According to Ubisoft's latest earnings call, reported by VGC, Ubisoft is shifting its strategy away from big AAA games released annually to regularly updated free-to-play titles.

Ubisoft CFO Frederic Duguet revealed that the company no longer intends to release "three or four premium" titles a year, but instead aims to invest heavily in free-to-play titles of substantial quality The first of these titles was recently announced. The first of these would be the recently announced The Division: a free-to-play game set in the world of Ubisoft's "The Division" series.

Ubisoft enthusiastically emphasized during the call that it will continue to develop and publish AAA titles, confirming that Far Cry 6, Rider's Republic, and Rainbow Six Quarantine will be released before April 2022. However, the days of multiple high-profile Ubisoft titles being released in a short period of time seem to be over.

Last year, for example, Ubisoft released Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin's Creed, Valhalla, Immortals: Valhalla, and Immortals: Phoenix Rising between October and December. released. Ubisoft no longer seems to be aiming to release multiple high-profile titles in a single fiscal quarter.

This new approach seems aimed at emulating the success Ubisoft tasted with Rainbow Six Siege, a strategic multiplayer shooter released in 2015 that received middling reviews at launch but has been significantly expanded over the years It has been expanded and in March of this year broke the record for the number of simultaneous players.

Thus, while there will likely be fewer traditional games in primarily single-player series such as Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, it is unlikely that these IPs will go anywhere. These franchises will probably be used to launch free-to-play games because of their brand recognition; how about "Assassin's Creed: Battle Royale," for example?

This pivot toward frequently updated, online-focused games (often referred to as live-service games) is being observed across the industry, with other publishing giants, including Activision, EA, and Bethesda, desperate to release the next Fortnite-level hit. Other publishing giants, including Activision, EA, and Bethesda, are also struggling to release the next Fortnite-level hit, experiencing some success (Apex Legends/Warzone) and considerable failure (Anthem/Fallout 76).

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment made similar comments earlier this year when it announced that it would be releasing titles "with an emphasis on live services" in the future. While Ubisoft appears to be following the industry trend, whether the market can sustain such an overabundance of live service games is another question.