Ubisoft’s Project U returned to the drawing board this year following five years of development.
Project U was officially announced in September 2022 as a revolutionary “new kind of session-based cooperative shooter,” but after over two years since its announcement, nothing publically about the game has yet been announced. That’s because Project U, internally codenamed Pathfinder, quietly returned to the drawing board in Spring 2024 following issues surrounding the game’s replayability.
For those unfamiliar with Project U, its premise is that Earth has been invaded by machines that want to mechanize all life. The game would see ten teams of four battle it out in PvE combat against progressively more difficult enemies as they progressed through the map’s zones, which could have thousands of enemy AI robots on the map at any given time. Eventually, players would enter the final zone in the middle of the map, where they’d need to defeat the boss.
Despite initially receiving generally positive feedback from players, one fundamental flaw plagued the game from the start: its replayability. Sources say it was a constant issue for the developers and would see the project’s budget balloon due to continuous reworks. Such reworks included adding more variations to the map with biomes and adding new bosses to change its repetitive nature; however, playtests in February 2024 revealed that the game lacked the replayability needed.
In March 2024, Ubisoft Annecy announced that Project U (codenamed Pathfinder) development would cease immediately and that outsourcing studios would move on to different projects. Two of the game Directors, Mathieu Granjon and Damien Kieken left the project among many other developers, with Granjon moving to Assassin’s Creed and Kieken eventually making his way to DICE this month.
Instead of being canceled, Ubisoft internally noted that PvE games can still be successful, citing the viral launch of Helldivers 2, which sold an estimated million units in its first five weeks. As such, it’s said that Ubisoft still believes in the project and moved Project U back into incubation with a new producer and a small team to explore new ideas. However, after over five years of development, current and past project developers tell me it’s difficult to see how the game would succeed.
Will Project U end up being another decade-long project at Ubisoft? Only time will tell.
What do you think of Ubisoft returning to the drawing board with Project U? Let us know in the comments or our new community forum!
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