Why is Ubisoft Delaying and Canceling Games? Employees Explain
Ubisoft has not had the best run lately. Delays and cancelations have taken a toll on the company's finances. Some employees have spoken out anonymously about internal problems.
It has been widely known for some time that Ubisoft is not doing well. In the past week, news has been flooding in about the delayed release of Skull and Bones, the cancellation of three unannounced projects, and multimillion-dollar losses that the company has suffered in the past year.
Why such poor condition of the giant (stumbling, but still a giant) of the video game industry? This is the question that journalist Tom Henderson decided to answer, who sought information from the source - Ubisoft employees.
What do the employees say?
In his article (via Insider Gaming), Henderson shares with us the conclusions of interviews with five current and former Ubisoft employees.
According to them, many projects were canceled because "they were not what players wanted." The games received negative feedback during testing. One former employee allegedly told Henderson about up to twelve (!) battle royale games that were at different stages of work at one time.
Another revelation is said to be the announcement of the elimination of hybrid and remote work from Ubisoft's work model. Executives were said to be linking the weaker performance with the need to implement the above restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ubisoft, according to its employees, wants to return to an office-based formula starting next year, which could pose a problem for those people who were hired at the company during the pandemic only with remote work in mind. For one of Tom Henderson's interviewees, the commute to the office after the changes would take three hours, and that's one way only.
Infinite delays
Anonymous developers at Ubisoft admit that the delays of releases are due to the need to polish many games.
Henderson spoke with a member of the team that has been working on a yet-to-be-announced project since 2019. The latter admitted that the work takes "an eternity," and that the debut of the title he is working on is scheduled for 2025 or 2026. That means six or seven years of development in total.
At least three major launches from under the Ubisoft banner await us this year: Assassin's Creed: Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and the recently delayed Skull and Bones. Will they help the company improve its footing? Time will tell.
