WHILE SKULL & BONES WAS AGAIN POSTPONED.
Three unannounced games were canceled by Ubisoft, while the long-gestating pirate adventure Skull & Bones was once again postponed.
The company claimed it is, “facing major challenges as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and long-lasting titles than can reach players across the globe, across platforms and business models”.
According to Ubisoft, it has been working over the past four years to adjust its most popular franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, and The Division, to these convergent trends.
“However, the games from this investment phase have yet to be released, while our recent launches have not performed as well as expected.”
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Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 were among the titles that fell short of expectations, according to the business, which said that software sales over the crucial Christmas season had been “markedly and surprisingly slower than expected.”
Skull & Bones will now be launched “early” in Ubisoft’s following fiscal year (2023–24), which spans from April to March 2024. The game had previously been delayed many times and was most recently slated for release in March.
The company claimed “the additional time has already paid off and brought impressive improvements to its quality, which has been confirmed by recent playtests”, and that it expects “players will be positively surprised by its evolution”.
Along with Skull & Bones, Ubisoft stated that it will also release Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, “and other yet-to-be-announced premium games, including a large one, as well as promising free-to-play titles for some of our biggest brands” during its fiscal year 2023–2024.
Upcoming free-to-play products from the publisher include PC and console game The Division Heartland, and mobile titles The Division Resurgence and Assassin’s Creed: Codename Jade.
In July of last year, Ubisoft said that it has also canceled Splinter Cell VR, Ghost Recon Frontline, and two additional unnamed projects.
“We are clearly disappointed by our recent performance,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said on Wednesday. “We are facing contrasted market dynamics as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and everlasting live games, in the context of worsening economic conditions affecting consumer spending.”
“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.”
“Therefore, with the approval of the Board of Directors, we are taking additional important strategic and operational decisions today. It is key to continue adapting our organization, to further strengthen our execution and to ensure we both deliver amazing games to players as well as great value creation.”
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Guillemot continued: “The industry’s long-term prospects remain promising, and I am convinced Ubisoft is well positioned to benefit from this momentum thanks to the strength of our teams, brands, production capacity, technology and balance-sheet. Our back-catalogue remains very healthy with notably robust activity on Rainbow Six Siege, great momentum for our Assassin’s Creed games, and generally solid performance from our live games.”
“We expect our strategy to build long-lasting live games and transform our biggest brands into truly global phenomenon with multiple offerings across platforms and business models, to ultimately generate significant value creation, with strong topline and operating income growth over the coming years.”
