3 weeks ago
3
Ubisoft
Another live-service game is shutting down due to a lack of players: Ubisoft’s XDefiant, a first-person shooter that’s the illegitimate lovechild of Overwatch and Counter-Strike. The game launched on May 21 of this year, so it didn’t even last a full seven months before the shutdown announcement.
Ubisoft isn’t shuttering the game right away. Its servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, and the final season will still be added into the game — and anything you’ve bought in the last 30 days will be refunded to you. Ubisoft is also closing down the in-game shop, and if you don’t already have the game downloaded and registered, it might be too late, according to Rock Paper Shotgun.
The biggest impact from this decision isn’t the loss of another shooter, but the loss of roughly 277 jobs from three Ubisoft studios. The company is shutting down its San Francisco and Osaka studios while reducing the amount of work done at its Sydney location.
In the official statement, Ubisoft executive Marie-Sophie de Waubert said 143 people in San Francisco and 134 people between Osaka and Sydney would be departing the company — corporate speak for sugarcoating layoffs. She goes on to say: “Globally, we are determined to take the necessary steps to put the company back on a path to growth, innovation and creativity.”
Ubisoft has taken quite a few body blows this past year. This latest decision likely won’t win much goodwill in the eyes of fans, especially not when the gaming industry as a whole is under scrutiny for mass layoffs.
Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…
Everything announced at the June 2023 Ubisoft Forward
The summer of gaming continued with Ubisoft's dedicated showcase on Monday. Ubisoft Forward broke down the publisher's upcoming slate across an 80-minute main show and a 15-minute light preshow. There weren't any surprises, but we got extended looks at some previously announced games. There were gameplay and story reveals for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, The Crew Motorfest, and Assassin's Creed Mirage, which had all been teased already. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Star Wars: Outlaws were both announced just days earlier and also got some longer deep dives during the showcase.
When it comes to the Assassin's Creed franchise, we saw some uncut Mirage gameplay and got a little taste of what's to come after Mirage with short teasers for Nexus VR and Codename Jade. In case you missed it, this is everything that was announced during the June 2023 Ubisoft Forward.
Read more
Ubisoft and more offer ways to play purchased Google Stadia games elsewhere
Google recently announced that it plans to shutter its cloud gaming service Stadia in early 2023, leaving players who used it as one of their primary platforms in an awkward situation. Google already promised to refund people for their Google Stadia hardware and software purchases, but people are still losing access to games they enjoyed and save files they possibly dumped hours into. Thankfully, some developers are working on ways to help Stadia players.
The most notable studio to help Stadia players is Ubisoft, which was Google's earliest partner for the technology via an Assassin's Creed Odyssey demo. "While Stadia will shut down on January 18, 2023, we're happy to share that we're working to bring the games you own on Stadia to PC through Ubisoft Connect," Ubisoft tweeted. "We'll have more to share regarding specific details, as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers, at a later date." Thankfully, the Stadia versions of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, and Watch Dogs: Legion support cross-progression, so players won't lose their save files.
https://twitter.com/UbisoftSupport/status/1575922767593078793
Ubisoft isn't the only developer to help. Developer Muse Games is giving Embr Steam codes to those who played its comedic co-op firefighting game on Stadia if they email the developer with screenshots of Embr in their Stadia library. Meanwhile, IO Interactive confirmed that it is "looking into ways for you to continue your Hitman experience on other platforms," as the World of Assassination trilogy was available on Google Stadia.
There's still the matter of the five Google Stadia exclusives: Gylt, Hello Engineer, Outcasters, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle, and PixelJunk Raiders. So far, only one of those games seems like it will be saved. PixelJunk Raiders developer Q-Games said in a blog post that "we hope to find a way to continue to share the vibrant worlds of Planet Tantal in the future, and we’re open to discussing opportunities to find the right publishing partner to make it happen.. Tequila Works, tinyBuild, Splash Damage, and Bandai Namco Entertainment did not respond to requests for comment from Digital Trends.
While the shutdown of Google Stadia is disappointing for players like myself who enjoy cloud gaming, at least players will be get refunds, and in some cases get the game for a new platform.
Read more
Assassin’s Creed Mirage announced with more info coming next week
Ubisoft has officially announced the next entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise: Assassin's Creed Mirage. Ubisoft has only shared the first image of the game, but more information will be revealed at the Ubisoft Forward event on September 10 at 12 PM PST.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier shed some details about rumors on this game, including that its setting is Baghdad and that it "returns to the basics." It's reportedly more reminiscent of the first several Assassin's Creed games, rather than the more recent RPG-centric ones like Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Read more
English (US) ·