Ubisoft’s announcement of the cancellation of three unannounced projects and the publisher’s general bad situation opened the door Pandora’s Box. The French company has a lot to do and needs to start saving in order to get through a difficult period and be able to adapt to changes in the market.
– According to Ubisoft canceled projects had little chance of success in the worlddominated by several of the most famous games and their sequels.
– Gamers now want games that offer thousands of hours of fun and years of support for a one-time fee or even no payment.
– Story-driven single player games that offer much less fun these days for the same or more price. they discourage the average player from buying them.
– Three recently canceled games that were not announced, value up to 500 million euros. For all these reasons, Ubisoft intends to save more than 200 million euros over two years.
– As of July 2022, Ubisoft has canceled at least seven different projects. Ubisoft intends to save more than 200 million euros over two years.
– For the development of canceled games and future premium and free-to-play games, Ubisoft has written off capitalized research and development expenses of €500 million.
– Developers who worked on canceled projects will be moved on to other projects. Ubisoft is trying to avoid big waves of layoffs, although it wants to gradually reduce the number of employees. Now the company employs more than 20,000 people worldwide.
The above goes hand in hand with CEO Yves Guillemot’s statement: “We do not hide that we are disappointed with the recent results. We are facing conflicting market dynamics at a time when the industry continues to move towards mega-brands and long-running titles. All this against the backdrop of a deteriorating economic situation, which affects consumer spending.”
According to Kotaku, Guillemot should have sent this email to Ubisoft employees: “Today more than ever, I need your full energy and commitment to get us back on the path to success. I also ask each of you to be especially careful and strategic in your spending and initiatives to ensure maximum efficiency and profitability.”
The unflattering situation affected the position of the French company on the stock exchange. Stock prices plummeted and since 2018 they have fallen by almost 66%. Thus, they reached their lowest levels in the last seven years. The day before yesterday, stock prices fell by 13.79%, this was immediately after the announcement of the situation. It can be concluded that investors are worried.
According to prominent journalist Jeff Grubb of Giant Bomb earlier Ubisoft went around companies with a proposal for acquisition and merger. You should have laughed at Ubisoft because the firm is inefficient. His forte was a diversified game development structure that is now anathema.
Ubisoft might get better in a few months. The company plans to launch Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Avatar: Pandora’s Limits and Skull and Bones. In addition, he wants to release some secret major title by March 2024. Then he has big projects related to the Assassin’s Creed series.
Source :Indian TV
