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Ubisoft Cancels Four Games, Including Splinter Cell VR And Ghost Recon Frontline

As it delays two games, Ubisoft has canceled four others.

27 Comments

On the same day that Ubisoft delayed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and a "smaller" premium game, the publisher also confirmed that it has canceled four games.

These include the Splinter Cell VR title and Ghost Recon: Frontline, as well as two unannounced titles that Ubisoft did not disclose.

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Now Playing: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline Announcement Trailer

While the Splinter Cell VR game has been canned, fans of the series are getting a remake of the original game. As for Ghost Recon: Frontline, this was a free-to-play battle royale game. As for the other two unannounced games that have now been canceled, it's anyone's guess as to what they might be.

Ubisoft did not give a reason for the cancellation of these four titles. Game development is a highly iterative process and games get canceled all the time, even if we never hear about them. For example, Blizzard cancels about 50% of the games that it begins development on.

While Ubisoft has canceled four games and delayed two others, the company has a number of big projects coming up, including Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Skull and Bones, both of which are releasing this year. In September, Ubisoft will reveal "the future of Assassin's Creed," and many believe this pertains to the rumored new Assassin's Creed game featuring Valhalla's Basim.

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sippio

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Edited By sippio

Ubisoft is str8 fire if they just would stick to the simple ideas that got them here.

The PS2+PS3 era were easy for them because they didn't stray...

Post FarCry5 has been pretty sus.

Both GhostRecon games are trash compared to the Xbox360 era GR.

i forced myself to play both of the newer GR titles for about 12 hours each & only got more pissed @ Ubi.

~Why they didn't capitalize on NoMore MetalGearSolid and start a brand new SPlinterCell or new Stealth IP 5 years ago is a tragedy...

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Vodoo

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Ubisoft has fallen so far. In the PS2/Xbox era they were probably the best game developers/publisher in the business.

All the Clancy games, Prince of Persia's, Beyond Good and Evil, ect... They were strictly about quality games. It was like they were incapable of a bad game. Even the early AC games were great.

I wish these publishers would realize that making a profit is good enough. You can't have year over year growth indefinitely. It's not sustainable, but doesn't stop them from stripping away the quality to try.

A shame really. They used to be such a great game publisher.

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deactivated-64c06b51403e7

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This is a good thing.

They shoulda cancelled that shit FPS GR game.

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Miquella

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Battle Royale in 2022 & Ubisoft ... lol =))

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judaspete

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Ubisoft, would you just come out and say that one of the canceled games was Beyond Good and Evil 2? I know it's never coming out, but I'm sick of having this tiny spark of hope.

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tdmtrilogy

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A few years ago, I had a meetup at Ubisoft Montreal and as an indie game developer, I had the opportunity to speal with the producer. They invited indie game developpers on their rooftop for a drink and some free food, but to also discuss about the future of Ubisoft.

Something that the procuded told me gave me a bad taste. Ubisoft wanted to move towards Games As a Service, instead of going forward with purely single player games. They are most likely interrested in making money.

The 2 games that might been cancelled, according to ex-employees could be The next Splinter Cell (non-vr) and Beyond Good and Evil 2.

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StickEmUp

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Edited By StickEmUp

@tdmtrilogy: Yeah. They publicly announced that they believe “games as a service” is the future. It isn’t a secret that only insiders know. They also said Assassin’s Creed is headed that way.

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BrokenNoah

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Edited By BrokenNoah

@tdmtrilogy said:

Something that the procuded told me gave me a bad taste. Ubisoft wanted to move towards Games As a Service, instead of going forward with purely single player games. They are most likely interrested in making money.

Ubisoft pushing more towards GAAS has been reported maybe a year or so ago and yeah, it's a given they are very much interested in making money.

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ghostspartan

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Edited By ghostspartan

@BrokenNoah: yea and back then they also said traditional games are still very alive. thus they pushed for 2 splinter cell games plus other games.

i dont really care. theyve unionized their game development into so plasticy blob that their traditional games would also be open world with the same animations, same moves, same ui etc. that i dont think they can ever reverse that change. its like debrainwashing after the wars. so yea if someone decided you know what lets go full nft then more power to them.

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Jarrkha

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Edited By Jarrkha

Why is this news? You say WIP games are cancelled all the time, but also don't mention what *these* games were supposed to be nor why exactly they were cancelled. In other words, there's not much of an interesting story here, nor is it particularly educational or informative. I guess it was a slow day?

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kirby667

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@Jarrkha: ad far as Frontlines goes its noteworthy because the reveal for the game got universal hate and backlash, so them canceling it is actually a good thing.

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Jarrkha

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Edited By Jarrkha

@kirby667: If you lot thought Frontlines was off the mark, early in the year we may or may not have playtested an early alpha of one of their franchises spun off into a MP game. All of us said, basically, that the game would be DOA if it didn't include any of the features we suggested. I've already potentially broken my NDA here, and I won't indirectly confirm or deny which IP it was, but suffice to say that they are iterating on single-player formulae into multiplayer environments.

With Far Cry 6 and other recent games, they're also merging TV/movie style of storytelling into games, by featuring Hollywood actors, things inspired by those Hollywood franchises (Rambo bow level in FC6; Stranger Things crossover), and lord knows what else. Fortnite also on the same track.

They see the future as an amalgam of designs and synergized genres with disparate forms of storytelling, and they're not the only ones. Hybrid genres and now even hybrid hybrid subgenres, merged PvPvE, Hollywood motion capture acting and voice overs are becoming the new norm across the industry. So far, not a lot of it has been exemplary, precisely bc it's too new and too focused on profit margins (ie corners are cut).

So, I expect that a lot of the projects scrapped on the cutting room floor are things that are too obtuse to get working right for test audiences, for the right ROI. I don't even think they're even humouring pitches about pure old-fashioned single player products anymore, or even ones with optional tacked-on MP modes like those of yesteryear.

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kirby667

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@Jarrkha: That's really sad if true. Ubisoft would serve gamers much better if they were to get acquired at this point. They do something that works once and then they try to mold it into something more and more focused on micro transactions and MOBAs because they think that's were the money is and they can't just stay in their lane, which used to be high quality SP games. I feel like Wildlands was the last game they made that was a truly inspired and well rounded game without any of the typical Ubisoft issues that plague newer games.

Maybe they're still soar about the massively over hyped drama effects from Watch Dogs one and just can't move on from that.

I think part of their problem is that from the top down it seems like they focus way to much on what people don't like vs what they do. What I mean is that if they release a new IP, say Watch Dogs 1, they react much more strongly to any criticism about the game than they do to any praise and they over-correct on the bad without building off the good in follow up games. There are plenty of examples here, Watch Dogs 2 and Breakpoint are both perfect examples though.

It really bums me out because I loved Wildlands and I wish they would just make another game like it. It would be a day one full price purchase for me.

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BostonPimpDaddy

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@kirby667: Yes, you are absolutely right about that

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BostonPimpDaddy

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Recession is coming DUH

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locke90

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@BostonPimpDaddy: not coming already here by the time we are warned its already too late.

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Thanatos2k

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Not like the games they do release are worth much.

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Simonthekid7

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How did the stock market respond to all the delays and cancellations today?

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Simonthekid7

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Meanwhile i think the next division game Division Heartland is still on track? Or no?

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Simonthekid7

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Many cancellations, perhaps it is because of the "cancel culture" everyone is writing about.

(A joke. )

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illegal_peanut

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I wouldn't get too happy like the comment below.

Knowing Ubisoft. They probably found a project that is even more open world, with even more Multiplayer options, with even more areas to squeeze DLC and NFTs in. That justified the dropping of those game projects.

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redhawkcrisis

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Who is going to start the parade?!?!

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Comments123

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Ubisoft should just go ahead and cancel all of their games.

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hardwenzen

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@comments123 said:

Ubisoft should just go ahead and cancel all of their games.

And sell their IP's to devs and publishers that know how to develop video games.

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hardwenzen

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Wish them the worse. And i hope their NFT plans explode spectacularly.

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Daidochus

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@hardwenzen: They should lock in you one of Ubisoft's offices for 1 day. LOL

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StickEmUp

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@daidochus: Huh?

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