Tag: Ubisoft

Ubisoft debuts Assassin’s Creed Mirage release date trailer

Ubisoft announced the Assassin’s Creed Mirage release date in a new trailer that hearkens back to the stealth game series’ roots

Ubisoft announced the Assassin’s Creed Mirage release date in a new trailer that hearkens back to the stealth game series’ roots. Assassin’s Creed Mirage launches for PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Oct. 12, 2023, following Basim in what Ubisoft calls a tribute to the original game and a refinement of what makes the series special.

It’s pretty easy to see how it pays tribute to the original game as well. Basim’s outfit is awfully similar to Altair’s, and some of the parkour scenes in the trailer feature similar feats of breathless daring and high-flying acrobatics. Basim skulks through the shadows, leaps across rooftops, and baffles – or kills – guards to get where he needs to go.

Ubisoft says the city reacts to your every move and forces you to think on your toes. It’s divided into four substantial districts, including an industrial zone and a lush garden, and you’ll run across important historical figures who helped shape the golden age of Baghdad. Whether they leave your encounters alive is another matter, of course.

Whether Mirage includes any of the RPG elements that defined Origin, Odyssey, and Valhalla remains unclear, though we’ll likely know more during the Ubisoft Forward event in early June.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Ubisoft backs out of E3 2023, plans to host original event in June

The company is opting for another Ubisoft Forward broadcast.

Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six publisher Ubisoft has announced it will not attend E3 2023.

As reported by VGC, the company now plans to hold a Ubisoft Forward Live event on June 12, 2023, but will not have a presence on the E3 show floor.

“E3 has fostered unforgettable moments across the industry throughout the years,” said a Ubisoft spokesperson. “While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we’ve made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction, and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on 12th June in Los Angeles. We look forward to sharing more details with our players very soon.”

The announcement comes as a surprise since Ubisoft was among several publishers confirmed to be at E3 2023, but obviously, schedules change and all that. Nintendo and Microsoft are among the other major gaming companies skipping out on E3’s return as an in-person event.

Ubisoft has quite a selection of exciting games in development. There’s Skull & Bones, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and supposedly another Far Cry installment. We don’t know if any of these will be at the upcoming Ubisoft Forward, but there’s a good chance – especially since it’ll probably be the publisher’s biggest broadcast of 2023. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Union calls for Ubisoft Paris to strike following CEO’s comments

Yves Guillemot’s now-infamous company email caught the attention of union workers.

Ubisoft Paris union workers are calling for a strike following CEO Yves Guillemot’s “worrying” email following the company’s most recent lackluster financial results.

Last week, Ubisoft announced another delay for Skull and Bones in addition to the cancellation of three unannounced games due to several recently-released titles underperforming. Following that, Guillemot sent a company-wide email to staff.

“Today more than ever, I need your full energy and commitment to ensure we get back on the path to success,” Guillemot said via Kotaku. “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.”

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Now, the French trade union Solidaires Informatique is calling on members of the Ubisoft Paris chapter to strike on Friday, Jan 27, 2023. 

“In his latest statement, Mr. Guillemot announces a worrying future for Ubisoft,” Solidaires Informatique’s statement reads on Twitter. “If the request to employees to be ‘especially careful and strategic with your spending’ is ironic considering the company’s editorial strategy of the last few years, it is not funny.”

“On several occasions, Mr. Guillemot is trying to shift the blame (once again) onto the employees; he expects us to be mobilized,” Solidaires Informatique continues. “To ‘give it our all’, to be ‘as efficient and lean as possible’. These words mean something: overtime, managerial pressure, burnout, etc.”

The full statement is available below.

As of the time of this posting, Ubisoft has yet to comment on the situation yet.

Nevertheless, there are several high-profile games from Ubisoft coming soon. Namely, Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Ubisoft delayed Skull & Bones again and canceled more games

Ubisoft delayed its pirate game Skull and Bones once more and canceled multiple projects after projecting lower profits

Ubisoft announced another Skull and Bones delay after adjusting its 2022 profit forecast downward and canceled three unannounced projects. This marks about half a dozen times that Ubisoft has delayed its pirate game, which was originally meant to launch in 2018. The Assassin’s Creed maker also canceled four unannounced projects in 2022.

CNBC reports that Ubisoft’s new forecast is 725 million Euros, down from its earlier 830 million Euro prediction. Company CEO Yves Guillemot cited “worsening macroeconomic conditions” as a cause, one that contributed to Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 underperforming.

2022 saw several leaks and announcements from Ubisoft, including Assassin’s Creed Mirage and a new Star Wars game, but few actual releases – and no blockbuster hits like Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed.

Anonymous sources in Ubisoft told Kotaku the company is planning millions of dollars worth of cutbacks and is already starting the process by not filling current vacancies. Ubisoft also told Kotaku that Skull & Bones is finished and just needs more polishing and testing than the team realized.

Giant Bomb host Jeff Grubb said Ubisoft had hoped to be acquired in 2022 to help offset its declining revenue, but no transaction ever manifested, reportedly as prospective buyers view the company as “a mess.”

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Ubisoft’s games are coming back to Steam

Several high-profile franchises like Assassin’s Creed will release on Valve’s storefront.

Ubisoft announced Monday that it’ll start releasing PC games on Steam again for the first time in years.

Specifically, titles such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Roller Champions, and Anno 1800 are coming to Steam quite soon. Ubisoft spokesperson Jessica Roache gave The Verge a vague explanation as to why the company is launching games on Valve’s platform again.

“We’re constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect,” Roache said.

In 2019, Ubisoft stopped releasing games on Steam in favor of its storefront and the Epic Games Store. It’s unclear whether or not upcoming titles like Skull and Bones or Assassin’s Creed Mirage will launch on Steam at release, though.

According to Kotaku, when Assassin’s Creed Valhalla comes to Steam on Dec. 6, 2022, it’ll require you to install the Ubisoft Connect launcher and have a registered account. Not that it should come as a surprise to anyone playing big AAA games on Steam — most require some sort of third-party application.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Beyond Good and Evil 2 is now the most delayed AAA game in history

Duke Nukem Forever no longer holds the world record for longest video game announcement to shipping date.

More than 15 years have gone by since the initial announcement of Beyond Good and Evil 2. Yes, nearly two decades in the making, and it still hasn’t come out. Should the game ever release, though, Ubisoft can boast about it garnering a world record.

Last week, GamesIndustry.biz editor Brendan Sinclair noted that Duke Nukem Forever currently holds the ‘longest development period for a videogame’ category at Guinness World Records, taking 5,156 days from initial reveal to shipped product. However, it shouldn’t hold that title anymore because 5,239 days have passed since Beyond Good and Evil 2‘s first trailer on May 30, 2008 — just saying that aloud is enough to add wrinkles to your brow.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been delayed countless times since its first trailer. The game briefly resurfaced at E3 2017 and 2018 with cinematic teasers before vanishing again, but there’s not been much on it since. Ubisoft claims the game is still in active development, so it hasn’t been canceled, much to the surprise of everyone keeping score.

The original Beyond Good and Evil came out in November 2003 to critical acclaim but didn’t sell well. Many fans thought a sequel would never happen, so there was loads of hype when Beyond Good and Evil 2 was actually announced. Sadly, it’s hard to say if it’ll ever actually release.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Ubisoft will launch ‘big AAA games’ at $70, starting with Skull and Bones

CEO Yves Guillemot states that Skull and Bones, along with other new-generation releases from Ubisoft, are going to be more expensive.

It seems that Ubisoft is the latest gaming publisher to adopt a new price point for massive releases. 

In an interview with Axios, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the open-world pirate adventure Skull and Bones will cost $70 at launch. It won’t be the company’s only release that’ll sell at that amount, either.

“Some of the games will come at the same price as the competition,” Guillemot said. “The big AAA games will come at $70.”

Guillemot didn’t specify if other upcoming Ubisoft titles like Assassin’s Creed Red or Assassin’s Creed Hexe will follow suit, though neither game is coming out anytime soon. Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which releases in 2023, is currently only $50 across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC storefronts. It’s worth mentioning that Mirage is being advertised as a smaller-scale release, so that could factor into the lower price.

Many other companies are adopting $70 as the standard for AAA products, with The Last of Us Part 1 being a recent example.

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Earlier this year, Ubisoft caught a lot of flak for toe-dipping into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). While cryptocurrency integration didn’t work for Ghost Recon Breakpoint, the company isn’t necessarily done with the technology.

“We are in the testing phase,” Guillemot explains via Axios. “If we find something that will be very interesting and will please players, we’ll work on it.”

The company also made several major announcements during its Ubisoft Forward on Saturday.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Five biggest announcements from the September 2022 Ubisoft Forward

Here are the most exciting game announcements from Ubisoft’s big showcase.

After teasing us for many months, the Ubisoft Forward has come and gone already. Alas, Beyond Good and Evil 2 wasn’t there yet again. Sad times.

There were plenty of rock-solid gameplay demonstrations for The Division Resurgence and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, plus some teasers regarding Assassin’s Creed‘s future. Goodness, there was lots of Assassin’s Creed.

The showcase was pretty long, at least long enough for most people to dip out on a Saturday, anyway. No worries, though — just take a look at our breakdown of the five biggest below.

No, Ubisoft isn’t working on a Blade video game

Despite rumors claiming otherwise, Ubisoft stated that it isn’t making a video game based on Blade.

So over the weekend, rumors began swirling about Ubisoft making a Blade video game. Unfortunately, it was all hogwash. 

Eurogamer notes that a series of photos posted on Instagram back in July sparked this whole mess. Several actors appeared in Ubisoft-branded motion capture suits for a untitled Marvel project. On Sunday, YouTuber JorRaptor made a video pointing out that Bassam Tariq, director of next year’s Blade film reboot, appears on the clapperboard. While it’s a fair conclusion to jump to, Ubisoft shot down the speculation pretty quickly.

“Sorry to slice up the rumors, we’re not making a Blade game,” Ubisoft said on Twitter. “But we can’t wait to see what our friends at [Marvel Studios] are cooking up for next year’s movie!”

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Major publishers rarely comment on rumor mill stuff like this, so this is probably the truth. It’s a shame since Blade totally should have a video game — at least the daywalker will be in Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

There have been lots of Marvel game rumors as of late. Namely, Electronic Arts (EA), which is supposedly making Iron Man and Black Panther games. EA hasn’t refuted any of the rumors, though that’s not necessarily an admission of anything.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Tencent reportedly hopes to raise its stake in Ubisoft by a considerable degree

Chinese gaming giant Tencent looks to become Ubisoft’s biggest shareholder.

Tencent Holdings, a Chinese multinational gaming conglomerate, is looking to become the single biggest shareholder of Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six Siege publisher Ubisoft.

According to Reuters, Tencent is speaking with the family of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot about raising its stake in the French company. Back in 2018, Tencent acquired a 5 percent share in Ubisoft and now looks to gain more financial ground. The specific amount isn’t publicly known, but Tencent could be allegedly offering 100 euros ($102.47 USD) per share, which is considerably more than the 66 euros per share from that initial 2018 investment.

“Tencent is very determined to nail down the deal as Ubisoft is such an important strategic asset for Tencent,” sources told Reuters. However, the deal is far from finished and could change on a dime, so it’s unknown if any of the numbers thrown around here will stick.

As of right now, Ubisoft is valued at $5.3 billion — making it one of the biggest games publishers in the world. Tencent is apparently looking to expand its global gaming portfolio, and Ubisoft would be a massive addition. Right now, Tencent already has foreign investments in Riot Games, Epic Games, Discord, and many more.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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