Assassin’s Creed publisher Ubisoft has bad luck

Another big game from Ubisoft has been delayed. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Won’t be in time for a James Cameron feature film release Avatar: Water Road It was released in December of this year and will now be launched sometime after March 2023 at the earliest. CEO Yves Guillemot also told employees Thursday that some projects have been cancelled, and that the publisher will have to cut expenses to only “what is necessary” as it searches for its next success.

Guillemot wrote in a company-wide email viewed by Kotaku. And she continued:

In the current economic context, managing our investments carefully and strategically is more critical now than ever. We must therefore succeed in severely limiting our spending of what is necessary by questioning some of our habits and reactions, and reinventing ourselves together for gains in cost, agility, and efficiency.

Guillemot reiterated that despite these issues, the company is still targeting an operating profit of more than $400 million this year.

In addition to symbol pictureToday, Ubisoft announced during First Quarter Earnings Report That a “smaller, unannounced premium game” originally planned for this fiscal year has also been delayed. This is likely a reference to Project Rift, which is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla The DLC has turned into a standalone game. Bloomberg mentioned that the game was intended to fill holes in Ubisoft’s upcoming release calendar, although two sources familiar with Ubisoft’s plans recently told Kotaku The game was facing new challenges despite the rush to finish it.

Regarding the canceled projects, Guillemot confirmed during today’s call that at least two of them were Splinter Cell VR And the Ghost Recon Frontline. The latter was a battle royale-inspired multiplayer shooter that was criticized when it was announced last year and returned to the drawing board earlier in 2022 after gameplay tests accused it of feeling too much. Call of Duty: War Zone vogue.

For the rest of 2021, then, Ubisoft has pinned its hopes on a new hardware Mario + Rapids strategy Game and his multi-year developmental headache skull and bones. But while the latter costs about as much as any large-scale game, the people who worked on it remain skeptical that it will be anywhere near the hit the company needs. According to one developer, there is little to no pirate ship game out there other than what was already shown when it appeared again on a live show earlier this month. Despite the array of survival simulation mechanics for gathering resources, they said that each individual part of the game lacked depth.

On today’s call, Guillemot blamed it symbol pictureThe delay in the face of broader production challenges related to covid, and the desire to make the game a solid start for a new series for the publisher. Kotaku He understands that at least one product has recently been pulled from another large project to be involved in. Guillemot also tried to allay investor skepticism by subtly referring to a “new high-value mobile licensing partnership for one of our AAA brands,” though he wouldn’t share more details when pressed by analysts.

Doctrine killer It remained one of the company’s few big bright spots, and Kotaku Realize that in addition to the live service project Assassin’s Creed InfinityUbisoft is still planning another new open world Doctrine killer A game called Project RedUpdate: 2:10 PM ET, 7/21/22: BloombergJason Schreyer Reports Red is actually part of endlessinstead of a separate game). According to two sources familiar with its development, it will take place in Asia. VentureBeatJeff Group Previously mentioned That the game may take place in Japan, and during that Kotaku I can’t confirm it, sources said that the setting, as well as long requested by fans, has long been discussed internally.

Meanwhile, many employees say Kotaku Various Ubisoft studios are facing fewer and smaller increases in staff, lower hiring, and different budget freezes. This new wave of austerity comes as many major tech companies prepare for a possible recession. Ubisoft’s problems go beyond that, with ambitious projects trapped like Beyond Good and Evil 2the sequel to the beloved classic RPG, and still fully MIA And top developers in some basic perks.

Ubisoft’s upcoming Game Forward show will air on September 10th. The company did not respond to a request for comment.