A reputable insider named the main causes of problems in Ubisoft, which resulted in frequent game cancellations and postponements
Last week, there linked the information Tough times for Ubisoft: Insider reports on the French publisher's management's desire to sell their company, but no buyers yet: games are canceled, work on projects is delayed, the company's management has decided to make significant cost cuts, including through the dismissal of a large number of employees.
Renowned insider Tom Henderson conducted his own investigation and published an analytical article on the Insider Gaming website. He spoke with some Ubisoft employees and highlighted a number of the main reasons that led the French company to the difficult situation.
Here's What We Know
According to the employees with whom Henderson spoke, one of the main factors that led to the dramatic decline in Ubisoft's workforce was remote working, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Working from home, game designers lost their usual pace and significantly worsened communication with each other. Starting from 2024 Ubisoft plans to stop working remotely.
The second reason why the French giant cancels games so often is too much simultaneous development. Even the twenty-thousand-strong Ubisoft team does not have enough time and energy to release all the projects on time and in excellent quality. Most of the recently canceled games are most likely battle royale titles, as Ubisoft wanted to conquer the genre and, according to staff reports, at one point they were creating about a dozen such games simultaneously. But the popularity of the genre is gradually declining, so the developers' labors were in vain.
According to Henderson, Ubisoft often conducts secret tests of its developments and if the control group doesn't like the projects, they cancel them.
Why it Matters
To summarize all the factors, Ubisoft's already mismanaged company is complicated by a huge amount of unnecessary development, an exorbitantly bloated staff and remote work. Nor should we forget the economic crisis.
If Ubisoft has time to quickly localize all the above-mentioned reasons and reorganize the company - they have a chance to remain one of the leading game companies in the world. The first steps to do this: not so long ago it became known that the French developer will change its approach to the development of flagship games and will not try to please all the players at once. One of the projects will be Assassin's Creed Mirage, which was created by the wishes of the fans of old parts of the franchise.
