Ubisoft has cancelled six games, delayed seven (including the Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake), and closed two studios in a massive restructuring of the company.
It’s been obvious that Ubisoft is in a bad way for several years now, as their usual hits began to falter and their quest for a successful new live service title failed time and time again.
Things got so bad last year that it had to ask Chinese publisher Tencent for a £1 billion bailout, as Ubisoft tried to refocus on its key franchises, many of which have been dormant for many years now, despite persistent talk of remakes and new sequels.
Their exact plan has been unclear though, until they today announced they are cancelled six games, including the troubled Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time remake, and delaying seven others – thought to include the never-actually-announced Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake.
Ubisoft describes the upheaval as part of a ‘major organisational, operational and portfolio reset designed to reclaim its creative leadership, regain agility and drive a sharp rebound.’
This will apparently involve ‘a more gamer-centric organisation, structured around creative genres, relying on integrated business units with faster, decentralised decision-making and a greater ability to quickly adapt to players’ expectations. This transformation will be supported by a rightsized and more agile organisation, delivering improved structural efficiencies over time.’
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Which translated into English means job cuts and an increasing reliance on generative AI. Already they’ve confirmed the closure of Ubisoft Stockholm studio, a mobile studio in Halifax, and ‘restructurings’ at Abu Dhabi, RedLynx, and Massive Entertainment.
To put things in Ubisoft’s words, their focus will be ‘centred on open world adventures and GaaS-native experiences [games as a service titles, aka live service games], supported by targeted investments, deeper specialisation, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI.’
At this point, it seems clear that they’re never going to give up on live service games, despite having so little success with them, and that they’re deaf to complaints from fans about not wanting generative AI in their games.
It’s not certain what the other five cancelled titles are but they’re all unannounced and include three new IPs and a mobile game.
There’s also no confirmation of what the seven delayed games are but the reference to an ‘unannounced title initially planned for financial year 2026 [i.e. before April 2026]’ is believed to be the Black Flag remake, which has been delayed until the next financial year.
As part of all these changes, Ubisoft is organising itself around five ‘Creative Houses’ which seem to be studios, or collections of studios, taking ownership of specific franchises.
The only one announced so far is Vantage Studios, which will handled Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Considering those are Ubisoft’s three biggest brands that’s an awful lot of responsibility, with the idea being to focus on ‘scaling and extending Ubisoft’s largest and established franchises to turn them into annual billionaire brands.’
What exactly that means is unclear, considering even Assassin’s Creed has only made around $4 billion over the last decade. Perhaps their referring to the studio, sorry ‘Creative House’, making a billion every year or maybe it’s hinting at a return to annual sequels.
It’s probably purposefully ambiguous though, as a means to impress investors, although that’s not going to work for long, unless Ubisoft can start churning out major hits on a much more reliable schedule than the last several years.
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