Gaming is no longer a “safe space” for big corporations to push a little investment and make a lot of money. Shareholders are hounding the doors of the C-suite, while they have run out of ideas for games that will actually bring the crowd back. With an ever-decreasing attention span, the pressure for making good games has never been greater. Ubisoft is just one of the companies who have “fallen victim” to the current industry circumstances.
We’ve seen the cancellation of the Prince of Persia : Sands of Time remake – a remake which was much loved by the audience and something which the company was betting on to bring them back to relevance in the eyes of the gaming audience. Continuous developer troubles, constant delays and a failed quality bar meant that Ubisoft had to pivot away from the game and make their bet on open world IPs that people still love playing.
We were very excited about the remake, and have extensively covered the rumors behind the remake much before the official announcement. The sad news is that this wasn’t the only game that was cancelled. Tom Henderson, industry veteran and official source of most of the rumors on Twitter, have officially discussed about the closure of five other titles that were actively in development because of the pivot to open world titles with in-game transactions. Two of them were mobile games based on the Assassin’s Creed IP and another was a World War based extraction shooter. Details about the last game, unofficially titled “Project U”, remain scarce.
Henderson mentioned the same on a podcast, at the 54:07 mark.
Henderson reports that assets made for these games will likely be re-used in their new open world titles, so the games aren’t a complete waste. However, they were a huge drain on Ubisoft’s financials, leading to a company-wide restructure. This means mass layoffs and even studio shutdowns if a bailout isn’t in the works.
Our heart goes out to all of the talented folks who worked to bring these games to life. It’s clear that Ubisoft C-suite (and particularly the dynastic CEO Yves Guillemot) is still not ready to learn the new status quo in the gaming industry – quality is king. However, with bloodthirsty shareholders on the prowl, they have little space for errors in the upcoming quarters with their game releases.
Kudos to Insider Gaming for the source.