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ICYMI: Everything from Ubisoft Forward September 2022
Ubisoft Forward events began in 2020 due to the absence of press conferences. They have been an annual tradition for the past two years. The company skipped June’s usual timing this year to avoid E3 conflicts. The company is having a somewhat odd year. They are seeing investment attempts from Tencent (Fanbyte’s parent company) and have had very few significant wins or successes in recent years.
Ubisoft has been in a rut for a while, having to clean up after numerous reports about primary culture and harassment problems. Is this Ubisoft Forward going to change Ubisoft’s fortunes in the software sector? Let’s look at what they did and how it affected their software business.
- Zero bones are being made about how the show has multiple Assassin’s Creed announcements at the show’s end
- Castlevania characters Simon Belmont and Alucard are coming to Brawlhalla. That makes Richter the only Castlevania character exclusive to Smash Bros., though Alucard is only an assist trophy.
- The Crew 2, a game I knew was still content, is getting Winter tracks with icy road conditions.
- We get another pre-release look at Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. The gameplay this time focuses on a quest from the final game, which looks a lot more elaborate than the first title’s simple explanation. They also show off a battle with a giant Wiggler alongside a train, which seems incredible. We finish with our first look at the previously announced DLC, the third of which features a special guest star – Rayman.
- Ubisoft is so fucking excited about their extensive virtual set this year.
- We get another look at Skull and Bones, previously known as Skull & Bones, which is going entirely crossplay on its release on November 8.
- Vans, the shoe guys, are collaborating with Riders Republic with season 4 and a BMX add-on. The game is also going free-to-play.
- Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is getting more new content. Aren’t we all lucky this game was not still being marketed on January 6, 2020? It feels like Ubisoft would have tried to send a lousy PR headline out around that. Ubisoft recommits to the game through Year 5 and says it is being supported by “Ubisoft studios across the globe.”
- Next is The Division: Heartland, a new Division game, a F2P multiplayer shooter. There’s no date yet, but people can register now for upcoming tests.
- More The Division, with The Division: Resurgence, a mobile title. They should call this segment Long Division. The game’s beta test is coming this fall; my jokes do not go through beta.
- More mobile! This time in the form of Rainbow Six, which gets a CGish trailer. Closed Beta Fall 2022.
- Wow, they’re spending…a lot of time on this Rainbow Six mobile game.
- We have emerged from the Rainbow Six mines with a partnership with Netflix. There will be three exclusive Ubisoft games on Netflix over the next few years.
- This is Valiant Hearts 2, Mighty Quest, an original Assassin’s Creed mobile game and a live-action TV show.
- Speaking of the weird intersection of games and TV, we get a trailer for season 3 of Mythic Quest, the Apple TV show.
- Ubisoft+ has a free month trial. I feel like I had to write this, or they’d keep mentioning it in the show.
- Trackmania is coming to consoles and cloud services (like Stadia and Luna) in early 2023.
- Rocksmith+ is shown again. This is probably a thing I’d be into if I played the guitar instead of just thinking about it once a year for the last 20 years.
- Next is Just Dance 2023, which, similar to Rocksmith, will be a platform. There is a weird blue man. I hate him. There’s also a new multiplayer mode where you dance on camera with your friends. None of them are blue, so this is fine.
- We go into the Assassin’s Creed segment. They said there would be several surprises shown. They might not be all that surprising.
- Yves Guillemot is introducing the segment “what’s next for Assassin’s Creed.” It then transitions to a seemingly live-action trailer of various AC heroes and scenarios. Hey, remember that movie? That’s what I’d describe as a fun piece of shit.
- First is Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which was revealed earlier in the week. It stars a younger Bassim, whom we’re introduced to in a CG trailer, before his older appearance in Valhalla. They still cut off fingers to use the hidden blade back to this day.
- The game is purportedly a return to the first couple of Assassin’s Creed games in tone and mechanics. The trailer reinforces this a bit because Bassim is just murking dudes easily, and they’re doing the death scenes again. Also, there was a zombie?
- No, what was up with the zombie? I am guessing it’s a mirage.
- Mirage will come out in 2023. You have to preorder for a Forty Thieves sidequest.
- Next is some navel-gazing about the series as a whole. I remember when I was at a press demo for the first game, and they weren’t talking about the future aspect of the games yet, so they’d write off all the glitchy UI elements as a mistake as if people didn’t already known.
That’s it! That’s the end of the show. There were some high points, but it remains to be seen how much of it will raise Ubisoft out of its current vicious cycle of delays and critical failures. Perhaps it doesn’t matter. Maybe as long as the sales are there and the casual fan is happy, there’s no problem. I suppose it all remains to be seen.
