2023 is already off to a rough start for Ubisoft, with the publisher admitting that it’s canceled several unannounced games and delayed the pirate game Skull and Bones for what feels like the hundredth time. That leaves just Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora as the only games on the books for Ubisoft, though they both lack exact dates and the latter could still end up not releasing till 2024. Fortunately, a new release schedule has leaked, potentially showing us what else Ubisoft is bringing to the table this year.
The list comes from Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson, who has proven to be a reliable source of information in the past, which lends the leak some validity. The leak details no less than 11 games Ubisoft plans to have out by the end of its fiscal year, so March 2024. Aside from the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed and Avatar titles, the list includes multiple mobile games and an unannounced follow-up to 2018’s The Crew 2. Henderson claims the next The Crew game is titled Project Orlando and will be announced in the coming months, although it may not actually feature The Crew branding and be named Motorfest instead.
Skull and Bones is obviously included, but the list also suggests that Ubisoft wants two free-to-play projects out before the end of the fiscal year: The Division Heartland and XDefiant, both of which have already been announced but rarely talked about.
The same can be said for the four mobile titles Ubisoft apparently wants out within the next 14 months: The Division Resurgence, Rainbow Six Mobile, Assassin’s Creed Jade, and the Assassin’s Creed Netflix game. Again, all these are confirmed projects but outside of details that leaked out of private beta tests and the like, there’s little in the way of official info on these games. Especially the Netflix one.
Lastly, there’s an Assassin’s Creed VR title called Assassin’s Creed Nexus. Ubisoft hasn’t formally announced this one, but Henderson previously leaked its existence in September. He’s now added that it will release for the Meta Quest 2 and that Ubisoft is waiting for approval from Meta to begin advertising it.
Strangely, there’s no mention of the Valiant Hearts mobile game that’s meant to be out by the end of January or Ubisoft Düsseldorf’s The Settlers reboot, which is scheduled for February 17.
Upper management within Ubisoft is no doubt eager to release plenty of games this year to make up for the aforementioned cancellations. However, the company is facing pushback from its employees following comments by CEO Yves Guillemot that appeared to pin the company’s woes on developers.
Published: Jan 19, 2023 09:53 am