Ubisoft meddelade under gårdagskvällen att de försenar Watch Dogs: Legion, Gods & Monsters och Rainbow Six: Quarantine - vilket vi rapporterade om tidigt imorse. När tre spel försdenas på en och samma gång, kan man misstänka att det är något annat som ligger bakom, snarare än bara tidsbrist, och så är fallet även här.
Ubisoft skriver till sina investerare att Ghost Recon: Wildlands och i viss mån The Division 2 är orsaken till att man agerat såhär:
"A sharp downward revision in the revenues expected from Ghost Recon Breakpoint and, to a lesser extent, The Division 2.
For Ghost Recon Breakpoint, while the game's quality appeared on track-based on E3, Gamescom, previews and our latest internal playtests-, critical reception and sales during the game's first weeks were very disappointing. As we have done with past titles, we will continue to support the game and listen to the community in order to deliver the necessary improvements. At this stage, we have identified three main reasons behind this underperformance:
• First, it is harder to generate interest fora sequel to a Live multiplayer game, when prior iterations benefited from years of optimization. Consequently, we need to make sure there is more time between each iteration of Live games.
• Second, our strategy of introducing gameplay innovations in our games has had a very positive impact on our brands. However, to win over players, these innovations need to be perfectly implemented in order to offer an optimal experience. This has not yet been sufficiently the case with Ghost Recon Breakpoint. While the change of formula has been very well received by some players, with an average daily playtime per player of over three hours, it also has been strongly rejected by a significant portion of the community.
• Finally, Ghost Recon Breakpoint did not come in with enough differentiation factors, which prevented the game's intrinsic qualities from standing out.
We are tackling these issues head-on and already are implementing significant changes to our production processes. We are confident in our capacity to adapt and evolve, as we have done successfully many times in the past."
Ubisoft skriver alltså att det är svårt att göra uppföljare till live service-spelen som fått massor av uppdateringar. Dessutom tycks de ha insett att inte alla spel behöver loot-system, rollespelselement och allt annat som återfinns i Ubisofts spel nuförtiden. Det ska bli intressant att se hur detta påverkar kommande titlar som Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin's Creed Kingdom med flera under kommande år.
Kort sagt har Ghost Recon: Breakpoint gått riktigt illa för Ubisoft både sett till betyg och försäljning, samt indirekt orsakat tre spels försening. Tycker du Ubisoft förklaringsmodell (som vi rekommenderar att du läser, då den ökar förståelsen för hur utgivarna resonerar) håller?
