Ubisoft has reportedly canceled an unannounced game even after three years of work on the project, amid what is said to be major changes within the company.
In since-deleted tweets, Ubisoft Montreal graphics programmer Louis de Carufel said that the project that he has been working on for the past three years wasshut down. “This is tough news because I’ve been working with all these people for around 7 years, during which we have shipped bothWatch DogsandWatch Dogs 2.”
The project appeared to be a big one, as according to de Carufel, more than 200 people were on the team. Fortunately, none of them lost their job despite the cancellation of the unannounced game, as they were reassigned to one of the 15 current projects of the studio.
While de Carufel did not mention any specific details about the canceled game, Kotaku’s Jason Schreiersharedpieces of information on the ResetEra forums. He said that the project was a new IP that was “Destiny-like,” and that there are “lots of big changes” happening at Ubisoft. Schreier clarified that de Carufel was not referring to Pioneer, the space exploration game that was teased withinWatch Dogs 2, as that was shut down much earlier and its codename was used for Rainbow Six Quarantine.
The game will likely remain a mystery unless Ubisoft makes an official announcement, but the cause of the project’s cancellation is likelylinkedto the significant changes that the company is applying to its production processes after the disappointing performance ofGhost Recon Breakpoint.
Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot himselfadmittedthatGhost Recon Breakpointhad its fair share of issues, one of which was that the game did not have enough “differentiation factors.” Perhaps this is the main cause for the decision to pull the plug on the unannounced project, as being “Destiny-like” meant it would have also been similar toGhost Recon Breakpointas a looter shooter.
The review afterGhost Recon Breakpointresulted in the studio’s decision to delayGods & Monsters,Rainbow Six Quarantine, andWatch Dogs Legionto the second and third quarters of its 2020-2021 fiscal year. This places the release dates of the three AAA games between July 1 and December 31 next year.
