Ubisoft has delayed its upcoming pirate adventure game, Skull & Bones, yet again, and three unannounced games have also been cancelled.
In a financial report released yesterday the publishing giant announced an update to its financial targets for this fiscal year and the next, citing significant challenges over the past few years and unexpectedly low sales for recent releases such as Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope as reasons to rethink its strategy going forward.
With regards to Skull & Bones, Ubisoft says it’s happy with what the additional development time has already allowed them to do and that it believes players will be pleased with the game’s evolution. To that end, it’s delaying the game from its March 9th, 2023 launch date to early in its 2023-24 fiscal year (April 2023 to March 2024) to allow even more time for polish and also for bringing increased awareness to the game.
As for the unannounced projects that it’s cancelled, the company says in the report that it believes consumers and the industry are shifting towards “mega-brands” and long lasting titles, so it plans to refocus its energy into building and strengthening its brands and live services.
Frédéric Duguet, Chief Financial Officer, says in the report “Our decisive reaction and our additional cost optimization measures should help us navigate the current challenging economic environment and ensure a leaner organization for the years to come. Leveraging the biggest pipeline of games in the Ubisoft’s history, 2023-24 will see the releases of Assassin’s Creed® Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Skull and Bones and other yet-to-be-announced premium games, including a large one, as well as promising Free-to-Play titles for some of our biggest brands.”
