Ubisoft Delays Major Titles Due to Poor Sales of Ghost Recon Breakpoint, The Division 2

[Tsing]

Ubisoft has opted to delay Watch Dogs: Legion, Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Skull & Bones due to the disappointing sales of Ghost Recon Breakpoint and The Division 2. All four titles have been pushed back to the second half of next year. The reason is to "ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players."

CEO Yves Guillemot suggested in a conference call Ubisoft didn't wait long enough between sequels for those games to have more of an impact. "We feel it's due to the fact that people have been able to play those games for a long time and experiencing that gameplay for a long time. We need to wait longer for something that is more differentiated," he said.

 

[_k_]

That statement smacks of lack of market understanding.

 

[Zarathustra]

That statement smacks of lack of market understanding.

I was going to say the opposite.

If they are stretching the timelines of development to ensure the games are actually good, which is how I read that, this is a huge positive.

It sounds like an acknowledgement they did something wrong with the latest installment of Ghost Recon and they want to take the time to get it right this time.

...or they are taking the time to add more microtransactions and a battle Royale mode, in which case it totally sucks.

Either way, none of these titles are on my list of titles I have any interest in.

 

[Dan_D]

This is a complex scenario. In a sense, Ubisoft is correct. As games transition to a live service model, the time needs to be stretched out between each installment. Games are becoming more of a long term investment than they used to be and once more and more persistent universe type games pop up, people will end up picking up one to two of these and ignoring everything else on the market.

More than that, there are complaints about predatory micro-transactions and many of Ubisoft's recent games have also suffered significant complaints due to the quality of the titles on launch.

Breakpoint has faced a ton of criticism for turning into a looter shooter. It's too much like the Division 2 and beyond its look and basic shooting mechanics, its not like Wildlands at all. Breakpoint was also released in a very poor state of polish, just as Wildlands was. Stupid things like all the ground vehicles having the same engine noise comes to mind as one glaring flaw that shouldn't exist. The menus are a mess, the game is overly complicated and things like its social hub and gearing system break immersion. Some of the supposed realism based systems and features are cool, such as tending to injuries while others like the camping system and vehicle summoning system are annoying.

The game adopted MMO like features and became a lot more like the Division 2 further straying from the Ghost Recon formula than even Wildlands did. Wildlands was well received for a number of reasons and instead of building on what was done right in that game, they tossed most of it out the window to make it into a game that behaved more like Destiny 2 or the aforementioned Division 2.

I think Breakpoint is a decent game at its core for many of the reasons why Wildlands was. However, its an inferior game to Wildlands in most respects and for every step forward Breakpoint took, it took at least 3 steps back.

 

[_k_]

I was going to say the opposite.

If they are stretching the timelines of development to ensure the games are actually good, which is how I read that, this is a huge positive.

It sounds like an acknowledgement they did something wrong with the latest installment of Ghost Recon and they want to take the time to get it right this time.

...or they are taking the time to add more microtransactions and a battle Royale mode, in which case it totally sucks.

Either way, none of these titles are on my list of titles I have any interest in.

I am reading that their recent releases were only partial business success. The extra time they need is to implement features to sell the game not purely to make it good.

From Dan_D's comment it would lead me to believe they were looking to duplicate features across several games this release cycle, which given Ubi's previous work is a safe bet.

Also, I feel, if you read the rest of the statements regarding thr delay it shows they are worried about not selling and tanking a franchise. Their view is on how to prolong a game series.

"This decision will have a very significant impact on our financial results for this fiscal year and goes against our recent success in building a more stable development model. However, it is in line with our strategy to maximize the future value of our brands for the long-term benefit of our employees, players, amd shareholders."

 

[Brian_B]

They just need to release Assassin's Creed: The Remix Edition 12

I thought The Division 2 was doing ok?

 

[_k_]

It was the best selling release of 2019 when it released but the console sales were low. Only 20% of physical copies that D1 did. Uplay had a large uptick in digital sales but that was to avoid purchasing through Epic gamestore. The game launched well but did not sell well.

 

[Dudhunter]

Triple A titles from Ubi, EA and Bethesda have been dogshit for a while now. It took the marketplace a while to catch on but Ubi has been in hot water for micro transactions ruining their game experiences across multiple titles (BLOPS 4, Division 2, AC, etc). All of those titles suffered bad press at some point due to questionable monetization.

If they are in fact looking to rework how they monetize their IPs, it is probably better to do that now than after a succession of flops.

 

[Dan_D]

They just need to release Assassin's Creed: The Remix Edition 12

I thought The Division 2 was doing ok?

I believe it did well out of the gate, but sales dropped off super fast.

 

[Strelok]

I believe it did well out of the gate, but sales dropped off super fast.

That’s probably because it was pretty fun until they released Tier 5 and made the loot worse and just made the game much more of a grind. I haven’t touched it since then.