Ubisoft has cancelled three games in response to falling sales

Video games are seemingly more popular than ever, and I’d imagine that a fair amount of us would consider Ubisoft to be one of a handful of leading publishers. That doesn’t mean Ubisoft is immune to struggle though. The studio has reportedly cancelled three games as a response to falling sales which is sure to be hugely disappointing news for fans.

Don’t worry though, many announced titles are still proceeding as planned. Both Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are due to be released this year, so we should hear updates on both titles soon. They were due to be joined by Skull and Bones but that’s been delayed again. I was still in high school when Skull and Bones entered development, which is to say, it’s been stuck in development hell for a very long time. It’s not one of the games to get the chop though.

Check out the trailer for Assassin’s Creed Mirage below.

As reported by Kotaku, Ubisoft held an emergency meeting with investors on Wednesday 11 January to reveal that 2022’s sales had fallen well below their expectations. As a result, Ubisoft made the decision to cancel three unannounced games, plus they plan to cut roughly $215 million in costs over the next two years. This could supposedly see the publisher lessen its staff headcount.

CEO Yves Guillemot told staff, “Today more than ever, I need your full energy and commitment to ensure we get back on the path to success. 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.” Guillemot also mentioned that the multiple release date delays Ubisoft had made on various titles had “weighed on our costs and decreased our associated revenues.”

A loss of $537 million is now projected for the fiscal year ending in 2023. I suppose we should withhold our judgement on Skull and Bones, but I shouldn’t think it’s a game you want to be relying on for colossal success. We’ll see. Seeing as the cancelled games are unannounced, we clearly don’t know what they are but reports last year suggested that Watch Dogs was finished for good. Perhaps this is a sign that may be true.