We all saw it coming, but things at Ubisoft are getting serious as the company has announced a “major reset” involving the cancellation of 6 games, the delay of 7 others and big changes to the company’s structure.
First things first, the cancelled games include the long-in-development Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, which was supposed to launch this year.
This is because the company wants to “return to exceptional levels of quality on the Open-World Adventure segment”. Unfortunately, the remake and several other games “do not meet the new enhanced quality as well as more selective portfolio prioritization criteria” that Ubisoft is gunning for.
The Prince of Persia team addressed the cancellation on X.
“While the project had real potential, we weren’t able to reach the level of quality you deserve, and continuing would have required more time and investment than we could responsibly commit. And, we didn’t want to release something that fell short of what The Sands of Time represents” reads the post.
So what are the other games? Well, we aren’t entirely sure. According to Ubisoft, one was a mobile game and three others were brand new IP. The sixth game was not specified at all, but with the way they were talking it sounds like it may have been from one of Ubisoft’s existing IP.
“So that’s really the criteria, the approach that we followed, to either stop some games – and in there, there are three new IPs that we stopped, in the context where yes, it’s more difficult in this market to create new IPs than before – or to give additional time for projects that we think have great potential, but we need to make sure they will come with exceptional quality,” said Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Duguet during a financial call.
Additionally, 7 games have been delayed to “ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are fully met”. Interestingly, one of these was due to launch before the end of the current fiscal year in March but Ubisoft says is now planned for FY27, so people are speculating that it’s the Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake, which according to leaks, is titled Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced.
As for Ubisoft itself, it’s creating a bunch of new “creative houses”, closing down studios and much more. Check out this article to learn more about all that.
WGB 