French publisher Ubisoft has canceled the development of at least 25 games in the past eight years. This was noticed by a Reddit user who analyzed public data and internal messages, and the only exception was 2020, when the company did not report the closure of development activities.
In 2018, Ubisoft stopped working on the monster hunting project Project Falcon. Ubisoft San Francisco studio then reworked the idea into the multiplayer shooter XDefiant, released in spring 2024. At the same time, Project Ion, a sci-fi project from Ubisoft Red Storm, was shut down.
The company dropped several projects in 2019, including sci-fi exploration game Project Pioneer, Mike Laidlaw-led medieval fantasy RPG Project Avalon, and 2D sequel Prince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flame.
In 2021, Ubisoft canceled the Rayman remake and the first Project Reaper, a project based on Tom Clancy's The Division. A year later, work on Reaper briefly resumed after HyperScale closed, but the game, later known as Heartland, was never released. In 2022, the publisher also limited development on Ghost Recon Frontline, Splinter Cell VR and two unannounced projects.
In 2023, the company closes Project Oxygen and Project Q, focusing resources on priority areas. That same year, the voxel game Project Renaissance was canceled and its development formed the basis of Project Alterra.
In 2024, Ubisoft discontinued development of the co-op shooter Project Pathfinder, as well as Project Scarlet, a game in the Assassin's Creed universe with a post-American Civil War storyline, citing the subject matter as being too politicized. Additionally, Star Wars Outlaws 2 and Project Maverick, a Far Cry spin-off focusing on resource mining that was originally intended as the multiplayer component of Far Cry 7, were canceled early on.
Since the beginning of this year, the company has canceled six more projects, including a complete remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a Project League co-op game based in the Assassin's Creed universe, three unannounced development projects, and a mobile game. At the same time, Ubisoft postponed the release of seven projects, claiming the need to bring them in line with updated quality standards.
All these decisions are being made in the context of major corporate restructuring. Ubisoft plans to redistribute intellectual property to several “creative houses” while closing studios and cutting staff.
Ubisoft previously fired Assassin's Creed's lead designer after a disciplinary dispute.
