For a very long time, Ubisoft was recognized for cranking out annual or near-annual releases in fashionable franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Far Cry, the Tom Clancy games, and extra. Now, although, the corporate is signaling it’s in the midst of a significant change in route, specializing in fewer big-game releases that draw long-term assist from each builders and gamers.
“New releases now solely characterize part of our enterprise, which is now centered on longterm engagement with our participant communities,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot writes in a sprawling 256-page annual report launched this week. “Our gamers not solely play for extra hours at a time, however accomplish that over a interval of months and even years. We are thus in a position to supply them new experiences and content material, thereby extending the lifetime of our games.”
Guillemot factors to Rainbow Six: Siege as the first instance of this new focus; the sport noticed its participant base double between February 2016 and February 2017. But continued developer refinement and participant engagement with online-focused titles like The Division, For Honor, and Steep additionally replicate the corporate’s deal with “dwell” games, Guillemot says.
Ubisoft’s new focus would not come solely out of left subject. For years now, the business as an entire has been gravitating towards a “games as a service” mannequin that prizes persevering with assist for current games. Now, although, Ubisoft is being fairly express in transferring to “a mannequin which is much less depending on releasing new games” and extra centered on “growing quite a few multiplayer games… which have dramatically elevated participant engagement.”
