Ubisoft Games Showcase
Ubisoft Games Showcase
E67: Ubisoft planning to reveal several games at their own showcase.
Good morning gamers! According to Tom Henderson, Ubisoft has several games in development that have yet to be revealed. Henderson says that Ubisoft is looking to host their own showcase event that they’ve been planning for awhile.
The expectation is that the event will be headlined by some of the games listed below.
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake was revealed in September 2020 but has been delayed due to poor reception from fans. Prince of Persia also has another title reportedly being developed by Ubisoft Montpellier.
Splinter Cell Remake is still in early production and it is being developed by Ubisoft Toronto with a 2024/2025 expected release date.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is on track to be released in 2022. Minimal new details have been shared since the announcement at E3 in June 2021.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora from Massive Entertainment is expected to be released between April 2022 and March 2023. Henderson says it is on track and more details are coming soon.
Assassin’s Creed Rift has a projected release date of Q4 2022 to Q2 2023 and is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Assassin’s Creed Infinity, the live-service game that is still in early production is expected to be released between 2024 to 2025.
Ghost Recon Frontline has a lot of uncertainty surrounding it, especially regarding the place of NFTs in the game. The free-to-play FPS is still far from release.
XDefiant was revealed in 2021 but has undergone major changes since then, still expected to be released in the beginning of 2023. Ubisoft San Francisco is working on this game and it is another free-to-play FPS title.
The Division Heartland is almost ready to be released according to Henderson. The game will be the first of three free-to-play FPS games from Ubisoft and is likely to be released between April 2022 to March 2023.
Immortals Fenyx Rising Sequel is in the works at Ubisoft Quebec. The studio has been hiring talent for the game but there is no speculative release date.
Rainbow Six Siege Mobile is expected to be revealed on April 6th. The game was developed by WeGame, a subsidiary of Tencent and is expected to be released in 2023.
Additional games listed by Tom Henderson include,
Skull Bones (April 2022 to March 2023)
The Crew 3
Roller Champions (2022)
Beyond Good and Evil 2
The Division Mobile
Xbox Game Pass Success
Xbox Game Pass launched in 2017 and has since become an integral part of the Xbox strategy. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer considers the subscription service a core offering, giving players access to hundreds of games across Xbox and Windows PC. The service’s success was unknown until last week's appearance at the 2022 Game Developers Conference (GDC). Here’s what we learned,
As of January 2022, Xbox Game Pass has attracted 25 million subscribers
Xbox has 60% market share over Western game subscription services based on consumer spending (Apple Arcade & PlayStation Now account for 7% each)
Subscribers play 40% more games after joining Game Pass
Members spend 50% more on in-game purchases
On average, Game Pass games see an 8.3x lift in players
For Day 1 launches, major publishers see a 3.5x lift in players while Indie titles see a 15x lift in players
Independent Developers have seen triple-digit growth for their pay-to-play titles
Microsoft also announced Xbox Game Studios’ new Cloud Gaming division led by industry veteran Kim Swift. The new first-party cloud publishing division will work with studios to develop cloud-native titles and bring them exclusively to the Xbox ecosystem. Kim Swift was very clear in their belief that “cloud gaming has huge potential upside for reach and accessibility”, but acknowledged the technology is still in its infancy.
Esports Corner
Microsoft filed a trademark registration for “start.gg” under various classifications that include video games, software and the organization of esports competitions and streaming.
Team Spirit announced that they’ve abandoned their plans to expand operations in Moscow and have opened an office in Belgrade, Serbia. The team has already relocated 60% of their staff as well as both their CS:GO and Dota rosters to the new office.
Coca-Cola has partnered with Riot Games to become the worldwide founding partner of Wild Rift esports. Both companies will collaborate by making “unique fan experiences”, similar to how they worked together with League of Legends esports.
The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Split 2 Playoffs will be held in Stockholm, Sweden at the end of April. 40 teams from around the world will come together at the LAN event to compete for their share of the $1 million prize pool.
The 2022 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational will reportedly be held in South Korea for the first time in League of Legends history. In terms of another LoL first, TSM have failed to qualify for the LCS Playoffs for the first time in team history.
Gaming Roundup
Fortnite has released a limited-time “no building” mechanic for the launch of Chapter 3 Season 2. The mode may receive a permanent playlist going forward.
The Witcher is getting another instalment. CD Projekt RED confirmed that a new game is in early development, in close collaboration with Epic Games.
Lost Ark could be coming to Xbox and PlayStation if there is enough demand for it says Soomin Park, Amazon Games’ franchise lead.
Fable reboot developer Playground Games is reportedly facing development issues. The game was announced in July 2020 and there has been no updates.
Hellblade 2 is listening to player feedback to create a high quality experience. Ninja Theory wants there to be a lot of variety in the game.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League has officially been delayed until Spring 2023. The game was originally supposed to be released in 2022.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is coming to PlayStation, Xbox and PC towards the end of 2022. The game will include a cross-platform multiplayer.
FIFA has updated their trademark to include video games and they’re reportedly developing their own football game according to Jeff Grubb.
Activision is considering releasing remasters of previous Call of Duty games to help fill the space between the premium yearly releases.
Sony has officially acquired Haven Studios. Haven Studios is the 18th PlayStation Studio and they’re working on a new IP AAA multiplayer game.
Game Review - Ghostwire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo is an interesting take on the action-adventure genre that combines culturally respectful Japanese folklore with a beautifully designed open-world. The visual and sound design gives players a beautiful experience in terms of the environment and exploration. However, the game is somewhat let down by its monotonous gameplay, slow pacing and bulky combat mechanics.
It's a good game, not a great game. The biggest issue is that it quickly fails to keep players engaged with meaningful or exciting gameplay. You often find yourself wandering aimlessly trying to complete tedious and boring tasks. The city is beautifully designed and defeating enemies is fun, but the purpose of the game, and the content players must complete, is stretched too thin.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is a visually beautiful game that tries too hard to cater to the open-world format. It’s a decently fun game that doesn’t quite live up to its potential. We strongly believe that this can be improved through future content and gameplay updates, but for now, the game lacks some key components.
We give Ghostwire: Tokyo a score of B-.
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