Veteran Ubisoft Developer Explains Why Company Is Now "Hated"

An anonymous veteran developer for Ubisoft shared why he believes his the company is now hated not only by the public, but even within its own company.

The anonymous veteran developer spoke with Game File’s Stephen Totilo and admitted that the failure starts at the top especially after multiple failures and studio closures.

“Not being able to identify and fix this pattern of spiraling developments is a failure from Ubisoft management,” the anonymous developer stated. “No one has taken responsibility for that failure today, and the consequences fall on development teams, through their internal dismantlement and, ultimately, layoffs. The top management walks away unscathed, questioning all but itself in this major reset.”

Some of the more prominent failures for the studio include Star Wars Outlaws, Prince of Persia, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The company shared that “Star Wars Outlaws initial sales proved softer than expected” in September 2024.

In October 2024, the company also admitted, “This quarter saw the release of Star Wars Outlaws, which underperformed sales expectations.”

As for Prince of Persia, the company announced in January it was scrapping a planned remake of The Sands of Time as well as five other games that were in development. The company said, “Ubisoft has discontinued 6 games that do not meet the new enhanced quality as well as more selective portfolio prioritization criteria at Group level. These include Prince of Persia The Sands of Time remake as well as 4 unannounced titles, including 3 new IP’s, and a mobile title.”

Additionally, the company announced that it relocated employees who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown after it failed to meet internal sales expectations. Ubisoft told the BBC in October 2024, “Most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have shifted to other projects that will benefit from their expertise."

Regarding Assassin’s Creed Shadows the game sold approximately 4.3 million copies in its first seven months according to data from Alinea Analytics. That’s the lowest selling game in recent history with Mirage even besting it with 5 million sold.

At the end of last year the game’s Associate Game Director Simon Lemay-Comtois informed JorRaptor it would not deliver on a previously promised second DLC for the game, “We live in a murky world these days. So with the caveat that anything can happen in the future because as Mirage just proved and as the crossover stories from Odyssey to Valhalla also proved before it, things could come up in the future. But, as of now, at this moment, for year 2, there is no expansion on the size of Awaji that is planned currently.”

From there the veteran Ubisoft employee declared, “Ubisoft is now hated by a big part of the public for a decade of disappointing releases, hated by many of their own developers for years of mismanagement, hated by the market for its poor editorial and financial planning.”

“With this amount of frustration on all sides, it's tough to imagine Ubisoft making a big hit ever again… Tough but quite far from impossible,” he added.

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