The Future of Ubisoft
The Future of Ubisoft
E129: A deeper look at what was shown at the Ubisoft Forward event.
Good morning gamers! Ubisoft has been keeping busy this summer, participating in multiple video game showcases to reveal some of their biggest upcoming games. Assassins Creed: Mirage had its gameplay debut at the PlayStation Showcase, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was announced at Summer Games Fest and Star Wars: Outlaws was revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase. Despite these impressive showings, Ubisoft still hosted their own Ubisoft Forward event. ICYMI, here’s a recap.
Assassin’s Creed: Mirage dove deeper into its stealth-focused gameplay further emphasizing that “direct combat is secondary to stealth” in the game. We also learned that stealth assassinations are returning, and Basim has a new combat ability that allows him to target and eliminate multiple enemies in one sequence by using an advanced state of Eagle Vision.
Star Wars: Outlaws had its gameplay debut dedicated to showcasing its open-world design. The gameplay focused on protagonist Kay Vess, an outlaw who does jobs in the criminal underworld, as she engaged in combat, rode a speeder and escaped into hyperspace. We also got a fun look at how her little companion Nix helps in battle.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is officially releasing on December 7th, 2023. The standalone adventure sees players play as a Na’vi who returns to a new continent of Pandora after being raised by the RDA. You must reconnect with your heritage, learn the ways of the Na’vi and safeguard Pandora from the humans by taking down their strongholds.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown showcased its dynamic 2D gameplay, characterized by a “semi-open world” side-scrolling action experience. We saw tons of swordplay, acrobatic wall jumping, multiple level designs, special powers and a tough lineup of enemies.
Other Announcements
Assassin’s Creed Nexus, Ubisoft’s first VR Assassin’s Creed game features the return of Ezio (AC2), Kassandra (AC Odyssey) and Connor (AC3).
Assassin’s Creed codename Jade will allow players to fully customize their assassin for the first time ever, and takes place during China’s Qin Dynasty.
The Crew Motorfest releases September 13th. The game takes players to Hawaii, and introduces bikes, boats and aircrafts as rideable vehicles.
XDefiant is coming later this summer and will launch with 24 weapons, 14 maps, 5 factions and 5 game modes (more content will be added during the first year).
Skull and Bones is getting a closed beta at the end of August.
The Division: Resurgence is making its way to mobile devices in the Fall 2023.
Esports Corner
💛 This week's Esports Corner is dedicated to CS:GO pro Ostap “0ni” Onistrat who sadly passed way in service for the Ukraine. On behalf of the entire Weekly Recon team, we wish his family and friends our deepest condolences.
The Saudi Esports Federation has implemented a $5 million bonus fund for esports organizations that win titles across multiple games during the 8-week long Gamers8 festival. Teams will be awarded points based on their placements and the organization with the most points at the end of the festival will be awarded $1.5 million, followed by $1 million for second place (the prize pool scales all the way down to 8th place with $100,000).
The London Royal Ravens, the only European franchised team part of the Call of Duty League, is reportedly moving to North Carolina for the 2024 season (with Washington DC and Mexico City as back-up options). The Royal Ravens finished last in this year's CDL season and failed to qualify for Call of Duty Champs. If this relocation comes to fruition, the Toronto Defiant will be the only remaining non-American team in the league.
May 2023 was a popular month for esports events. League of Legends lead the way with the Mid-Season Invitational peaking at 2.3M concurrent viewers, followed by CS:GO’s BLAST.tv Paris Major with 1.5M concurrent viewers. Valorant was the only console game in the top 5 with 554K concurrent viewers (no international event) and then Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (1.46M concurrent viewers) and PUBG Mobile (639.5K concurrent viewers) came third and fourth respectively. The top 10 was rounded out by Dota 2, Arena of Valor, Apex Legends, Call of Duty and Fortnite.
🥇Congratulations to the New York Subliners for winning the 2023 Call of Duty League Championships.
Gaming Roundup
Titanfall 3 was reportedly in development for 10 months before being canceled according to Mohammad Alavi, a former developer at Respawn Entertainment.
Marvel’s Wolverine has entered the writing stage according to Insomniac Games writer Nick Folkman, who’s completed his work on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is considered CD Projekt Red’s redemption story. The sequel will go into development after the expansion is released.
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser has opened Absurd Ventures to produce live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content.
Alan Wake II will reportedly take over 20 hours to complete. The developers are not concerned about the competing games releasing in October.
Halo is going forward with 343 Industries as the main developer. According to Matt Booty, Activision’s Call of Duty team may help work on it.
Einstein, a dog actor who performed the motion capture for Cain from Red Dead Redemption 2 has passed away at the age of 13.
The Elder Scrolls VI might be the last Elder Scrolls for Todd Howard, the director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios.
Félix Lengyel, otherwise known as xQc, has signed a non-exclusive two-year $100 million contract with rival streaming platform Kick.
People Can Fly is working alongside Xbox on a new AAA game codenamed Project Maverick with a total production budget of $30 to $50 million USD.
NetherRealm Studios creative director Ed Boon said "let's do another Mortal Kombat game and hopefully we'll get back to the Injustice games”.
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