Ubisoft remains one of the last major video game companies not yet to announce major layoffs. But this does not mean that everything is fine here. French publishing has been mired in chaos and failure for the past few years. According to the latest report from Insider Gaming, this is due to poor management and changing attitudes.
The previously innovative and creative company bet on trends and launched a number of projects that did not achieve the desired results or were cancelled. Especially after the cancellation of battle royale games like Roller Champions. Ghost Recon: FrontlineSplinter Cell VR, Project Q or NFT efforts.
Criticism was mainly directed at Ubisoft’s management, who had unrealistic deadlines and mismanaged individual teams. A number of employees told Insider Gaming that the company is wasting talent and flushing huge amounts of money down the toilet. At the turn of 2021 and 2022 it was supposed to be in development for about a dozen battle royale games. When some of these projects were announced, they caused a backlash (the case of Ghost Recon: Frontline). Others didn’t appeal to enough players or completely failed as platforms. Ubisoft Quartz with NFT. In short, the French bet on the wrong cards and allowed themselves to be blinded by the dream of easy profits.
In addition, there is a risk that the investment will not return. Avatar: Pandora’s Frontiers and perhaps not before Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. It was expected to be played by 300,000 players and generate $15 million in revenue. With very soft marketing, “Avatar” has played 1.9 million people since its December release and grossed about $133 million at the box office. But Ubisoft expected much more. By comparison, The Division (2016) and The Division 2 (2019), Massive Entertainment’s two previous games, earned $330 million and $264 million in their first weeks of release, respectively. New games are better Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The smaller installment of the famous series was expected to attract 5 million players and earn $250 million. This is comparable to Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
So the other games planned should be a success. This year Ubisoft wants to release the next Skull and Bones still Star Wars Outlaws And Assassin’s Creed Red. Not much is expected from a pirate adventure that should have been released years ago. So Star Wars and feudal Japan will have to deal with this. Star Wars Outlaws is said to release in the first half of this year, while Assassin’s Creed Red will release in the fall.
Let’s return to Skull and Bones. The game was in development for 10 years, delayed many times internally and publicly, and the developers often didn’t know what they were doing because the team’s management had completely failed. Therefore, instead of developing, some watched YouTube all day long. Many managers wanted to use this expensive project for their career growth. As a result development cost about 200 million dollars. Apparently, no one expects a return on this huge investment.
Another trouble Beyond Good and Evil 2, which has been in development hell for almost 15 years and is still far from finished. Ubisoft employees hope that other planned games will be successful. Then the mood in the company should improve significantly. Even if the obligation to return from your home office to the office at least two days a week does not add to your mood. Employees see this as an additional financial burden after being “housed” due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Source :Indian TV
