2019 was a bit of a rough year for Ubisoft with Division 2 under performing and Ghost Recon flopping. Kotaku has said they're trying to be more creative now (after their not super original 2019 games didn't do great) and are trying to get their designers to pitch things they haven't done before which would be cool... However, they still have a lot of properties for the near future to think about.
2020 games announced: Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Gods and Monsters.
These games have been delayed a few months each at least. Gods and Monsters is from the developers of AC Odyssey and is supposed to be a kind of BotW clone, but no footage has been shown and I wouldn't be surprised to see this slip into 2021. Watch Dogs Legion looks pretty ambitious and cool. Rainbow Six Quarantine... exists as of now.
2020 games expected: Assassin's Creed Vikings.
Would guess this is another game like Origins and Odyssey, but probably with even more boat stuff.
All the prior games are either announced for cross-gen or will surely be cross-gen, but then we get into games that may be next-gen focused and are interesting.
Infinite dev time game 1: Ubisoft's James Cameron's Avatar The Game
This game has been pushed back constantly as Avatar 2 has been pushed back constantly. It's being designed by Massive (The Division) and would probably be an MMO type thing based on their history. Cameron stated his desire to have Avatar be an MMO back in 2011 and the game was officially announced in 2017.
This game is obviously a bit of a weird spot for Ubisoft. The modern MMO is about looting and... that doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Avatar. The franchise has zero clout anymore and the game's schedule is obviously dependent on the release of the movie. The release of the movie is dependent on James Cameron as well as Disney as Disney may change around Avatar 2,3,4,5's release dates depending on how much they want to delay Star Wars Episode 10. So... This game is going to be interesting.
Infinite dev time game 2: Skull and Bones
This game was probably cancelled and restarted to have it have single-player or co-op stuff. It's officially not releasing before April 2021, it will be interesting to see if it's moved to a next-gen exclusive eventually.
Infinite dev time game 3: Beyond Good and Evil 2
Another pseudo MMO from Ubisoft, BG&E2 is a bizarre prequel to the first game which seems to try to make the series lore wise more like a space epic like Star Wars and is making the gameplay into some co-op... thing? Announced at e3 2009 before being reannounced as this online thing at e3 2017, Beyond Good and Evil 2 has had a lot of updates, but none really pointing towards what the game will focus on. Making a massive budget MMO type thing out of a game series that bombed horribly is... it's an idea.
Franchises people want to see revived: Rayman, Splinter Cell
I'm guessing that Ubisoft has heard a lot from Splinter Cell fans and a bit from Rayman fans over the last few years as the series' have gone dormant. It will be interesting to see if Ubisoft tries to revive these franchises or if their push for more originality causes them to focus on new IPs instead.
Games where Ubisoft will now have to handle the generational transition thing for GaaS games: For Honor, Rainbow Six Siege.
Siege and For Honor have been wildly successful games, but in a couple years, they're going to be games that are wildly outdated on PS5 and Xbox Series X hardware. Do they release a graphical update for these games and maps exclusive to players on next-gen systems that can take advantage of the power? Do they release full sequels? This is a really hard decision to make I think and I don't know what Ubisoft should do or will do.
I feel like Ubisoft is a really interesting company moving forward. There's a lot of question marks surrounding their future games. Another question mark is with regards to Assassin's Creed. After Vikings, will Assassin's Creed go next-gen only instead of cross-gen and take advantage of the wildly improved streaming times and CPU speed? That could be very helpful for an open world series with a lot of enemies but it's financially risky as well. What do we think of Ubisoft's future here? What direction should they go and where are they going?
2020 games announced: Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Gods and Monsters.
These games have been delayed a few months each at least. Gods and Monsters is from the developers of AC Odyssey and is supposed to be a kind of BotW clone, but no footage has been shown and I wouldn't be surprised to see this slip into 2021. Watch Dogs Legion looks pretty ambitious and cool. Rainbow Six Quarantine... exists as of now.
2020 games expected: Assassin's Creed Vikings.
Would guess this is another game like Origins and Odyssey, but probably with even more boat stuff.
All the prior games are either announced for cross-gen or will surely be cross-gen, but then we get into games that may be next-gen focused and are interesting.
Infinite dev time game 1: Ubisoft's James Cameron's Avatar The Game
This game has been pushed back constantly as Avatar 2 has been pushed back constantly. It's being designed by Massive (The Division) and would probably be an MMO type thing based on their history. Cameron stated his desire to have Avatar be an MMO back in 2011 and the game was officially announced in 2017.
This game is obviously a bit of a weird spot for Ubisoft. The modern MMO is about looting and... that doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Avatar. The franchise has zero clout anymore and the game's schedule is obviously dependent on the release of the movie. The release of the movie is dependent on James Cameron as well as Disney as Disney may change around Avatar 2,3,4,5's release dates depending on how much they want to delay Star Wars Episode 10. So... This game is going to be interesting.
Infinite dev time game 2: Skull and Bones
This game was probably cancelled and restarted to have it have single-player or co-op stuff. It's officially not releasing before April 2021, it will be interesting to see if it's moved to a next-gen exclusive eventually.
Infinite dev time game 3: Beyond Good and Evil 2
Another pseudo MMO from Ubisoft, BG&E2 is a bizarre prequel to the first game which seems to try to make the series lore wise more like a space epic like Star Wars and is making the gameplay into some co-op... thing? Announced at e3 2009 before being reannounced as this online thing at e3 2017, Beyond Good and Evil 2 has had a lot of updates, but none really pointing towards what the game will focus on. Making a massive budget MMO type thing out of a game series that bombed horribly is... it's an idea.
Franchises people want to see revived: Rayman, Splinter Cell
I'm guessing that Ubisoft has heard a lot from Splinter Cell fans and a bit from Rayman fans over the last few years as the series' have gone dormant. It will be interesting to see if Ubisoft tries to revive these franchises or if their push for more originality causes them to focus on new IPs instead.
Games where Ubisoft will now have to handle the generational transition thing for GaaS games: For Honor, Rainbow Six Siege.
Siege and For Honor have been wildly successful games, but in a couple years, they're going to be games that are wildly outdated on PS5 and Xbox Series X hardware. Do they release a graphical update for these games and maps exclusive to players on next-gen systems that can take advantage of the power? Do they release full sequels? This is a really hard decision to make I think and I don't know what Ubisoft should do or will do.
I feel like Ubisoft is a really interesting company moving forward. There's a lot of question marks surrounding their future games. Another question mark is with regards to Assassin's Creed. After Vikings, will Assassin's Creed go next-gen only instead of cross-gen and take advantage of the wildly improved streaming times and CPU speed? That could be very helpful for an open world series with a lot of enemies but it's financially risky as well. What do we think of Ubisoft's future here? What direction should they go and where are they going?
