Gaming journalist and insider Stephen Totilo reports that Ubisoft cancelled three more unannounced games, on top of the four axed last summer. In addition, they seem to be planning $200 million of 'cost reduction'—read, firing devs and selling off properties—brought on by 'surprisingly slow' sales. Personally, I'm not 'surprised', given that their last major, big-budget game was released in 2021, but evidently this has come as quite the shock to some higher-ups at Ubisoft.
More practically, this move likely spells the death knell of more niche Ubisoft franchises like Rayman or Watch_Dogs, which was left floundering after the third game in the series proved a critical and commercial disappointment. (For my money, Watch_Dogs 2 is still one of the best open-world games ever, but it's always one step forward and two steps back with Ubisoft). On the same day, Ubisoft's long-awaited pirate simulator Skull and Bones announced yet another delay – the game is being produced using subsidies from the Singaporean government, so it can't be outright canceled. Keeping it in development hell, however, seems very possible indeed. All in all, it's strange times at Ubisoft, and it remains to be seen whether the upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage is capable of pulling them out of their funk.
