Ubisoft Wants to 'Return to Leadership in the Open-World Genre.' Company Cancels Another Title and Puts Great Hopes in AI
Ubisoft has had an excellent fiscal year but has lost many employees recently. The company also hopes to regain its leadership position in the open-world game market.
Ubisoft has had a record fiscal year - but at the expense of significant layoffs in the last two years. Since 2022, the French publisher has reduced its workforce by 1,700 employees, which is likely a contributing factor to the company's decision to cut operational costs by 150 million euros annually.
It's still less than Microsoft laid off in just January of this year (not to mention the studios closed that month), but still quite a lot. Especially since this isn't the number of people who left the company during this time - after all, Ubisoft could hire new people. The publisher plans to reduce operating costs by 200 million euros by 2026, which could mean further layoffs and departures.
Rainbow Six pushes out Heartland
Moreover, Ubisoft canceled another game. After three years, Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland has followed Project Q and will ultimately not see the light of day.
The publisher wants to "improve its systems and adapt to changing market trends." This includes discontinuing the development of Heartland and redirecting "resources" to more promising titles, such as the upcoming XDefiant and the Rainbow Six series.
Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six at the forefront
Ubisoft recorded an operating profit of 313 million euros for the last fiscal year ending on March 31. This achievement is particularly impressive given that the past 12 months haven't been successful for the publisher in terms of releases. Neither Assassin’s Creed: Mirage nor Skull and Bones have made a golden mark in the history of video games. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora performed better, although there may still be doubts about whether the game's sales met the publisher's expectations (the report doesn't mention anything about this).
Furthermore, Ubisoft admits that the good financial results are mainly due to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Assassin's Creed series. Thanks to them, the company recorded a 33.5 percent increase in net revenue - up to 2.3 billion euros - and increased the number of active users by 4% (to 138 million unique accounts).
AI and leadership in open worlds
Moreover, Ubisoft wants to "return to leadership in the open-world genre." Yves Guillemot, the CEO, stated that the company is already making progress towards this objective and plans to attract new players, not just through its flagship brands and the upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws, but also through multiplayer and mobile games.
On the other hand, we know that the French also want to refresh, let's not hide it, the rigid formula of Ubisoft's games. For instance, the showcased AC: Shadows from yesterday will no longer inundate the map with a large number of markers, and the gameplay will be diversified by, among other things, the systems of seasons and weather.
It's unlikely to surprise anyone that Ubisoft has faith in the future of using AI for game development. In March, the publisher introduced the so-called NeoNPC with a "soul" (although players had a different opinion on the matter).
In a conversation with investors, Guillemot confirmed that there are two groups within the company working on artificial intelligence. The first one handles "various tasks" (marketing, legal matters, automation, and performance improvement), while the second explores how AI can be used to make games feel "more alive and richer."
...[the other group is working on] how we can improve the quality of our games, in making those games more alive. So we did present a new NPC at the last conference. It was well appreciated, and it showed what we will be able to do in our games that will make them more alive and richer. So I expect a lot from gen AI in our games, to make our games more interesting and for people to really have a personalized experience.
We probably won't see the effects of this work in Ubisoft's upcoming games. Star Wars: Outlaws will be released on August 30, and AC: Shadows will debut on November 15.
