Last March, Ubisoft celebrated 36 years since its foundation all the way back in 1986, when the five Guillemot brothers decided to get into the game development industry after their other successful projects. In time, Ubisoft became one of the biggest companies in the industry, publishing and producing top-quality games, with some of them enduring the test of time and remaining popular decades since their release. Over the past few years, Ubisoft started piling up several major projects, such as the licensed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, more titles within the Assassin's Creed universe, and the recently re-revealed Skull and Bones.
However, the latest news regarding the various upcoming video games that the company is working on is not encouraging, and it even poses questions as to what is going on behind the scenes. Although Ubisoft does have a history of delays and uncertain release dates for games, something that the company has been dealing with increasingly more often in recent times, one of the most unsettling rumors comes from one of the gaming giant's own developers. In fact, a report indicates that Skull and Bones may be lacking depth in its gameplay and that it could be far from the big hit that Ubisoft hopes it will be.
Why Ubisoft's Cancelations and Delays are Concerning
The streak doesn't end nor begin with Skull and Bones, however, as Ubisoft's work on the so-called Project Rift, which was set to be a DLC for Assassin's Creed Valhalla and then became a standalone title, is seemingly running behind schedule. In the earnings report for the company, it was stated that a "smaller unannounced premium game" would fall behind, and it would need to be delayed to next year, which is likely referring to the aforementioned new Assassin's Creed game. Not only that, but Ubisoft also announced more cancelations of its titles recently, which ended up upsetting many fans.
These games include Splinter Cell VR, which was supposedly scrapped because of the impact of VR technology not being as game-changing as the company had hoped, and then Ghost Recon Frontline, a battle royale game that wasn't well-received after its reveal. Then, it's also worth mentioning that Jeff Grubb recently claimed that another Ubisoft title will be canceled soon, and that game is Roller Champions. Roller Champions only came out a few months ago, yet Grubb is claiming that development will soon wrap up. This is not too dissimilar from what happened with The Division 2, alternating between no-development phases and reprising the live service model.
It seems however that The Division Heartland will be where Ubisoft plans on investing more into the games as a service model, although this title is but another project that lacks an official release date. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was also supposed to come out this holiday season alongside the new Avatar: The Way of Water movie, but Ubisoft announced that it too will be delayed until 2023. This statement came with concerns from fans, and it even spawned all sorts of memes about Avatar-related media never meeting deadlines and release dates.
Lastly, one of the weirdest things to date is the news cycle surrounding Beyond Good and Evil 2, a game that was first talked about by its director, Michel Ancel, even prior it was officially revealed at E3 2016. There were quarrels between Ancel and the Ubisoft headquarters about this project, and Ancel eventually left the company before the game came out. The issue is that in the six years since its reveal, development on Beyond Good and Evil 2 has remained radio silent for the most part. Recently, Ubisoft finally stated that the game will indeed come in the future, though no date has been set. Overall, Ubisoft isn't doing too well lately, and it seems unlikely that Skull and Bones will become its saving grace.