6 games dead, 7 postponed
As part of a massive restructuring, struggling French video game publisher Ubisoft is axing six games. In addition, studios are being closed, employees are being laid off and the focus for the future is increasingly on AI content.
Radical restructuring and game stoppage
The French publisher Ubisoft is in one of the worst crises in its company history after poor sales, harassment scandals and several flopped titles. Now the company is once again responding to the ongoing financial downturn with drastic measures. As part of a comprehensive restructuring, the group has finally stopped the development of six video games. The end of the remake of “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” is particularly serious. After the project was announced in 2020, postponed several times and moved from the Indian studio to Montreal, the new edition of the classic is now officially history. In addition to this prominent title, four previously unknown new brands and a mobile game fell victim to the red pencil.
The realignment also has direct personnel and structural consequences. The Stockholm and Halifax branches will be completely closed. The Stockholm studio most recently worked as support on the title “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora”. In addition, the remaining employees worldwide have to adapt to stricter working conditions. From now on, employees are required to return to the office five days a week. This measure effectively ends the flexible home office regulations and is likely to lead to further fluctuation internally.
Focus on AI and service games
Like Ubisoft in the course of the official announcement (PDF) confirmed, this hard cut serves to redistribute resources and restructure the cost structure. CFO Frederick Duguet justified the move with a more selective market approach and increased competitive pressure. In the future, the group wants to focus primarily on open-world adventures and games-as-a-service titles. A central pillar of the new strategy is the massive expansion of investments in “player-facing generative AI”. This is generative artificial intelligence with which players should interact directly during the game. Such content includes dynamically generated dialogues from NPCs, which Ubisoft’s research department “La Forge” has been working on for a long time. In order to achieve these goals more efficiently, internal development will be divided into five so-called “Creative Houses”, which will operate as independent business units with more responsibility:
- Vantage Studios: Manages the top-selling brands Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six
- Creative House 2: Focuses on shooters like The Division, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell
- Creative House 3: Responsible for live service experiences such as For Honor, The Crew and Skull & Bones
- Creative House 4: Responsible for immersive and narrative games such as Anno, Rayman, Prince of Persia and Beyond Good & Evil
- Creative House 5: Focuses on family and casual games like Just Dance
Delays and survivors
In addition to the six discontinued projects, seven other titles were also postponed. Although management did not name any specific names, industry observers assume that this also includes the as yet unannounced remake of “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag”. This will now only appear in the financial year that ends in March 2027. The effects of the uncertainty caused by the new measures are already being felt on the stock market. The group’s shares fell to a record low, and the market capitalization slipped from over 10 billion euros in 2018 to below the psychologically important mark of one billion euros.
Amid all these delays and cancellations, there’s one unexpected holdover: “Beyond Good & Evil 2.” The game, whose first trailer was shown in 2008, now holds the dubious record for the longest development time for a video game. Depending on how you define it and how you look at it, it has even overtaken “Duke Nukem Forever.” Although series creator Michel Ancel left the company long ago and the project was often said to be dead, it is still in the portfolio. It remains in the new Creative House 4, while significantly more modern projects had to go. It remains to be seen whether the new structure, including an AI focus, will bring about the hoped-for financial turnaround.
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