Ubisoft wants to create free-to-play games for every franchise of all consoles. The Division just dubbed ‘Heartland’ arrived sometime between 2021 and 2022 last week when it revealed that it will be free-to-play, and the firm says in the coming years that there will be more names of this kind.
In its full-year profit call on last May 12th, the company shared an update of its growth plan, stating its intent to be less dependent on AAA updates as part of the total product mix. And their chief financial officer Frederick Duguet talked about that: “In line with the evolution of our high-quality line-up that is increasingly diverse, we are moving on from our prior comment regarding releasing 3-4 premium AAAs per year.” He also added: “This is purely a financial communication evolution and doesn’t change the fact that we continue to expect a high cadence of content delivery including powerful premium and free-to-play new releases.”
Ubisoft also shared a statement:
“We think that we have a great opportunity to meaningfully expand the audiences of our biggest franchises. We think it is now the time to come with high-quality free-to-play games across all our biggest franchises across all platforms, but of course, it will take time before proving it in a more assertive way. That’s why we want to be cautious in year one. If we are successful, that can have a very meaningful impact on the value creation of Ubisoft.”
In May, the company said that, by 30 September, Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine, plus Riders Republic and the Heartland Division, plus Roller Champions will be published in this fiscal year ending 31 March 2022. Also, it announced that there are no AAA games planned to be launched during the second half of the year.
Open World pirate games Skull & Bones is scheduled to be released in this fiscal year. However, Ubisoft said it was postponed again on Tuesday. The game is planned for release from April 2022 in its next fiscal year.
Maybe in the future, we see Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and other Ubisoft franchises as free-to-play versions.