Ubisoft has chosen to delay three of its most-anticipated titles, Gods & Monsters, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Rainbow Six Quarantine, due to ‘disappointing’ sales statistics from The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint (via VGC).
In the developer and publisher’s financial report, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that the three games have been delayed as a result of The Division 2’s and Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s poor performance at retail. Breakpoint’s ‘critical reception and sales during the game’s first weeks were very disappointing’, and as such, Ubisoft has changed its course.
The following is a statement directly from the Watch Dogs development teams. pic.twitter.com/087pG3SXeR
— Watch Dogs: Legion (@watchdogsgame) October 24, 2019
Gods & Monsters, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Rainbow Six Quarantine will instead be released in the next fiscal year, estimating a window of July to December of 2020. Ubisoft’s chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet also confirmed that the delay would allow these games to be ‘optimised for the next generation of consoles.’ Duguet pointed out that the delay does not infer that the games would not have been ready for their original release dates. ‘The teams are progressing well and could have delivered in Q4 as expected,’ he said.
In addition, Guillemot established that the change was not to avoid competitors’ release dates as every company’s business strategies are ‘in flux and evolving’ for various reasons. ‘We need to make sure that all our upcoming productions benefit from enough development time. This has been our strategy for many years and it has proven very effective,’ he explained. ‘This situation is telling us we can’t make exceptions. This is even more true when we bring new innovations that require complex optimisations.’
And, Ubisoft has said that Roller Champions and two triple-A titles from its ‘biggest franchises’ will be released in the next fiscal year. Although people will be waiting a little longer for these games, delays only mean good things for the projects. The development team have extra time to finish and polish the games to the highest quality possible, and so there’s less stress placed on the employees. The Last of Us Part II has also been delayed by Sony and Naughty Dog in order that they can deliver a game that exceeds fans’ expectations.
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