Ubisoft’s 2019 was a hit and miss, just like Bethesda’s.
In 2019, Ubisoft released three AAA titles which were Far Cry: New Dawn, The Division 2 and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Aside from these, Ubisoft continued to support its ongoing online tactical first-person shooter game – Rainbow Six Siege.
Far Cry: New Dawn which served as a standalone adventure to 2018’s Far Cry 5 received a mixed reception from critics and fans alike. With more emphasis on RPG elements, the game ended up feeling like a replica of the more recent Fallout games than Far Cry.
With the usual slightly intimidating set of antagonists and rather furbished gameplay elements, Far Cry: New Dawn felt like a missed opportunity.
The Division 2 felt like a solid sequel to the 2016’s The Division. With a stronger focus on loot, Dark Zones and end game content, The Division 2 received praise from the critics but had poor sales when compared to its previous entry.
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, on the other hand, felt like a mediocre experience with a typical Ubisoft open-world, out of the place gameplay elements and brought nothing good on the table that could differentiate the game from other Ubisoft open-world titles.
Read/watch our review of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
Ubisoft later confirmed that none of their 2019’s release performed well commercially, especially Ghost Recons Breakpoint. Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot stated that the “few weeks after the game’s launch were very disappointing.” You can read the entire financial report here.
In fact, the major revenue the company had this year was from 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Ubisoft confirmed during the game’s first launch anniversary that the game has over 645+ million hours of playtime so far.
Aside from this, Rainbow Six Siege continued to perform exceptionally well with the game landing at No. 9 of the best selling games of August 2019. For a game that is four years old, this is a positive sign, something that Ubisoft is aware of.
Ubisoft also ended up canceling one of the major unannounced titles from Ubisoft Montreal that has been in development for over three years. Because most of the Ubisoft titles have a development cycle of three or three and a half years, this unannounced title was pretty far in development.
To make matters worse, Ubisoft later announced that they are delaying all of their major titles from early 2020 to the fiscal year 2020-21. This means that all of these titles will release sometime between April 2020 and March 2021.
CEO Yves Guillemot said the following in his statement regarding this inevitable delay:-
more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented to deliver optimal experiences for players.
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As of now, we know about three big releases that are planned for 2020.
Watch Dogs Legion is in development at Ubisoft Toronto. The third entry in this open-world cyber drama game takes place in a futuristic London where we can play as any of the NPC’s scattered across its humongous map.
Previously planned for a March 6, 2020 release, Watch Dogs: Legion is currently out of a release date but this extra time will surely give the developers to polish out the game even more.
Gods & Monsters is an open-world action-adventure game with an art style inspired by the Zelda games. The game is in development at Ubisoft Quebec which released Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in 2018.
Even though Gods & Monsters is not a game offering the depth and scope of other major Ubisoft titles, it’s still a brand new IP that Ubisoft needs to give the much-needed development time to flourish.
The third and the final Ubisoft title that has been announced so far is Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Quarantine. This latest entry in the long-running Rainbow Six series is a three-player co-op tactical shooter where players will be forced to face otherworldly threats. The game doesn’t have a release date currently, just like the other two titles planned for the fiscal year 2020-21.
As of now, there are a few unannounced titles still in development at Ubisoft about which we may hear soon. That includes the next Assassin’s Creed game which is rumored to be set in the Viking Era and will be a cross-generational title. The game is in development at Ubisoft Montreal – the team led by Ashraf Ismail, who also served as the director of Assassin’s Creed 4: Blackflag and Assassin’s Creed Origins, both of which were a critical and commercial success.
With the next generation of consoles inbound, Ubisoft needs to focus on making each of their games a unique and compelling experience, rather than all of them feeling the fish of the same lake. Here’s hoping that Ubisoft will improvise upon this sooner than later.
What are your thoughts regarding the current line-up of Ubisoft titles? Are you excited about them? Tell me in the comments down below.
