Ubisoft wants to create more 'high-end free-to-play games,' says Skull & Bones has been...

[jsilva]

In brief: During Ubisoft's annual earnings call, the company shared some interesting information about what type of games it plans to release. As it seems, Ubisoft will focus on creating more 'high-end free-to-play games,' while keeping its yearly output of 3-4 AAA titles. Moreover, it posted a new record sales figure and announced that the pirate ship simulator Skull & Bones was delayed once again, now set to release in 2022-2023.

Ubisoft's free-to-play games HyperScape and Roller Champions seem to be the first ones belonging to the publisher's new approach. Another is the recently announced Tom Clancy's The Division game, Heartland.

Although Ubisoft's CFO Frédérick Duguet stated that the company is moving from the previous commitment of "releasing three to four premium AAAs per year", he clarified "that this does not mean reducing our AAA offering."

"Additionally, we are building high-end free-to-play games to be trending towards AAA ambitions over the long-term," Frédérick added.

By the end of this fiscal year, which finishes on March 31, 2022, the publisher expects to release multiple games, including Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Riders Republic, The Division Heartland, and Roller Champions.

As for the yearly revenue, Ubisoft reported sales have increased by 39.4%, up to $2.7B. Last quarter's revenue has also increased, but only by 4.3%, which results in a $606M sales figure.

Ubisoft also announced that the multiplayer pirate game Skull & Bones was delayed once again, now set for 2022-2023. It looks like Ubisoft doesn't want to abandon the project, which, according to Yves Guillemot, has been co-developed with help from the company's other studios over the past 12 months. The game was initially scheduled to arrive in 2018 but has seen its release date pushed numerous times.

"Skull and Bones is now expected for fiscal year '23. We strongly believe in the team's creative vision, and have been given an increasingly ambitious mandate for the game," said Frederick Duguet.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/89656-ubisoft-wants-create-more-high-end-free-play.html

 

[Nobina]

Means every game will have skins, season passes and a couple of in-game currencies you buy with real money or can earn a little bit for free if you grind for 10 million years. Mobile business model ported to PC.

 

[Dimitriid]

I think I know how Ubisoft thinks:

1) We're good at making AAA games (Well, "Good" by their standards, not mine)
2) Mobile games with intense gacha mechanics and monetization have way, way better margins and even overall profit than us
3) Why don't we make 1) but sell it as 2) instead!?

Or in other words: the same stupid line we've heard from Raid: Shadow Legends! "AAA quality gaming on the go! Free!" which is well, not free at all garbage that just tries to irritate you as much as possible into spending IRL money for some sort of stupid in-game currency for better drops, removed timers, loot boxes or possibly all of the above.

 

[BSim500]

Still pushing for those $200 games I see...

 

[toooooot]

Skull and Bones will not beat cr**py Atlas I play. Atlas got bugs and many more problems but it has lots of things to do in an open world. Skull and Bones will need to do a lot to attract people who like pirate games. And I predict Skull and Bones will have an emp[ty world, grinding and paid in game content.
Is it possible that they are actually checking out Sea of thives and Atlas and realize they got nothing to beat those two?

 

[Nobina]

Still pushing for those $200 games I see...

And they will have them, it's just a matter of time. It's like when politicians push a bill, it will fail a few times but eventually it will pass and it will become the norm.