skill is identifying which trends have room to grow and which ones don't.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

That's not really accurate.

There are so many examples of hit games spawning successful genres. You can't just look at one time it didn't work and say "See? Doesn't work."

Blizzard made the WarCraft RTS games after Dune II, and that genre flourished for a time. They also modelled Overwatch after TF2 and that game was ridiculously successful.

The skill is identifying which trends have room to grow and which ones don't.

Right. The trick is identifying that the genre itself has potential and you can compete in it and make it better, by bringing more to it. By innovating in it. Which Ubisoft has not been doing.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Right. The trick is identifying that the genre itself has potential and you can compete in it and make it better, by bringing more to it. By innovating in it. Which Ubisoft has not been doing.

I agree with you.

That being said, I'd be real interested in seeing the 12 BR games that were under development at Ubisoft. Surely two or three of them would probably doing something noteworthy.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

These guys are tragic. 12 of the same style game in development is exactly why their studio is failing miserably.

Although, it’s nothing new for them because most of their big franchises follow the same formula. Open world that has a small amount of content multiplied by 1000 to fit the huge map, level gating and enemies with health bars.

And the most HUD and icons ever all over the screen.