Ubisoft has plans to release five new AAA games during the 2020-2021 fiscal year, according to CEO Yves Guillemot. While the publisher hasn’t revealed a solid release schedule for all of its games this year, many of Ubisoft’s big games have already been announced or at least hinted at for this year.
The last few months have been quite eventful for Ubisoft, with major game announcements and delays, plus news of shake ups within the company. Perhaps the biggest news behind the scenes was the reorganization of Ubisoft’s editorial team. For years, this team of around 100 people has advised the company on the direction of its games, pushing open worlds and online elements as well as steering the games’ stories. The changes to the group have been seen as a sign that Ubisoft wants to diversify its games going forward.
In a press release today, Ubisoft confirmed its intention to release five AAA games this year. There have been official announcements or rumors of at least that many games from the publisher before, but delays of Watch Dogs Legion and Rainbow Six Quarantine, two of Ubisoft’s most anticipated upcoming games, threw its plans into question. In addition to those, new entries in the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry series as well as the original IP Gods & Monsters are the most likely games to round out the five AAA releases. While nothing of substance has come to light about the next Far Cry game, doubt was recently cast on the rumored Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok. Guillemot says that Ubisoft will also release other “innovative titles,” including Roller Champions over the next year.
If those are in fact the five titles that Guillemot is referring to, it still leaves one major Ubisoft game with an uncertain future. After its announcement at E3 2017, very little has been revealed about Beyond Good and Evil 2, a game that Ubisoft seemed to be putting a lot of faith in. Unless Ubisoft plans to delay one of its surefire hits like the next Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry game, it seems likely that another year will pass before Beyond Good and Evil 2 sees the light of day.
Whatever games Ubisoft puts out this year, 2020 is set to be an important year for the publisher. With the disappointing performance of Ghost Recon Breakpoint and players growing ever more unhappy about Ubisoft’s reliance on microtransactions, there’s a lot of work ahead of the publishing behemoth to win back its customers’ trust.
Source: Ubisoft