Ubisoft cancels three games, delays Skull and Bones, and pressures employees to “deliver”

“We are clearly disappointed by our recent performance.”

Marco Wutz | Jan 12, 2023

Ubisoft cancels three games, delays Skull and Bones, and pressures employees to “deliver” /

Ubisoft released some updated financial targets for 2023-24, which contain a hefty dose of news. The publisher and developer seems to be in hot water after some disappointing recent results with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 being the latest titles to underperform in sales. Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s CEO, says:

“We are clearly disappointed by our recent performance. We are facing contrasted market dynamics as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and everlasting live games, in the context of worsening economic conditions affecting consumer spending.”

The company is planning to save around $200 million USD in costs over the next two years by “targeted restructuring, divesting some non-core assets and usual natural attrition.” This includes the cancellation of three unannounced game projects.

Skull and Bones, Ubisoft’s ambitious pirate game, will be delayed once again, now targeting a release in the coming fiscal year – so sometime after April 2023.

It’s been a while since Ubisoft released one of its hallmark open-world titles, the last big launch in this category being Far Cry 6 in 2021. Several Assassin’s Creed games are in the works and Ubisoft Massive is also developing an open-world Star Wars game, but most of these projects are likely years away. There is also an Avatar game in the pipeline that has the company’s hopes attached to it.

In an email to staff members that was shown to Kotaku, Guillemot presumably tried to rally the troops, but came across as blaming his employees for the situation and pressuring them to do better: “I am also asking that each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we’re being as efficient and lean as possible. The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving.”

Published Jan 12, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg