Ubisoft's Next Showcase Cannot Distract From The Needs Of Its Employees
Financially speaking, Ubisoft seems to be in a lot of trouble. A weak release calendar throughout 2021 and 2022 and a string of underperforming games as far back as 2019’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint contributed to a decline in sales and a drop in operating profit. In the previous fiscal year, Ubisoft’s stock lost half of its total value, and now CEO Yves Guillemot has taken a voluntary 30 percent pay cut in accordance with the company’s failure to reach its stated financial goals. What’s more, many of Ubisoft’s upcoming projects seem to be stuck in development hell, including Beyond Good & Evil 2, Skull & Bones, and the Prince of Persia Remake. Ubisoft needs a big hit, and it needs it soon.
By this time of year, we would normally know what Ubisoft has planned. The standard June E3 press conference, which was replaced by the digital Ubisoft Forward showcase in 2020, didn’t happen this month. Instead, we got an Assassin’s Creed anniversary stream that could have been an email, and the promise that we’d see more games later this year. According to rumors, Skull & Bones will be re-revealed in July. Possibly, one might speculate, during a larger Ubisoft summer showcase.
Related: Assassin's Creed's Boring Showcase Highlights How Stagnant The Series Has Become
We all know how these things go. Ubisoft shows off a bunch of exciting games, some we knew about and some we didn’t, it takes over the news cycle for a few days, and the stock price briefly shoots up. Everyone writes headlines like “Splinter Cell: Fisher’s Revenge Could Save The Franchise” and “Tom Clancy’s SuperCyber Soldier Is The Ubisoft Game I Never Knew I Needed”. This is what will happen because this is what always happens, but there’s a bigger picture here that’s
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