Ubisoft in crisis mode (again)

Ubisoft says "an important problem of perception... has been affecting the company’s performance.”

(This post was originally published at the second item in the Sept. 26, 2024 Game File newsletter)

Ubisoft delayed it’s biggest release in four years, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, out of a November release slot to February 14, 2025 yesterday. The company cited takeaways from the rocky launch of August’s Star Wars Outlaws.

“While the game is feature complete, the learnings from the Star Wars Outlaws release led us to provide additional time to further polish the title,” the company announced.

Ubisoft also said it will conduct an internal review of its operations  “aimed at further improving our execution” for its games, as it lowered its financial targets for the year. 

The diminished forecast suggests Outlaws is on track to sell as many as three million copies fewer than Ubisoft had forecast. Ubisoft expects net bookings, or player spending, through March 2025 to be €2.0 billion ($2.2 billion) as opposed to the previously planned €2.3 billion ($2.6 billion). That could mean Ubisoft had expected to sell 5-6 million copies of Outlaws and now only expects to sell about 2.5-3 million, according to TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz.

Ubisoft offered a confusing mix of explanations for what went wrong.

It detailed gameplay issues but also hinted at the impacts of negativity around Ubisoft that has largely been driven by a spike in “polarized comments” about the company. The latter appeared to be a vague allusion to critics of so-called “woke” content who’ve been filling social media and user reviews of games such as Outlaws this year, with outrages involving, among other things, the inclusion of a history-inspired Black samurai named Yasuke as one of AC Shadows’ playable lead characters and the so-called “ugly” looks for the female lead in Star Wars Outlaws.

In a press release and call with investors, executives primarily focused on the gameplay issues with Outlaws, which it acknowledged had underperformed.

“Despite a softer than expected launch, the game achieved solid ratings,” CEO Yves Guillemot said. He noted that “a portion of players have expressed dissatisfaction notably on stealth mechanics and overall polish that impacted the first hours of the game” and promised improvements (Game File covered the work to improve Outlaws earlier this week).

Guillemot also offered the following, regarding negativity around Ubisoft:

Finally, let me address some of the polarized comments around Ubisoft lately. I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.

That added to a sequence of comments from Ubisoft officials about blowback to its newest games.

In June, during my interview with Assassin’s Creed franchise executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté, I asked him about his reaction to a tweet from Elon Musk that amplified outrage over Yasuke by stating “DEI kills art.”

“For me, Elon, it's sad, he’s just feeding hatred,” Côté told me at the time. “I had a lot of three word replies that came to mind.”

He had continued: 

“What Elon says is not the game that we're building…People will have to play the game for themselves. And if, within the first 11 minutes and 47 seconds, they are not convinced of what we're doing, we can have the discussion.”

Later that month, in a Ubisoft-published in-house interview, Guillemot indicated that criticism of the games had led to harassment of their developers:

“One thing I am concerned about right now is the malicious and personal online attacks that have been directed at some of our team members and partners. I want to make it clear that we, at Ubisoft, condemn these hateful acts in the strongest possible terms.”

Then, in July, issued a statement saying the Shadows team was trying to balance authenticity with creative expression, apologized to Japanese fans for unspecified aspects of its promotional materials and “respectfully request”ed critics of the game not take it up with the game’s creative collaborators, as opposed to the development team.

Star Wars Outlaws also remained in the crosshairs of such controversies. User reviews of the game contain criticism of the game’s stealth mechanics and performance, but it’s not hard to find those calling it “woke garbage” or criticizing the game’s “feminist staff.”

But, throughout all of this and with Ubisoft previously touting high expectations for Outlaws and Shadows, it’s been unclear the extent to which that kind of sentiment has impacted its games, if at all.

Yesterday, Guillemot offered a clue. 

In setting up his remarks to analysts, the CEO said he’d discuss the AC delay, the internal review and another thing (emphasis added by Game File): “We want to address an important problem of perception that has been affecting the company’s performance.”

Ubisoft made no other direct mention of “polarized comments” having an actual impact on the company’s business, so I asked a Ubisoft rep to clarify what Guillemot was referring to. 

They replied: “Our goal is to be known for creating great games and experiences. This is what drives our teams, giving them the freedom to be creative while staying focused on delivering the best experience for our players.”

Other Ubisoft notes:

• The first hands-on sessions that the press was to have with Assassins’ Creed Shadows in the coming weeks would have been among the latest ever for a game in the franchise. They now appear to be postponed. Prior ACs set for similar fall release windows had been put in the hands of the press to play at E3 in June and/or Gamescom in August. 

• Ubisoft will launch AC Shadows on Steam on day one, as the company brings its games back to the dominant PC marketplace, in a presumed attempt to garner better sales.

• During the call, Ubisoft executives said company headcount has been “steadily decreasing” since April. While Ubisoft is known for avoiding mass layoffs, it is expecting attrition as it slows hiring. The company has one of the biggest workforces in gaming, at just over 19,000 as of the end of March, already down nearly 1,700 from two years prior.

• Executives also noted that a previously announced cost reduction plan includes the option of divesting of “non-core assets.”

• Aside from all that, the company is facing a potential three-day strike in France over a recent mandate of three in-office days of work per week, Reuters reports.