Summer Game Fest, E3, or whatever we’re calling it now, is finally over. Xbox had arguably one of the best showcases in the past decade, whereas Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest main show fell short of some of the more significant announcements we would have expected from such a show. The Ubisoft Forward showcase also felt underwhelming, especially considering the slate of games we know that Ubisoft has in development and is set to release in the next couple of years. So, what was up with that disappointing Ubisoft Forward showcase?
Two of Ubisoft’s biggest games to release later this year, Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, took up over half of the one-hour show, and apart from the two surprise announcements of Anno 117 and a 2026 date for Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, there wasn’t that much else to brag about.
The most notable misses of games that have already been announced were the Splinter Cell Remake, Project U, Beyond Good and Evil 2, the 20th-anniversary edition of the original, and even a showing of the Assassin’s Creed Infinity Hub, which is set to launch alongside Shadows. Division 3 has also been officially announced but will not enter production until later this year after appointed management is free after the release of Outlaws.
Other games expected to be released in the next two to three years include Assassin’s Creed Invictus, Assassin’s Creed Hexe, Far Cry 7, a Far Cry extraction shooter, a new Ghost Recon game, several new free-to-play games, and a new WW2 extraction shooter under the codename Crest that has an ambitious 10-year live service plan that will follow the events of World War 2.
If everything comes to fruition, it’s easy to see that Ubisoft does have a great pipeline of games in the works, but the reality of game development is incredibly complex. Speaking with several Ubisoft employees, the feeling is that Ubisoft executives no longer wants to commit to release dates or games publically until they are confident of their releases. Perhaps because of mishaps like Skull & Bones, which saw over half a dozen public delays, or the more recent example with Star Wars Outlaws, which has seen a reduction in its scope to release on time.
Why these things continue to happen at Ubisoft is a bigger story for a later date (but I suggest reading this article on low morale at the company). Issues internally are not changing, but at least in the eyes of Ubisoft, a little more public caution over its games and release dates can go a long way. A trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been ready for over a year, but without any confidence in a release date; do they want to see another game with more constant public delays? Probably not. At least, we should hear more about the Beyond Good and Evil 20th-anniversary game soon, but where and when is anyone’s guess.
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I think something like this shows the downsides of having a single studio doing a showcase instead of just being part of the main one. You’re limited on the games they can reveal and people have been getting increasingly frustrated with games being announced only to be nowhere near ready. This is shown with Ubisoft where they only had two games to really show, and felt they had to sprinkle in some announcement for other titles just to put some meat on the event.
Really they should’ve just shown these things either at Summer Games Fest or Xbox Showcase, there was no real need for a Ubisoft showcase event unless they have significant amount of games to show.
“Xbox had arguably one of the best showcases in the past decade” showing trailers of multiplatform games that will sell 3 times more on other platforms than on Xbox? It’s not news to anyone that the Xbox is at the “end of its life” and if it weren’t for the other divisions of Micro$oft this console would no longer exist, the Dreamcast was extinguished for less than that. Gaming media is totally biased when it comes to micro$oft
I have been waiting a new Ghost Recon game since 2014 when GRAW 2 PC servers were shot down. I hope the new Project Over will be as good as Advanced Warfighter 2.