Why Ubisoft's recent Press Conference Only Reinforces Concerns.

Very soon after I posted my rant about how Ubisoft only makes the same cash grabby games, Ubisoft had their 2022 Ubisoft Forward where they would announce their major upcoming games and drum up some hype for the future of their existing IPs. But did this press conference dictate any change in Ubisoft or did it just reinforce everything I said in my previous rant? (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t look good for Ubisoft).

There were 14 ‘major’ (I use that term incredibly loosely) announcements made at the Ubisoft Forward press conference. Five of which were Assassin's Creed games and the remaining included no new IP aside from the troubled Skull and Bones.

Let’s address the hidden blade in the room, my last rant boiled down to Ubisoft only focusing on money making games and the diversity and creativity in the once unique company has now faded in an attempt to chase dollars. So having 40% of your announcements be focused on your main money maker (Assassin's Creed) does little to instil faith in Ubisoft changing their stance on how they release their games. Now I will admit that the announcement of finally going to Japan in AC: Code Red and allegedly returning to series roots (ie: AC2-Syndicate) with Mirage is exciting; but the announcement of Code Jade is concerning to say the least.

There is an ever growing mobile games market, in particular with the Asian and South American demos, with games like PUBG Mobile and Genshin Impact being stand out successes and actually very well thought out games that feel like full games and just cash grabs (which they may be). Ubisoft releasing an Assassins Creed game on mobile fees like ahitnlu veiled attempt to cash in on this huge market. Whether or not the game is good, Ubisoft have given gamers more than enough reason to believe that they will nickel and dime you at every available point as outlined in my previous rant.

Furthermore, Ubisoft also announced the release of Rainbow Six Siege: Mobile. Now when I asked Ubisoft to make Rainbow Six free to play, because they treat it as if it is free to play, this is NOT what I meant. It really feels like Ubisoft saw the success of Genshin Impact and released Assassins Creed: Code Name Jade and the success of Call of Duty: mobile and released Rainbow Six mobile. Now this is no slight to the developers of these games as they look like wonderfully well done adaptations of these major franchises and the mobile engine that Ubisoft has developed is actually incredible. Looking like 360 games on a mobile device is very impressive but it’s the intentions behind the development of these games that is concerning to me. Are they being developed out of love for the franchises or the love of money?

Also outlined in my previous rant, is that UbiArt Framework is no longer being allowed to work on their own projects and IP until Ubisoft… wait no until NETFLIX, very nonchalantly, announced a Valiant Hearts sequel to be exclusive to Netflix gaming and I… What? How does this have no hype, or real marketing, behind it? What concerns me further is that recently Ubisoft released their battle royale mobile game Wild Arena Survivors to little marketing. Did ANYONE know that this game was coming out? I bring this game up as an example of how Ubisoft is just throwing anything and everything at the wall in the hopes that SOMETHING will stick. And when it does stick they milk it for all it’s worth.

Regarding the only new IP spoken about in the press conference, Skull and Bones, Ubisoft have really stacked the deck up against the Skull and Bones team. Sea of Thieves is already available on gamepass and has an established fanbase that are unlikely to switch over to Skull and Bones as it is ship only combat and Sea of Thieves allows you to be an actual pirate (arggg innit). But the MAJOR hurdle in Skull and Bones way is releasing only one day before God Of War: Ragnarok on November 8th. How can Ubisoft expect Skull and Bones to be a part of any mainstream gaming conversations when the previous God of War game sold nearly 20 Million copies in total. Ridiculous scenes.

Does this mean Ubisoft should stop making Far Cry, Just Dance and Assassins Creed? No. But when your major press conference consists of only sequels and multiplayer announcements; it gets hard to be excited for Ubisoft games anymore and we’ve all played these games before just with different seasonings each time. Release something new or dip back into your IPs that actually have a fanbase clamouring for a new release. Give us even a crumb of an update on these remakes and sequels that we are all ACTUALLY waiting for, rather than churning out more cash grabs than a casino in vegas.

Written by @newajseyes across all socials.