Ubisoft cancels unannounced game, sends 3 years of work down the drain

By Aaron Mamiit December 22, 2019

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 was shut down. “This is tough news because I’ve been working with all these people for around 7 years, during which we have shipped both Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2.”

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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 Schreier shared pieces 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 within Watch 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 likely linked to the significant changes that the company is applying to its production processes after the disappointing performance of Ghost Recon Breakpoint.

Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot himself admitted that Ghost Recon Breakpoint had 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 to Ghost Recon Breakpoint as a looter shooter.

The review after Ghost Recon Breakpoint resulted in the studio’s decision to delay Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Watch Dogs Legion to 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.

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