Ubisoft says too many titles in development have led to recent game delays and cancellations

Ubisoft has finally confirmed the reason for its many game delays and cancellations over the past two years. During his third quarter 2022-2023 investor call held early Friday, CEO Yves Guillemot said the measure was necessary because the company was producing too many titles at once. Last month, Ubisoft canceled three unannounced projects to combat revenue losses and bolster long-term growth. Guillemot also assured investors that Ubisoft will attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this summer, should there be one this year. “If E3 happens, we’ll be there and we’ll have a lot to show,” he said (via VGC).

“We canceled a few games because we needed to make room for other games in development in the company, and that really helps all the other games that are progressing well,” Guillemot said on the investor call ( through NME). “Now we believe we have the right number of games, knowing that we will be launching a lot of games in FY24 that will also leave room for other games that are on the way in the company.” Ubisoft previously delayed its naval combat title Skull & Bones for the sixth time, hoping to garner feedback from ongoing technical testing and ensure a polished experience at launch. Slated for release on March 9, the game will now launch during the company’s next fiscal year, which is between April 2023 and March 2024.

Guillemot also touched on how cancellations benefit post-launch content for key game launches in the future. Since the development teams were dispersed across multiple projects, deleting some of the minor/low-advanced projects saves them time and resources. These developers can then be moved to help with the core games. “- we know a lot of these games will have post-launch content as well, and it will take a number of teams and talent to actually create that content,” Guillemot said.

The way Ubisoft expressed its involvement at this year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) made it seem like the expo probably wouldn’t take place this year. While E3 organizers have said they plan to hold an in-person event this year, there are doubts surrounding the conference as the big three – Sony, Xbox and Nintendo – reportedly won’t be attending. the extravaganza of summer video games. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has previously confirmed that he will be hosting his own showcase around the same time as E3, for convenience. Meanwhile, PlayStation pulled out of E3 in 2019 and continued with its own State of Play and other showcases – which sometimes coincided with Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest. On the contrary, Keighley’s digital-only event proved that it’s perfectly viable for a publisher to market its games without a physical presence and pay big bucks for dedicated booths.

However, a new report from The Verge suggests that E3 2023 is well and truly underway, despite major publishers pulling out. “E3 is moving at full speed and we are pleased with the progress and community engagement,” said Lance Fensterman, president of ReedPop (E3 organizers) in a prepared statement. “As we have confirmed exhibitors, we look forward to sharing more as details are cemented and attendees prepare their own detailed plans.” It’s unclear what titles Ubisoft has in store for us at E3, but we can assume Assassin’s Creed Mirage is one of them.