Ubisoft Is 'Shifting Focus On Creating More Free-To-Play Games'
Ubisoft has recently become rather renowned for their work on high-end AAA franchises, such as Rainbow Six, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs.
Last year, the developers continued to expand on their ongoing series, with Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs Legion being released, as well as their next-generation builds of Rainbow Six: Siege, which has also seen a wealth of new content. Despite each franchise booming, Ubisoft has now revealed that they wish to be less reliant on their AAA titles, and weigh more focus on producing high-class free to play games.
Speaking in their full-year earnings call, Ubisoft chief financial officer, Frederick Duguet, said “In line with the evolution of our high-quality line-up that is increasingly diverse, we are moving on from our prior comment regarding releasing 3-4 premium AAAs per year.
"It is indeed no longer a proper indication of our value creation dynamics."
New Ubisoft Free To Play Games
Duguet continued to explain that, instead of the consistent AAA fleshlings, free to play games will now be favoured. He said: "We are building high-end free-to-play games to be trending towards AAA ambitions over the long-term.
“We think it is now the time to come with high-quality free-to-play games across all our biggest franchises across all platforms, but of course it will take time before proving it in a more assertive way. That’s why we want to be cautious in year one. If we are successful, that can have a very meaningful impact on the value creation of Ubisoft.”
Ubisoft's previous free to play titles include the 2020 battle royale Hyper Scape, although the futuristic high-octane battleground failed to match up to any of its rivals.
The developers, who previously admitted that "the game had failed to meet the expectations from players and the company" are now looking to completely overhaul the game to stand against other titles such a Warzone and Apex Legends.
How will this affect the AAA titles?
Despite hedging their bets towards free to play models, Ubisoft is insistent that this will not affect the existing games and franchises.
Duguet continued to say: "This is purely a financial communication evolution and doesn’t change the fact that we continue to expect a high cadence of content delivery including powerful premium and free-to-play new releases.”
Instead, we may begin to see more free games be released alongside their trusted companions.
Image via Ubisoft