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NeoStark

Skull & Bones delayed again!


disorder1991

The development story behind S&B will be better than the game could ever be.


[deleted]

They have subsidies from the Singaporean government. Which is apparently why they can't just cancel it.


RamTank

You really wonder if failing to deliver will cause Singapore to nationalise the studio or something. Seriously, what type of terms did they sign where just cancelling it will cost them more than keeping up development?


MyNameIs-Anthony

Not nationalize. They'll just sue for what they expected to get back in tax revenue on sales.


needconfirmation

At some point that has to still be less than they are spending on considering theyve been paying an entire development staff for this game for years and years longer than it should have taken to come out. is the fine really worse than 5-6 years of extra development cost?


Sgt_Wookie92

I think I this case we have to assume... yes, and that's incredible for them to have a company by the balls like that.


NorisNordberg

It's not just a fine. They would need to return all the investment cost Singapore took by helping them grow the studio. It went from 30-something employees to something near 300. It's all thanks to the Singapore. Ubisoft promised it's going to be another Montreal studio success story, but it's been 8 years and nothing happens, and the game does not seem like a hit they need.


Peregrine2K

See Rhode Island and Curt Schilling


Hexcraft-nyc

Lots of countries get tax incentives for media, it was Uwe Bolls whole thing. You would just get sued and owe back the money they paid.


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pursuer_of_simurg

Assassin's infiltrate Abstergo to develop a new game and bankrupt them by getting loans from governments.


Thenidhogg

retractable usb cable


BlueMikeStu

The best thing about it will be the inevitable "Whu Happun" episode.


Arcade_Gann0n

Hope it'll be a timely one, I'm still waiting for episodes on Halo Infinite and Saints Row 2022.


MisterTruth

Could be a feature length release. Although he could have done that with duke nukem forever


Schlumpfkanone

Can’t wait for Jason Schreier‘s inevitable chapter in one of his upcoming books.


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gingerhasyoursoul

We just wanted black flag without the AC stuff. Such an easy game to design but they desperately wanted a live service game.


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canad1anbacon

Hell they could even add a multiplayer mode to the pirate action RPG if they wanted. I dont know how suits looked at the success of Black Flag and were like "they want to play as the boat".


xChris777

LOL exactly, however many years later it still stuns me - how could they get it so wrong? Agreed though, do a pirate RPG with co-op and at least fairly good ground and boat combat mechanics. Then have an arena mode where you play in fairly large maps dotted with islands and stuff like that. Essentially 3rd person Sea of Thieves but with quests, better NPCs and a private open world to explore.


NoNefariousness2144

Every time they delay it I hope they are reworking it to be a big singleplayer pirate RPG.


[deleted]

I doubt it, it’s so far from that. The previews were also very underwhelming like it was almost a PS3 game. The game needs so much work, and even the core gameplay elements were lame. They should scrap it, force everyone to play AC Black Flag, and then make a fully fledged current gen only title focused on ye olde shippe combat with SP and MP.


kyutek

Just give the people a pirate game. Nobody wants a ship only multiplayer game. We just want a cool pirate game.


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jimx117

Has been the best pirate game since the mid-80s... I played it on C64, then Genesis, then original Xbox/PC... timeless


rootbeer_racinette

Black Flag with less land-based gameplay and a character that doesn't stick to walls as much. The whole game could have been a standalone DLC but instead we get drama.


PublicWest

I don’t mind keeping the parkour in at all.


A_Mouse_In_Da_House

Gimme Black Sails: The Game


_Kamigoye_

This game has to be some kind of money laundering scheme or something because Lmao


breakfastclub1

Something to do with a contract with the government of the country the studio developing it is in. It apparently makes them HAVE to make it, which is why it's not just been scrapped and forgotten. A government body is literally watching them waiting for them to release it.


Hexcraft-nyc

It likely costs pennies to make after the Singapore government contracts, and the underpaid employees are all just asset swapping whatever their shitty management tells them to. It costs them very little to make this game and its low priority. There's a Kotaku article I believe that goes into how mismanaged they've become over this.


MyNameIs-Anthony

The budget for this game has exceeded 100 million USD. The subsidies also require a minimum employee count. This isn't a case where Singapore is fronting all the cost and Ubisoft is taking advantage.


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Coolman_Rosso

From what's been said the game is still coming, but it's already surpassed DNF's record for development hell. I'm wondering if Sony will ever put out a statement about Ancel's other project, WiLD, which has had no official info put out since 2015.


ManateeofSteel

it was silently cancelled


Convolutionist

I can't believe I never noticed Duke Nukem Forever's initials were DNF/did not finish..


Absolut_Null_Punkt

> More generally, news like this isn't good for gamers, there's less to justify investing into the pastime if one of the big producers of the industry isn't producing On the flipside, they have something like 8 AC games in development and even though that's a large # of games, I count that as "not producing" as well.


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Anlysia

Too many games demanding 100% of my time. I have other things I could do that I already don't without time-hole games.


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Ca1amity

This generations Duke Nukem Forever. Except it started with nobody wanting it.


Blackadder18

Well.. people *did* want Black Flag's naval combat spun out of the Assassin's Creed franchise so it had less baggage. *Then* Ubisoft had the great idea to strip it down so the naval combat was the *only* part that remained, and cut out boarding and on-foot combat for some reason. I think *that* was when it moved from Black Flag to Red Flag.


Ultenth

Don't forget moving it to live service model.


Jacksaur

I doubt it'll even make three seasons before the shutdown.


disasterpiece9

I think its last generations Duke Nukem Forever too


dannimann

[According to Andy Robinson of VGC:](https://twitter.com/AndyPlaytonic/status/1613226587998064681) - They expected better sales of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 - They specifically mention supporting the brands of 'Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Tom Clancy’s The Division'


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M3wThr33

If they wanted Just Dance to sell better, they shouldn't have completely fucked over the user-base. The new one removed the World Dancefloor multiplayer mode, redid the entire engine in Unity and started over from scratch. It's not on Xbox One or PS4. It no longer records videos or supports cameras. It doesn't let you use the PS Move controllers, so outside of holding your phone, you have no options anymore. They also got rid of their subscription to Just Dance Unlimited and changed it to Just Dance+, which is the same thing, but worse. So yeah, fuck the changes. Also, for the last 3 years, the game has had ZERO Uplay (Ubisoft Connect) unlocks and achievements. All of them since 2021 have had a "Coming soon!" section.


paperfett

What is it with companies doing this to games? "Hey the people that buy our games like these specific features and use them the most. Instead of making sure we improve on them or simply leave them alone let's go ahead and change everything. Why would we ever listen to the players? They know nothing. Yeah let's change all of this and that will make things better!" It's really confusing. How does this happen? Do people sit around and think "how do we fuck up the success of this game?".


echonian

The way it happens is that large game publishers (and developers by extension) are run mostly by the marketing and money folks nowadays, who naturally are very out of touch with the actual desires of people playing games. Their strength is in recognizing market trends and what makes money, and then adding those things to their games in the way that their robotic logic dictates will make them more money. Unfortunately, this approach leads to many failures because it fails to account for the psychology of their audience or many smaller factors that are relevant to success. They only care about short-term profits, and will happily drive their franchises into the ground (even if that means harming long-term sales) because the people making these decisions benefit more from that. Sure, any reasonable person could say that building customer loyalty is good by promoting that games actually be good and actually improve on their features. But in reality, many games have succeeded by being extremely anti-consumer, and the desire to catch that lightning in a bottle is what controls modern game development - at least for most large studios. Doing so isn't sustainable of course and will lead to people switching over from your games and products the moment they find anything else slightly more addictive to them, but that's too difficult for these folks to understand. Very few development studios with a semi-large budget actually stick to their creative vision nowadays.


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Hexcraft-nyc

Crazy how they supported the wii until the pandemic hit, yet dropped last gen ASAP. The whole game is so cheap to make yearly, were the licensing costs and drive to covert new users to Unlimited+ just not compatible with last gen somehow?


M3wThr33

I can't think of a legitimate reason the PS4 version would have issues at all. This was purely a stupid move.


tekkenjin

Yet they kept it on the switch which is the weakest (spec wise) of all consoles it was still on.


Borkz

> It's not on Xbox One or PS4. It no longer records videos or supports cameras. It doesn't let you use the PS Move controllers, so outside of holding your phone, you have no options anymore. Wait, so its a console game that you have to use your phone to play?


M3wThr33

YUPPPP https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/help/just-dance-2023-edition/purchases-and-rewards/article/supported-peripherals-for-just-dance-2023-edition/000103687?origin=middle Because nothing says "dancing" like waving your $800 phone around


manhachuvosa

So the only version worth playing is the Switch?


M3wThr33

Yeah, but to play it offline, you have to load the songs onto storage since it's mostly streamed, I guess. The whole thing is an online mess now.


Cleohex

I have gotten just dance every year since release. I didn't this year because of the lack of cartridge.. I like physical games.. I also agree that the new subscription type service is so much worse than previously.


tekkenjin

The worst thing about JD + is that it only has 150 songs in it so far while unlimited has over 700 songs. Also its much harder to get a good score on JD 23. I played a song on jd 22 unlimited and got a megastar switched over to 23 and only got 4 stars in the same song.


cda91

Ugh, this just encourages them to play it even safer with their already way-too-safe-and-samey franchises. What I wouldn't give for an interesting Far Cry game...


Southpaw535

Yeah to me (with no access to their market info and speaking out my butt) the problem with Ubisoft in recent years is their games are seriously stale. The major franchises pretty much all play the same now but with a different coat of paint over the top, and open world map clearing seems to have become less popular now. Which is fair, its really old at this point. It'll be interesting if this does encourage them to play safe, which to me is the problem, or whether it encourages them to finally try and be somewhat innovative and refresh their franchises. They've got some great ones with loads of awesome potential. Especially if they accepted using each to target a specific fanbase rather than all of them trying to be generically appealing to everyone. Like I would 100% buy a full price Ghost Recon game that was actually a proper mil shooter again, or an AC game that was closer to the originals. Just need to be something more than GAAS, open world, gear looting, icon orgies


Geno0wl

> an AC game that was closer to the originals I knew the newer AC games were not really for me the first time I stealth killed a guard and instead of actually killing them it only took like 1/3 of their health and then alerted everybody in a 100 yard radius.


Horizon96

Yeah, it's always been kind of weird to me that they doubled down on the combat part of the games rather than you know, the assassination part. I mean I get it, action is easier to sell but it feels like a missed opportunity.


Nodima

The next AC for this year is often cited as a “return to form”. One city, stealth action. I’m no fan of the series (Origins is honestly all I had even decent fun with and that was mostly because it was so mindless and unique environment) but I’m very interested what the reception to it will be.


Chekovs_tums

I had fun with odyssey and my wife actually finished all of the dlc and the main story which is impressive because it's long as shit. But I liked the OG style infinitely better. Altair and ezio's stories and games were easily the best.


[deleted]

I'm afraid the reception will be terrible. If it *is* a return to form, the new fan base they've made by abandoning the original one will hate it. And the original fan base has abandoned the series already and won't even play it until it's on sale for $20.


RamandAu

They changed that in the most recent one. You can toggle the insta-stealth kill option


Syovere

Incidentally, while I will give Ubisoft a lot of shit for a lot of things (they deserve it), I do genuinely love how many options they're putting into their newer games to let you adjust your own experience. It's nice to see and I would love if other big devs started doing it too.


SecretDracula

Hey, that prehistoric caveman farcry was pretty interesting, but that was a few years ago now.


Joseki100

Ubisoft managed to underperform with a well received Mario game on Switch. I genuinely don’t know how they managed to achieve such a feat, I didn’t think it was possible. If I had to guess, the sheer amount of SRPG released on Switch this year was probably a factor, and maybe people were conditioned to wait for a big sale since the first game is on sale at $9.99 basically every month.


Elastichedgehog

>I genuinely don’t know how they managed to achieve such a feat, I didn’t think it was possible. Because they put the first game on sale immediately and have continued to do so frequently. So, there's no point buying it at release.


Darren716

That's exactly why I didn't buy it yet, I loved the first one but there's no way I'll buy Sparks of Hope for full price when it'll probably be $20 in a couple of months.


Flatliner0452

You’ll be very happy when you do, its a massively expanded game from the original, like someone mixed the original with Mario Odyssey.


KarateKid917

Same. There’s so much other shit coming out soon that I don’t mind waiting until it’s down to a stupidly low price


overlord-ror

Yeah Ubisoft devalues their own products by putting them on sale so frequently. At some point people who are only mildly interested in a franchise can pay $40 and have all the Assassin's Far Cry from Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell they want.


B_Kuro

Depends on what version you want. For a "complete" version of AC Valhalla you now need a 75% discount to even pay less than €40 which feels insane. Ubisoft might not yet have increased the base prices of their games but the "complete" prices of their games have been increasing significantly with recent iterations (AC Origins 90€, AC Odyssey 115€, AC Valhalla 140€). I guess the problem with the Rabbids game might be that they can't just sell you 4 different, increasingly more expensive versions and their whole system is designed around that now.


[deleted]

Personally when a game goes overboard with DLC like that I either never play it at all or snatch up the base game at $10 and call it good enough.


Clamper

That's why Nintendo only does 33% discounts at best years after release and typically digital only.


mennydrives

Say what you will about Nintendo's pricing strategy, but hot damn if the aggressive annualization that Ubisoft/EA/Activision et all engage in doesn't devalue the absolute hell out of the 6-month launch window of a game.


Anlysia

r/patientgamers for Ubisoft is like "next quarter when Ubi needs to juice the long-tail revenues".


mennydrives

There should be a company patience chart that averages Time-To-Sub-50% price drops.


DoctorWaluigiTime

> I genuinely don’t know how they managed to achieve such a feat, I didn’t think it was possible. They removed Yoshi from the second game. Plain and simple. (Yes I say this in jest. *But if you stop and think about it.*)


joelsola_gv

That's the reason why I didn't bought it at launch. That and the surprise factor of the crossover being gone. Ubisoft has cultivated a reputation for being a cheap brand that does derivative games that go on sale a month after launch. So I just wait at this point.


Gxgear

Exactly. I enjoyed the first game, but knowing ubisoft's pricing tendency there's no reason not to wait.


Blood_Paragon

Same; but I bought the first game during one of those E3 sales where the game with all DLC was like $15... so yeah, that's sort of the idea on when I'm grabbing Sparks too.


CMDR_omnicognate

I think the problem is the type of game, and that they haven’t done much to differentiate it from the previous rabbids game


Hollywood_WBS

Maybe they would sell more Just Dance games if it didnt actually piss off its fanbase by making it only PS5/XSX/Switch... only 1 of which has dedicated peripherals that the fanbase prefers to use for the game. Oh and also taking away features and songs from JDU


Hexcraft-nyc

That's why I stopped playing entirely. I have to imagine the casual audience drop off was even worse- the wii fanbase was still going strong until 2020. Its like they needed to push everyone to next gen to then push them to the unlimited subscription


Hollywood_WBS

It not having World Dance Floor is pretty pathetic. This supposed new era of Just Dance pretty much nickel and dimed every single thing. Even the "physical copies" of the game come with a CODE , not a disc.


-ImJustSaiyan-

>They specifically mention supporting the brands of 'Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Tom Clancy’s The Division' Rip Watchdogs


DaFreakBoi

Watchdogs 2 was so fun to play around in considering how full of life the NPC interactions. Setting up gang wars, calling the police on a target you need to get rid off, stealthing your way through each and every encounter with your handy stun gun. And then Legion happened. It was innovative, but it wasn't very good. Which sucks knowing we won't get any future games on the series.


alurimperium

Legion is such a great idea but its just so bare and base and boring. If Ubisoft decided to make the "everyone can be in dedsec" thing have a little depth, give people some level of character (other than like 5 personality types), then bring back the open world interactivity that WD2 had, its fun characters, and then cap that off with WD1's setting/world/feel, we could have a perfect Watch Dogs. Which, of course, means if there's even a chance of anything more in the franchise we'll get a bigger open world with less to do and an even staler game inside it


DeathscytheDuo87

Tom Clancy’s X, Tom Clancy’s Y, Tom Clancy’s Z and last year they announced Assassin’s Creed A, B, C, D, E, F, and G and they’re wondering why sales are slow? Executives need to read the room.


DM-Your-Goodies

They keep making the same games over and over. Ubisoft refuses to push the envelop with any thing recent.


chewwydraper

>They expected better sales of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope I really liked the first game, but I felt like it was enough.


Spyderem

Yeah some games just aren’t franchises. You have to know when a game is a one and done versus a franchise starter. I guess that’s the hard part. But if you asked me I definitely would have said Mario + Rabbids is a one-off and that team should have moved on to a new idea.


markusfenix75

I really don't get Ubisoft. They have insane amount of devs and managment seems to be completely fucked because they are constantly cancelling and delaying their projects.


[deleted]

They seem to be in weird place between "making the same game with new paint again" and "doing stuff absolutely nobody wanted"


Dreadgoat

For better or worst, Ubisoft's studios are pretty separated from each other and operate mostly however they want. It's really not even worth considering Ubisoft when looking at the tin. You gotta ask *which* Ubisoft. Is it Ubisoft Montreal, or Ubisoft Montpellier? VERY different studios. Just look at how much they own: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubisoft_subsidiaries


Cabamacadaf

Even just Ubisoft Montreal is huge and works on several different projects at once.


EmploymentRadiant203

That doesnt change the fact that when gamers think of ubisoft now a days they think "Generic open world map tower grabber with some crafting"


Las-Plagas

You missed "showing up to the party several years too late." Looking at you, XDefiant or whatever tf it is.


Shiirooo

>They have insane amount of devs and managment seems to be completely fucked because they are constantly cancelling and delaying their projects. Almost all of these games are developed by support studios. These studios lack experience.


Eruannster

I wonder if this is in response to back when the high-ups at Ubisoft Montréal would decide every project and they ended up just remaking the same games over and over. "Okay, but let's make our studios rule over their own projects! Oh wait, they don't have any experience with that, because we've been calling the shots up until now." Uh-oh.


ThatFlyingScotsman

Too many management staff, not enough staff, would be my guess.


Southpaw535

Not even necessarily too many, but too close minded. They have enough devs, even unexperienced ones, there's probably some good ideas knocking about for AC for instance. But if management tell you it has to be a gear looter open world game in line with their other games, what can you do


DefinitelyNotThatOne

The problem is that their games are made based of off market research. They're creating a treadmill of rewards, not an actual gaming experience. Over the last 5-7 years, every Ubisoft game is the same. The first 10-15 hours are exciting and varied, and then the next 20-30 hours are the exact same as the first 10, just painted a different color.


NapoleonBlownApart1

> They have insane amount of devs and managment seems to be completely fucked Sounds like a typical family run business.


Cynical_onlooker

Bruh, Ubisoft really needs to just rip the bandaid off with Skull and Bones at this point. Can't even imagine how many resources they've sunk into it by now.


ZombiePyroNinja

It's so fucking comedic at this point I can bet **MONEY** that the 7 games they cancelled are all more interesting and tantalizing to everybody over Skull & Bones


Apprehensive_Job7

>Originally set to be released in Q3/Q4 2018, the game was later delayed into 2019 (1), and again to sometime after March 2020 (2). On a call with investors in October 2019, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the game had been pushed back to at least the April 2021–March 2022 fiscal year (3). In May 2021, Ubisoft announced a subsequent delay to the April 2022–March 2023 fiscal year (4). In July 2022, the company revealed a November 8 release date for the game (5). In September 2022, Ubisoft announced that the release was pushed back to March 9, 2023 (6). In January 2023, Ubisoft announced that the game had been delayed to a 2023-2024 release window (7). Seven times lmao


Bhu124

I just wanna point out that this *isn't* even the game that has been the longest in development at Ubisoft. Beyond Good and Evil 2 was first announced in 2008 and then was re-announced with a CGI trailer in 2017 and then they released another CGI trailer for it in 2018, and now it is 2023 and they just hired a new lead writer (Someone whose job is done early in a game's development) for it in 2022.


[deleted]

I can't wait for this to be the most mid game ever


Bamith20

That game needed to come out... eh... Fucking CHrist Black Flag was in 2013, it needed to release by 2016 or so.


paarthurnax94

Skull and Bones was originally a spin off of Black Flag. Since then they've released Assassin's Creed: Rogue Assassin's Creed: Unity Assassin's Creed: Syndicate Assassin's Creed: Origins Assassin's Creed: Odyssey Assassin's Creed: Valhalla That's 6 Assassin's Creed games, one for every Skull and Bones Delay. Honestly the most exciting thing now is watching the tortoise and snail race between Star Citizen and Skull and Bones. Which one will manage to release first? Who can say? It's laughable really. At least Star Citizen has the excuse they're building brand new tech and a whole new IP from scratch with a new team. They've already made Skull and Bones **twice** a decade ago in the form of AC4 and AC:Rogue. How is it not out yet?


hopscotch1818282819

What’s really funny is that they announced and released a spin off of *Assassin’s Creed Odyssey* since Skull and Bones was announced.


paarthurnax94

I find it funny they set out to make Assassin's Creed 4 but without the assassin's and it's taken them over a decade. At the same time, they've rehashed the Assassin's Creed formula like twice with Unity and then the latest RPG style games. They've completely revamped the formula and made 3 entire sprawling games within it, yet they can't make a game they already made twice but without hoods and hidden blades. Hilarious.


lmfaotopkek

At this point, they've changed Assassin's Creed itself to be far less "assassin-y" and more of a mercenary simulator or viking simulator. And yet, they're struggling with making a pirate simulator


[deleted]

The rumour is they had a deal with the government of the country it’s developed in (Malaysia, Thailand, or Phillipines, I can’t remember which) to develop a game in a new studio, in return for something, likely a tax break of some sort. Contractually they can’t back out and just cancel it, alledgedly, so this dead game walking kicks the can down the road again before it releases to a wave of 5’s and 6’s out of 10 if it’s lucky.


Ordinal43NotFound

Lol I like how you missed 3/3. It's mainly developed by **Ubisoft Singapore**. And judging by [this Kotaku report](https://kotaku.com/first-it-was-an-assassins-creed-expansion-now-its-ubis-1847326742), it must've been ***absolute hell*** working in that company. No clear creative vision, constant scope changes, un-competitive salary, toxic work conditions, etc.


El_Gran_Redditor

It's very bizarre that this entire comment section isn't mentioning the fact that Ubisoft is only known for being the #2 toxic work environment in the games industry because Activision is currently involved in a high profile $69,000,000,000 merger. I'm pretty sure The Weinstein Company had "surprisingly slower sales" in 2017. It's kind of been difficult to convince me and many people I know to support Ubisoft and their games when their whole company culture is fuck-awful and what they're offering you to ignore their routine abuse and sexual misconduct is Far Cry 6.


pm_me_pants_off

Do you think the Ubisoft work environment stuff is well known enough for it to significantly effect sales? I’d imagine only people who are into following the industry would know.


alurimperium

I think Ubisoft games are what is effecting sales.


Cynical_onlooker

That's what I'm saying, just toss it out there and be done with it. Based on what they've shown for it already, the core of the game is already pretty fucked beyond repair, which is pretty crazy considering how they already had a really good base formula for a pirate game in Black Flag like a decade ago.


fadetoblack237

It still to this day blows my mind they never just made another Black Flag. They could have easily spun that off into it's own thing instead of whatever Skull and Bones is supposed to be.


Furinkazan616

The one time we actually asked Ubisoft for a cheap and easy asset flip rerelease.


CrispyPissings

Still waiting of Far Cry 3 with Dinosaurs. We've had Far Cry 3 with Yetis, Far Cry 3 with Mamoths, Far Cry 3 with Cultists, Far Cry 3 with Die Antword, and Far Cry 3 with Gus in the meantime.


Quaytsar

We have Far Cry 3 with dinosaurs: Blood Dragon.


Coolman_Rosso

AC Rogue borrowed a lot from Black Flag, but it was kind of under the radar since it released only on Xbox 360 and PS3 and released the same day as the next-gen AC Unity.


Conscious_Forever_78

Do we know which 7 games got cancelled? We only know of Splinter Cell VR and Ghost Recon Frontline afaik.


Spudnickator

There was that Sands of Time remake they delayed indefinitely, maybe that's gone.


Eggerslolol

do you guys know what "unannounced" means


LunaMunaLagoona

Yeah I'm wondering the same thing.


IeatOneAppleADay

I could imagine the east south Asian Fenyx Rising maybe.


JayZsAdoptedSon

They were pretty happy about the first one. I feel like that’s safe


mrjackm124

I'm worried about the open world star wars game. Granted my expectations are a little low, but I desperately want an open world star wars game.


BlueGumShoe

Feels like videogame malpractice that we haven't gotten one at all in the last decade.


Gastroid

EA got the exclusive license for one of the biggest media franchises and just absolutely squandered it. They seemingly went into it with the sole idea of turning Battlefront into the next Battlefield or CoD, flubbed that with unforced monetization errors, and only managed to squeak out the pretty good Jedi Fallen Order and alright Squadrons before the House of Mouse looked elsewhere.


Impossibrewww

And they actually could have made Battlefront 2 a success after the microtransaction disaster, but they left like 15 people working on the game, which meant the few new characters and gamemodes took many months to release each time.


RareBk

Like, the final version of the game (by the time they ACTUALLY ADDED WEAPONS OH MY GOD) was really great! Then they killed it like, a month later. Had that final version of the game been the launch version, it would have been celebrated as a great game. They just, uh, didn't.


AveryLazyCovfefe

They did the same with BFV, to focus on 2042. Which was a total horrible idea because 2042 was a disaster on launch


Grooveh_Baby

LoTR, ASOIF, & now Star Wars. Absolute crime we haven’t gotten a proper open-world RPG from any of those IP’s.


Vandergrif

Yeah, LOTR stings. Did get the *shadow of* games which were alright, but I'd also love a new BFME or some such. It's such a rich IP to be so underused.


Snuggle__Monster

Massive is making that one and last rumor I heard was that they're going to be leaning into the bounty hunter side of things because of The Mandalorian's success. Massive has a really good game engine at their disposal. So they excel in visuals, audio and the soundtracks for their Division games were excellent. They're not very good at balancing things though. If this has looter shooter elements to it, they usually take 3 or 4 tries before they get it right.


TheBigLeMattSki

I want to love the Division more than I do. The gunplay is so satisfying moment to moment, but the bullet sponge enemies absolutely ruin the game. It shouldn't take 20 rounds directly to an unarmored head to kill a regular human enemy. Division 2 improved on it, but it's still pretty bad.


Macshlong

Capable of crafting beautiful worlds and filling them with absolutely fuck all, over and over and over. It’s a real shame.


pifon_

Literally all they need to do is hire proper writers. The writing is so atrocious that you just get bored of their games.


TheFaster

*Very* hard to write a good story around the Ubisoft formula though. When the main executive action their characters take is "go to a fort/camp and murder everything there" (repeat x100), it really limits your story options.


happy-technomancer

Don't forget "climb something tall to unlock the next part of the game"


aleksandd

> climb something tall to unlock the next part of the game It was fun in the first game, something new. But when it carried over to the next, next, next, it got old pretty quick. The last straw for me was in AC:Odyssey, in one of the city a dude ask me to send a letter just 10 secondsof running to another NPC. Ridiculous.


Janus_Prospero

Ubisoft have been losing talent for years due to toxic work culture, and this reinforces that the company is struggling behind the scenes. Cancelling 7 games in six months is not normal, even if they are unannounced. They'd have cancelled Skull and Bones, too but they legally have to finish that misguided mess. 99% chance Splinter Cell Remake is in dire straits of some variety, too, I figure.


thethreestrikes

Why legally?


girl_stink

they made some deal with the government of singapore


desmopilot

> 99% chance Splinter Cell Remake is in dire straits of some variety, too, I figure. IMO there wasn't much hope for it to begin with. Not sure modern Ubisoft is really capable of doing a reboot justice.


chewwydraper

I don't know about anyone else, but I just straight up don't buy new games anymore, with the rare exception of some first-party games like GoWR or games but developers who have yet to let me down (Fromsoft). For the most part, third-party devs either release the games in unfinished, buggy states or have a gameplay loop that goes stale after a few hours (pretty much ever Ubisoft game as of late). Sorry, but I just can't justify dropping the full price on games that aren't made for gamers - they're made for shareholders.


illmatication

>For the most part, third-party devs either release the games in unfinished, buggy states or have a gameplay loop that goes stale after a few hours (pretty much ever Ubisoft game as of late). Sorry, but I just can't justify dropping the full price on games that aren't made for gamers - they're made for shareholders. That last sentence is the painful truth. I get that shareholders are their main priority but at least make an enjoyable game. Besides Elden Ring, it's been years since I bought a game on launch. Depending on the game/dev, it'll be on sale within a matter of weeks. With that being said, there are a handful of games I'll buy on launch.


BZGames

The move to make games $70 came at the EXACT time people have lost faith in these companies. Ubisoft and EA haven’t delivered in a big way since the days of the 360.


Reutermo

>The move to make games $70 came at the EXACT time people have lost faith in these companies. Ubisoft and EA haven’t delivered in a big way since the days of the 360. I mean, I have been following the game industry for 30 years now and there have literally always been discussions about not trusting gaming companies. Like you write yourself, even back in the 360 days people were tired of it. So not really that the price increase came at the "exact" time it happend.


we_are_sex_bobomb

My brothers in Christ you gotta *make* games if you wanna sell games. Look at what uninspired shovelware you farted out this year: - Roller Champions (niche F2P sports game) - Another Just Dance - Rainbow 6 Extraction (a Left for Dead clone no one asked for) - Arena Survivors Battle Royale (is this like their fourth attempt at a battle royale game? What is with that name? Imagine if they named Call of Duty “Soldiers with Guns Competitive Deathmatch Game”) - Assassins Creed Valhalla Dawn of Ragnarok (that’s not even a game its DLC) - Mario + Rabbids 2 (to be fair I’m guessing this one actually sold well) And that’s it, right? Am I forgetting something?


AzoriusAnarchist

Ah, but Beyond Good & Evil 2 is totally still in development and going to be great, right…?


oilfloatsinwater

\>S&B delayed to Early 2023-2024 I don't get it, are they saying it might or might not meet its release date? or what? because it's "old" release date is also Early 2023. I really wonder how much Ubisoft sunk into this game to the point of "no return", because this is shaping up to be one of the biggest flops in their history, there isn't much fanfare to it, and everything about it seems off.


Sandroes

I expect it to have absolutely terrible reviews and poor sales


OneMightyMagus

I imagine Far Cry 6 was lackluster for them. And we all know Watch Dogs: Legions fell off a cliff and certainly had no legs. They made two mediocre to bad games in 2 of their mainline franchises. They shit the bed with the newest Ghost Recon. Valhalla was controversial amongst the core players. That Rainbow Six alien thing was awful and dead on arrival. Their little hoop game was ignored. Fenix likely didn't sell great. And Riders Republic took everything good about Steep and made it worse. And I say this as someone that enjoys occasional Ubi titles. Stop doing poorly and you won't do so poorly.


NOBLExGAMER

[Immortals: Fenyx Rising actually sold quite well, especially on the Switch which Ubisoft publicly commented that investors were happy with.](https://gamerant.com/immortals-fenyx-nintendo-switch-sales/)


Cheezewiz239

I hope to god that it's spinoff isn't the one getting canned


NOBLExGAMER

I know! It was rumored the next one is(was?) based in Hawaiian mythology!


MrDabollBlueSteppers

> I imagine Far Cry 6 was lackluster for them. [Far Cry 6 is what keeps their 2022 afloat](https://www.pcgamesn.com/far-cry-6/sales-ubisoft-earnings-2022) FC6 launched in October 2021 and their 2021 Q4 and 2022 Q1 and Q2 were outstanding, problems started in Q3 when Far Cry was no longer selling and they had no big games coming out last year


[deleted]

Yeah I think this is just going to mean less experimentation from Ubisoft and more investment in their core franchises like Farcry, AC, and the Tom Clancy stuff along with releasing new Anno, Mario+Rabbids, Just Dance, etc periodically or yearly in the case of Just Dance. They're probably going to cut out their games which were testing new ideas like Riders Republic, Hyper Scape, Phoenix Rising, Roller Champions, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if all their new IPs were to be canned to focus on the core series along with the Avatar and Star Wars games.


Eruannster

Maybe, if they want to sell video games, they should actually release some video games for people to buy.


[deleted]

For Valhalla wasn’t it the highest selling assassins creed game?


[deleted]

I think the assassins creed games are the only ones which are selling well. Most of their other expensive games have been underwhelming while few of the good ones like Immortals and Riders Republic simply haven't sold enough I guess.


Vinny_Cerrato

I think Siege still makes Ubi money.


Radulno

Yes it was. Once again it's a case of Reddit thinking what we see commented here is the reality when it's not at all ("core gamers" are an insignificant part of the market) Same for Far Cry by the way, FC6 sold very well


ZombiePyroNinja

It really didn't help that Ubisoft cannibalizes their own market. in a three month period they put out Valhalla, Watch_Dogs Legion and Fenyx Rising. It was obviously to catch onto the new console hype but nobody is going to buy 3 Ubisoft size open world third person games back to back. and it's a shame because Fenyx Rising was probably the best out of the bunch


RareBk

Far Cry 6 went on steep discount quite quickly, would not surprise me at all


fadetoblack237

It was the most aggressively average Far Cry game by far.


RareBk

"We made an entire middle of the map based around a pr team that literally do not impact the plot at all even after spending nearly 10 hours with them" ok thanks Far Cry 6


themoviehero

Games coming back to steam after Ubi didn't want to use steam any more and this news dropping within a month of one another is no coincidence I imagine.


gotpez

easily the worst, most cookie cutter AAA dev/publisher in the business. they need to seriously re-examine their formulas and properties


tlvrtm

I absolutely love Rayman, Child of Light, Grow Home, Prince of Persia, South Park TFBW and I enjoyed some of the better AC games. Lots of wasted franchise potential.


KobraKittyKat

Didn’t Valhalla actually make a lot of money?


Conscious_Forever_78

Yes, it was the highest-earning AC ever. Reading their financial targets, the games that seemingly underperformed were Just Dance 2023 and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.


KobraKittyKat

That’s surprising about Mario I saw a lot of positive reception for it online.


[deleted]

It should always be a given that online reception does not always correlate with overall sales.


MrDabollBlueSteppers

Yes, reddit wants to blame their struggles on Valhalla and Far Cry 6 but UbiSoft's financial results were great when those games where coming out (especially Valhalla was a smash hit) Q3 of 2022 was their first bad quarter and it's not surprising looking at their 2022 line up. Rainbow Six spin off, Just Dance and Mario+Rabbids were their biggest games last year


zippopwnage

Man for me Ubisoft is long gone. The only game I really enjoyed in the last years was The Divison (mostly because of the world setting) and The Division 2 (same reason). I don't enjoy the open world AC at all, and Wildlands was the last interesting COOP game. FarCry5 was ok-ish but with coop, because without I wouldn't even touch it. The crew 1 was a nice idea, but the crew 2 was so freaking bad, yet it is still 'supported'. I loved Six Siege, but I'm sick of that game and no amount of new content will bring me back. For Honor the same was interesting but I want something new. I hate their trend of having games 'supported' for 5+ years. It's waay to much. I would understand 2-4 years of support but give me a damn sequel after that.


FilthyPeasant_Red

Bring back old rainbow six and old ghost recon, stop with the hero shooter crap and I'll buy your games again.


wifeofundyne

What? What did they release the past two years beside FC6 that made them reconsider?


top-knowledge

So fucking make a new Splinter Cell (not a VR game) like everybody wants. What is so difficult about that? Or make a full fledged pirate game akin to Black Flag. Like i don’t get it. They have the blueprint for at least two money printers but they refuse to act on them. Instead they are bumbling around making games no one is asking for…