2024 Was a Disastrous Year for Ubisoft: Flops, Delayed Releases and Alienating the Gaming Community

It would be an understatement to say that 2024 has been quite challenging for Ubisoft. The company consistently struggled to provide an engaging experience to gamers. Most of the titles Ubisoft released this year faced harsh criticism as they were absolutely subpar. The company was even forced to delay the release of some of its games, all but alienating its fanbase.

Moreover, they delayed the release dates of a couple of games, most importantly alienating their loyal user base. So why has a company that was loved by millions fallen so far down? Let’s talk about some of the factors that led to Ubisoft’s downfall in 2024.

Ubisoft’s Biggest Flops in 2024

Skull and Bones

When Ubisoft initially released Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, gamers wanted a spin-off title that focused on the original Pirate Aspect. Hence, the project Skull and Bones started, and the Ubisoft Singapore division led it. However, when the game was finally released in 2024, fans were very unhappy.

The graphics felt outdated, water physics was lackluster, and most importantly, there was no scope for combat on land. If you ask a non-gamer to review both games, they might not even notice the huge generational gap between the two titles due to their performance and graphics.

What the gamers actually wanted were some terrific battles on the ships and a bit of open-world exploration on foot. However, the focus of this game kept shifting for years as radical changes kept coming to the table. After all that work and millions spent behind it, when it was released earlier this year, it turned out to be mostly PvP combat and a few other treasure hunt missions.

Despite being more than a decade apart, I have to say that I expected much more from Ubisoft. As someone who grew up waging naval warfare in Black Flag, Skull and Bones felt like a regurgitated monstrosity that should have been avoided.

Star Wars Outlaws

When all was said and done, Ubisoft decided to come out with a fresh take and appeal to Star Wars fans. Lo and Behold, Star Wars Outlaws was released in the fall of 2024. Unfortunately, it was yet another failure. Most gamers had a problem with the title.

Many of the missions in the game were very repetitive and tedious. The storytelling lacked emotional depth, and gamers found it incredibly difficult to complete. Although the environment graphics were quite decent, the cutscenes, facial animations, and lip-syncing had many issues, making the video feel buggy.

In addition, Ubisoft decided to create a new patch just after the pre-release to fix these bugs. However, gamers who had pre-ordered the game and progressed through the missions were asked to delete all their saves and start afresh. As you can tell, gamers worldwide felt really cheated of their hard-earned money, having spent it on a product that fell far short of their expectations.

Any mention of Star Wars, and you’ll attract a lot of expectant nerds around the table. However, mention Outlaws, and all you’ll hear are boos.

XDefiant

Another title, XDefiant, which was intended to be a free-to-play alternative to Activision’s Call of Duty, was supposed to be the next big thing. The game had gathered a lot of attention during its beta phase and was even coined the name “COD Killer.”

However, it failed the launch window in 2022, when gamers were looking for a good COD alternative, delaying its release. Moreover, XDefiant had even failed the PS5 and Xbox Certification tests, and Ubisoft, being Ubisoft, handled the situation really badly. There were many vague promises about patches that would fix the gameplay, connection issues, progression, and more.

The game heavily targeted the COD audience but failed to meet many of their expectations and demands. Although the game’s selling point was no Skill-Based Matchmaking, bringing you back to the organic FPS shooters, this somehow contributed to its decline. The huge skill gap between players who were new to the game and those with 10-15 years of COD experience led to a huge decrease in the active player base.

And what we expected to happen did. Ubisoft decided to sunset XDefiant and close it up. Another failure that we are supposed to ignore, right?

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Lastly, the only game that hopefully might have saved Ubisoft from this crisis, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, got its release date postponed to 2025. Given the criticism from gamers about their past releases, this might be a clever move to make a few changes in this game to bring back the popularity of the Assassin’s Creed series.

One of the main controversies revolving around Shadows is that the male protagonist doesn’t have a Japanese origin even though the whole game is set in Ancient Japan. Although it might seem as if they are using this controversy to market the game, the cultural sentiments should still be kept in mind. Moreover, there was no such controversial protagonist in any previous titles in this franchise, so why do it now?

Previously, when the game was set to release in November 2024, it had a Season Pass and different pricing categories, which is again a bad idea. Since gamers look for a complete game at a single base price, this varied pricing simply makes them lose all their interest in it. Moreover, postponing its release to 2025 might become their biggest mistake, as the release of GTA VI would most likely overshadow the success of the Assassin’s Creed Series.

Where It Went Wrong for Ubisoft

Ubisoft’s Accountability Crisis

A very important reason for Ubisoft’s downfall in 2024 was its refusal to take accountability for its failures. In addition to giving remarks on the gamers’ high expectations, the company produced several highly flawed titles in their structure.

Gamers have grown frustrated with the fake and repetitive promises of bringing improvements to the games. Most of the time, these improvements don’t happen practically, further destroying the gaming giant’s trust.

Moreover, the company keeps shifting focus, prioritizing another title when the previous one is sinking. This leads to delayed updates, and thus, the cycle continues. Wouldn’t you be mad if one problem arose and instead of fixing it, the company just told you to buy a new game entirely? Yeah, us, too.

Stale and Repetitive Games

Most of the titles released by Ubisoft feel like they have taken “inspiration” from some other game, and it feels like there is no creativity. The uncanny resemblance of Star Wars Outlaw missions with Mary Jane missions in Spider-Man is one of the best examples of this statement. While playing this title, many gamers felt that Ubisoft had just put a different skin and a different background on the same gameplay.

Furthermore, Ubisoft tried to make a better version of Black Flag with Skull and Bones, but they could not even introduce a new feature that feels better than the former one. Another title where you might find this resemblance is Assassin’s Creed Shadows. If you have ever tried Ghost of Tsushima, you might find many similarities in the Shadows’ trailer. However, the graphics are far inferior to Ghost of Tsushima’s, and there is much room for improvement.

Not only was the quality of these games mediocre, but they also had a lot of microtransactions. Most of the games were divided into various categories that required you to pay to proceed further in the story. In contrast to Ubisoft’s games, titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 have won many awards because they provide a complete experience at their base price.

The year 2024 must be a wake-up call for Ubisoft. It’s high time that they start developing some unique and innovative titles. Competitors like Rockstar Games, Bethesda, and many more keep pushing their limits to bring something new to the industry.

So, Ubisoft, will you listen to your fans and fix this sinking ship, or will you drown and take us all?