Ubisoft hit quite the snag towards the end of 2019, causing a ripple effect through the publisher resulting in massive delays to several of their major projects. With a certain triple-A franchise releasing a critically disappointing sequel, along with a relatively mediocre year overall, 2019 was a wake-up call for Ubisoft that it’s certainly not ignoring.
Despite the negativity, Ubisoft is dedicating its next fiscal year to improving and polishing its lineup of games in a big way. With several major franchises on the way for Holiday 2020 and Spring 2021, Ubisoft is working diligently to improve in 2020 and regain any consumer trust it may have lost.
Ubisoft’s release lineup for 2019
From the beginning, 2019 was supposed to be a relatively quiet year for Ubisoft. 2019 marks its lowest amount of games released throughout the year in some time, with only six games coming out and four of them being triple-A releases. Games like Far Cry: New Dawn and The Division 2 were received well in the first half of 2019, but from March until October, Ubisoft didn’t release a single game. Despite minimal success throughout the year, there was one big release for Ubisoft in 2019 that was cited as the main cause for all these game delays: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
The Ghost Recon Breakpoint Fiasco
Ubisoft’s last big release of 2019 saw another entry in the Ghost Recon franchise called Breakpoint, a game that became instantly panned. Released as a sequel in the same universe as Ghost Recon Wildlands, Breakpoint received immediate criticism from fans and critics alike. Whether it was the bugs, or the generic open-world setting and mission design, or the controversial microtransactions that saw immediate backlash, there were lots of problems that didn’t have immediate fixes.
After being ruthlessly lambasted from all sides, Breakpoint was not a good look for both the Ghost Recon franchise and Ubisoft altogether. With 2019 coming to a close, Ghost Recon Breakpoint ended up being a massive failure for the publisher both critically and commercially, with a final Metacritic average score of 58. Pair this with the sparse amount of releases throughout the rest of the year, and it leads to a struggling Ubisoft for 2019 without much financial recoup. With Ubisoft’s stock value dropping over 20% at the end of the year, the publisher has had to fundamentally change its financial outlook for the rest of the fiscal year.
It’s possible The Division 2 may have contributed to that loss, but clearly the bulk of this issue has come from Breakpoint specifically. In comparison, The Division 2 has an average of over 20 points more than Ghost Recon Breakpoint on Metacritic, which is a huge discrepancy between the two aggregate review scores.
While Ubisoft does plan on continuing to support Breakpoint and making more radical fixes to the game, for now it’s widely been considered a failure. In the wake of 2019, Ubisoft has made the tough decision to delay all its impending major releases to 2020 and 2021.
Game Delays Could Make A Difference
Game delays have become more commonplace in the industry ever since the increased awareness on development “crunch” and as games broaden in scope, like with Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Marvel’s Avengers. As a result, all of Ubisoft’s known and upcoming triple-A games had to be delayed to holiday 2020 and spring 2021: Watch Dogs Legion, Gods and Monsters, and Rainbow Six Quarantine. Ubisoft has known turmoil from recently released triple-A games previously, but delaying its entire release lineup to the latter half of the fiscal year is unprecedented.
CEO of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot notes that Ghost Recon Breakpoint and The Division 2 underperformed, and as noted above, this decision was certainly influenced by Ghost Recon Breakpoint botched release. A similar situation occurred with Assassin’s Creed Unity in 2014, but it was only the franchise that needed to be re-imagined, rather than its entire release lineup. That being said, delaying Ubisoft’s lineup after Breakpoint may be exactly what its upcoming IPs need for a fresh start.
Going forward, Ubisoft likely will be examining and re-structuring development of these upcoming releases to make sure it don’t fall for the same mistakes Breakpoint has. Ubisoft has already announced changes to its editorial times moving forward in an effort to make sure every game feels different from its other triple-A games. The publisher is attempting to restructure its approach to non-linear storytelling by reinforcing its editorial team to be more efficient and purposeful in its design. It’s hard to say how drastically this will affect Legion or Gods and Monsters, since it’s already very far into their respective development cycles.
There are certain elements of the open-world development could adjust moving forward to help prevent the pervasive same-ness feeling that can come from larger triple-A franchises. Much of Ghost Recon Breakpoint was marred by repetitive mission and environmental design, focusing on infiltrating enemy compounds to get intel and/or conquering the bases thereafter. Since development on Watch Dogs Legion probably started around the same time or soon after Breakpoint did, it’s likely the game features a similar gameplay loop.
With this delay, development could help alleviate that issue by adjusting and expanding scenarios to have more context or variety in gameplay. With a larger amount of time available for Ubisoft to develop Watch Dogs Legion further compared to its original March 6 street date, impactful improvements to the game’s design are certainly feasible. Gameplay variety is the key factor here, as much of Breakpoint revolved around the same core mission structure: Infiltrate area, gather intel, liberate area. Since nothing the raids in Breakpoint will be present in Watch Dogs, that makes variety even harder to achieve. With more development time it should allow Ubisoft to emphasize the better parts of Watch Dogs open-world mechanics.
That being said, it’s hard to tell how the impact of Breakpoint influences Gods and Monsters and Rainbow Six Quarantine because of their overall design. Quarantine is a more condensed multiplayer experience rather than an open-world game, so the aforementioned development changes probably wouldn’t matter for the game. Similarly, not much is known about Ubisoft’s newest IP Gods and Monsters, but it seems that it’s taking development cues from games outside of Ubisoft’s IPs, meaning it will likely function fundamentally different in comparison. It’s more likely that because Watch Dogs and some of Ubisoft’s other franchises all have similar core design concepts, Gods and Monsters and Rainbow Six Quarantine are being shifted forward circumstantially, to allow for more development resources on their core franchises.
Ubisoft’s Comeback In 2020 and Beyond
Other than the three aforementioned titles being delayed, there’s almost certainly a new Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry game in development as well. Probably slated for release in holiday 2020 and spring 2021 respectively, these games will probably be affected by the delays but on a larger scale. Since Assassin’s Creed’s development served as the backbone for the debut of Watch Dogs, and as Ubisoft’s premier triple-A franchise, development will more than likely take into account the lessons learned from Breakpoint’s issues. Far Cry development will likely be affected even more, despite the fact that it’s a first-person shooter instead of a third-person adventure game.
Assassin’s Creed in recent years has vastly improved its development formula based on issues similar to those that plagued Breakpoint’s design. The series was revamped with 2017’s Origins, which fundamentally changed the mechanics how the games were designed, shifting from an action-adventure game to a more RPG-focused adventure. Whether Breakpoint’s design issues would even align with any of the design concepts in current Assassin’s Creed games is up to interpretation, but like the already confirmed and delayed games, it’s more than likely being shifted to allow more development time for each title. And since most recently Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was very well-received, development will likely stick to the same design concepts that made the last entry great.
The next Far Cry game will probably take a harder hit from Breakpoint’s delay since itshare several design concepts as open-world shooters. Before Ghost Recon Breakpoint and Wildlands, Far Cry pioneered Ubisoft’s gameplay loop of infiltrating and liberating bases across a large game map in a variety of ways. Many of the main and side missions in Far Cry 5 and Far Cry New Dawn function similarly to Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and while the repetitive gameplay loop in Far Cry has never been an issue before, the residual effects of Breakpoint’s critical failure could pour over into Far Cry’s reception.
This could have a positive impact on Far Cry moving forward, as Breakpoint will influence the development of gameplay and mission structure in Far Cry more so than its other upcoming titles. The Far Cry franchise has more to lose with Breakpoint’s poor reception, so it’s likely focus on mission and outpost structure to emphasize variety.
It’s also important to mention that any future games, even if those games are wholly unique that don’t outright share similarities with any of Ubisoft’s franchises, will likely be influenced by Ghost Recon Breakpoint. It’s impossible to say Breakpoint’s shortcomings might directly impact their devleopment, but at least circumstantially it’s going to affect Ubisoft’s future endeavors.
Ubisoft has persevered from troubled releases in the past, so this isn’t the last fans will hear from the publisher. Ghost Recon Breakpoint marks an important moment in the publisher’s history, a mistake Ubisoft will certainly learn from and continue to consider in the future.
