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Ubisoft Has Reportedly Killed One of Its Biggest Franchises for Good
Ubisoft has reportedly killed one of its biggest franchises, or at least what was once one of its bigger franchises. Ubisoft is a developer and publisher that has struggled over the last several years. Its very biggest franchises, such as Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, have faltered due to IP fatigue. While it milks dry its biggest IP, it has struggled to create new ones. Meanwhile, it has had some costly failures in the live service space and in the licensing space. And this has all happened while having an absolutely monstrous overhead with one of the biggest workforces in the industry. It’s not a sustainable situation, which is why it has had to see major strategic investment from Tencent recently. Without this investment, there is a very good chance it would have gone belly up. It was certainly moving in this direction, at least.
If you are a fan of Ubisoft IP, there is some hope with this investment and some aggressive restructuring, but not all Ubisoft IP looks poised to survive this transition. To this end, it is being reported that the Watch Dogs IP is “completely dead.”
A Major PS4 and Xbox One Ubisoft IP Gone
The report comes the way of well-known industry insider, Tom Henderson, who, in particular, has proven reliable with extensive, accurate Ubisoft reporting in the past. Henderson doesn’t say much other than that Ubisoft is done with the series, presumably because the latest release in it was such a flop.
For those who do not know, Watch Dogs was first revealed by Ubisoft in 2012. And as you may remember, it was one of the most anticipated PS4 and Xbox One next-gen games. In fact, it was a next-gen showpiece. In 2014, it was released via PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and it did not live up to expectations. This is evidenced by its Metacritic range of 77-80, a decent range, but not what was expected of the game. It did sell over 10 million copies, though, making it a substantial commercial success.
Two years later, it got a sequel, Watch Dogs 2, which garnered similar, yet slightly more positive reviews. And it sold a similar number of copies as well. This led to a third game being made, and this is where things went sideways. Four years later, in 2020, Watch Dogs Legion was released to a Metacritic range of 66 to 76, down from the previous two games. Meanwhile, sales were way down. To this end, Ubisoft never disclosed any number after disclosing it sold 1.9 million copies in its first few days on the market. Since then, the series has gone cold, though there is a movie still in the works, which seems to be a sunk cost result that was made before the series was put on ice.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum. Meanwhile, remember to take all unofficial information above with a grain of salt.
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