General Gaming Ubisoft cancels three games, delays Skull & Bones, and Mario Rabbids 2/Just Dance underperform (BG&E2 Lives, lol), update: Ubisoft's entire release line-up for FY24 revealed...and it's pretty dire

[crispy4000]

Ubisoft cancels three unannounced games, delays Skull and Bones again

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

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Ubisoft has confirmed the cancellation of three unannounced games following disappointing financial results for its mos…

 

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Despite excellent ratings and players’ reception as well as an ambitious marketing plan, we were surprised by Mario + Rabbids®: Sparks of Hope underperformance in the final weeks of 2022 and early January. Just Dance® 2023 underperformed as well.

 

https://staticctf.akamaized.net/8aefmxkxpxwl/3nCTlhd4Dke8pe308etZ6e/b11d0bfe9c5094f0eecd44541c6ba0b8/Ubisoft_update_January_23_English_Final.pdf

[unogueen]

Three dead games but Skull and Bones lives on. That must've been one hell of a subsidy.

[Brian]

Splinter Cell dead before it got announced?

 

Ubi continues to sink money into S&B, Prince of Persia remake, and BG&E 2. What a shit show. Let the M&A rumors begin. 

[stepee]

Tbf maybe the three games are Just Dance 24/25/26

[XxEvil AshxX]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Splinter Cell dead before it got announced?

 

Ubi continues to sink money into S&B, Prince of Persia remake, and BG&E 2. What a shit show. Let the M&A rumors begin. 

 

Splinter Cell has been announced though. So there's still hope.

 

Not much hope... but... some.

 

Skull & Bones needs to release already so it can die and they can write it off.  Way too much time and money being spent on that project already.

[Brian]

11 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

Splinter Cell has been announced though. So there's still hope.

 

Not much hope... but... some.

 

Skull & Bones needs to release already so it can die and they can write it off.  Way too much time and money being spent on that project already.

I thought Ubi announced the remake but not a new entry 

[EternallDarkness]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Splinter Cell dead before it got announced?

 

Ubi continues to sink money into S&B, Prince of Persia remake, and BG&E 2. What a shit show. Let the M&A rumors begin. 

 

 

Love me some Prince of Persia

 

 

as for the games underperforming...hell everyone knows their games drop in price fast so why run out and get them at launch. Hell the Mario game has already been down to 30

[XxEvil AshxX]

3 hours ago, Brian said:

I thought Ubi announced the remake but not a new entry 

 

The way I understood it, the reboot is the new entry. As in, they have no intention of making a Splinter Cell 7.

[Dre801]

Skull and Bones has to see light of day unless the Government of Singapore let's them out of this deal; they would have probably cancelled by now if they could.

 

[HardAct]

   I bought Mario Rabbits day one and never even booted it up! It's installed I can usually handle that part, it's the actually booting it up and playing the damned games that challenges me.

[crispy4000]

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still coming, as Ubisoft cancels three games | PCGamesN

WWW.PCGAMESN.COM

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Beyond Good and Evil 2, the long-awaited platformer sequel from Ubisoft, is still in development, as Skull and Bones gets delayed and three games are cancelled

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still coming, as Ubisoft cancels three games | PCGamesN

WWW.PCGAMESN.COM

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Beyond Good and Evil 2, the long-awaited platformer sequel from Ubisoft, is still in development, as Skull and Bones gets delayed and three games are cancelled

 

 

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

[Jason]

I absolutely loved BG&E back when it came out and even I am years beyond giving so much as a single solitary fuck about BG&E2.

[chakoo]

I will never stop repeating this but Ubi's marketing and content review teams are awful at their job. They continue to waste money on not good games but completely fail to properly support good games. 

 

 

On 1/11/2023 at 2:27 PM, Brian said:

[...] What a shit show. Let the M&A rumors begin. 

 

What do you mean begin? They've been going on for ages (ever since they fought off the attempt from Vivendi).

[AbsolutSurgen]

Ubisoft Paris employees are going on strike to protest CEO's 'catastrophic' comments | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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The union representing studio workers says Yves Guillemot is trying to blame employees for his own failures.

 

[crispy4000]

Why Ubisoft is Delaying and Cancelling its Games - Insider Gaming

INSIDER-GAMING.COM

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Why is Ubisoft cancelling and delaying its games? Insider Gaming speaks with current and former employees to understand why.

 

It gets worse.

 

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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.

 

Publishers that chase trends like this deserve to be kicked down a notch.  No one learned from Battleborn.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

9 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

Why Ubisoft is Delaying and Cancelling its Games - Insider Gaming

INSIDER-GAMING.COM

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Why is Ubisoft cancelling and delaying its games? Insider Gaming speaks with current and former employees to understand why.

 

It gets worse.

 

 

Publishers that chase trends like this deserve to be kicked down a notch.  No one learned from Battleborn.

 

I just had a FANTASTIC idea!

 

Those battle royale development teams should've been forced to compete in a real-life battle royale to determine which battle royale project would receiving funding!

 

HIRE ME, YVES!

[AbsolutSurgen]

I have an idea.  How about continuing to iterate on Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Watch Dogs.  People seemed to like those.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 minute ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I have an idea.  How about continuing to iterate on Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Watch Dogs.  People seemed to like those.

 

The last Watch Dogs game significantly underperformed financially (and Watch Dogs 2 didn't do as well as the first game) so it's gonna be a while before that series sees the light of day again

[AbsolutSurgen]

11 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

The last Watch Dogs game significantly underperformed financially (and Watch Dogs 2 didn't do as well as the first game) so it's gonna be a while before that series sees the light of day again

Watch Dogs 2 was actually a pretty good game -- and sold relatively well.

 

Watch Dogs Legion significantly departed from the previous 2 games as Ubi went chasing trends.  And predictably, did worse (though not terrible) -- it still sold millions of copies (the only number I could find was 1.9 million in first 3 days).

[HardAct]

 ooops

 

[crispy4000]

1 hour ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I have an idea.  How about continuing to iterate on Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Watch Dogs.  People seemed to like those.

 

Or don't, because they're as stale as the Ubisoft open-world template.

 

I'd love to see them go back to making good (wide) linear games and platformers.  Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia and Rayman deserve a hell of a lot better.  As does Beyond Good & Evil.

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

50 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

 

Or don't, because they're as stale as the Ubisoft open-world template.

 

I'd love to see them go back to making good (wide) linear games and platformers.  Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia and Rayman deserve a hell of a lot better.  As does Beyond Good & Evil.

 

I thought we were talking about franchises that would sell....

[crispy4000]

I honestly don't know how well a modern day Splinter Cell or Prince of Persia could sell, because it's been ages.

 

If EA could remake Dead Space today, Ubisoft can give some of their dormant franchises a shot.  Instead we get Skull & Bones, because Ubisoft believes we all want more Assassin's Creed adjacent games and spin-offs.

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 hour ago, crispy4000 said:

I honestly don't know how well a modern day Splinter Cell or Prince of Persia could sell, because it's been ages.

 

If EA could remake Dead Space today, Ubisoft can give some of their dormant franchises a shot.  Instead we get Skull & Bones, because Ubisoft believes we all want more Assassin's Creed adjacent games and spin-offs.

I guess EA thinks Dead Space will sell (like DS 2 did). I think they are probably right. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Ubisoft Devs Grill Boss On Shifting Blame And Chasing Trends

KOTAKU.COM

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CEO Yves Guillemot apologized for clumsy wording in a recent email meant to rally developers

 

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Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot faced tough questions from some exhausted and fed-up staff about recent missteps and future plans in a company-wide Q&A session on Wednesday. The meeting comes just a week after the Assassin’s Creed publisher announced new cancellations, delays, and cost-cutting measures, and told employees “the ball is in your court” to help get the $3 billion company back on track.

 

“The ball is now in our court—for years it has been in your court so why did you mishandle the ball so badly so we, the workers, have to fix it for you?” read one upvoted question on a list submitted in advance through corporate communication channels and viewed by Kotaku. It was a reference to a now infamous email Guillemot sent to staff last week that appeared to shift blame for the publisher’s recent mistakes and hold lower-level employees accountable for fixing the situation.

 

Guillemot opened the meeting by apologizing. “I heard your feedback and I’m sorry this was perceived that way,” Guillemot said, according to sources present who were not authorized to speak to press. “When saying ‘the ball is in your court’ to deliver our lineup on time and at the expected level of quality, I wanted to convey the idea that more than ever I need your talent and energy to make it happen. This is a collective journey that starts of course with myself and with the leadership team to create the conditions for all of us to succeed together.”

 

 

[stepee]

They are over thinking it, just focus on making games that people actually want to play and release those. You can release Watch Dogs, just don’t do weird shit to it and make it a regular character based open word city game, people like those. 

 

You can still chase trends even, but have small teams work on that. Most of the games that blow up are random indie games. Have teams that experiment and release early access whatever shit and see if anything sticks and then devote more resources in to grow it if it does.

 

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

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In today’s meeting, Guillemot spoke of doubling down on Ubisoft’s core franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and its Tom Clancy games, including Rainbow Six Siege, whose potential the CEO compared to Riot Games’ Valorant. Some see it as a retreat not just from chasing trends but from experimentation as well. “We need to acknowledge that the trends are for mega brands,” said Marie-Sophie de Waubert, senior vice president of studio operations, when asked about why the company didn’t pursue more varied, smaller games like Anno 1800.

[Chris-]

On 1/11/2023 at 2:27 PM, Brian said:

Splinter Cell dead before it got announced?

 

Ubi continues to sink money into S&B, Prince of Persia remake, and BG&E 2. What a shit show. Let the M&A rumors begin. 

 

I guess the French don't believe in sunk cost fallacy.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

All 11 Ubisoft Games to be Released in the Upcoming Year - Insider Gaming

INSIDER-GAMING.COM

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A list of all 11 games that are expected to be released by Ubisoft in the Fiscal Year 2024 (April 2023 - March 2024).

 

 

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Sources have provided Insider Gaming with a list of all 11 Ubisoft games that are expected to be released by the publisher in the Fiscal Year 2024 (April 2023 – March 2024).

• The Division Heartland (Free to Play) – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Amazon Luna
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S, and Amazon Luna
• xDefiant (Free to Play) – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Amazon Luna
• Assassin's Creed Mirage – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Amazon Luna
• Skull & Bones – PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S, and Amazon Luna
• Project Orland (The Crew) – Unknown Platforms
• Assassin's Creed Nexus – Oculus 2
• The Division Resurgence – Mobile
• Rainbow 6 Mobile – Mobile
• Assassin's Creed Codenamed Jade – Mobile
• Assassin's Creed Netflix Collaboration – Mobile

 

 

That's a pretty dire list, Yves!

[crispy4000]

It doesn’t strike me as dire, but par for the course from what I expect today from a western 3rd party mega-publisher.  They’re expanding their most played out brands into a bunch of different buckets.  This could very well be what works for them

 

Personally, I hope Avatar is alright.  That’s about it.

[AbsolutSurgen]

I have low expectations for Pandora -- but would like to be surprised once they actually show gameplay.

 

AC:Mirage will be a must buy.  Because I play all the AC games to death.