Ubisoft's first digital conference, Ubisoft Forward, has just wrapped, featuring more than two hours of announcements big and small on familiar Ubisoft titles. Three games claimed the spotlight at the heart of the conference: the ambitious and dystopian Watch Dogs: Legion, the highly anticipated Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, and the newly announced Far Cry 6.
While these major titles drew no shortage of eyes to Ubisoft Forward, there were plenty of games that the company didn't seem to have anything to say about. The three games left little room for upcoming games that players might have hoped to know more about by now, so here are some of Ubisoft's notable works in progress that went unsung at the conference.
Gods and Monsters
At E3 2019, Ubisoft revealed Gods and Monsters, a brand new property. The action-adventure game is based on Greek mythology, telling the story of a hero tasked with defeating the monstrous Typhon to save the Ancient Greek gods. Ubisoft is no stranger to Greek settings, having gotten a wealth of experience with Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. In fact, many veterans of Assassin's Creed that worked on Odyssey are reportedly working on Gods and Monsters, ensuring that the game will dive deep into Ancient Greek culture in the same way.
One might expect that Ubisoft would be interested in promoting a new IP like Gods and Monsters at its very first conference. However, that wasn't the case. It remained silent about the game, offering no release date or gameplay reveals. It seems there is still a lot of work to do on Gods and Monsters, which has reportedly changed drastically since its reveal, even getting a new name. The game was initially meant to release in February 2020, but now its publication date is nebulous.
Rainbow Six Quarantine
Ubisoft Forward spent plenty of time talking about the company's line of Tom Clancy games, but the event never touched on Rainbow Six Quarantine. The next installment in the franchise will be a three-player game tasking players with cooperating to stop an alien parasite threatening Earth. The game reportedly has much in common with the Outbreak gamemode in Rainbow Six Siege, and will continue to encourage cooperating, players controlling Operators with unique skills as they rescue civilians and fight the infected.
The game was originally supposed to release sometime in 2020, which is half over, so fans of the FPS series reasonably expected that Ubisoft would reveal more. On the contrary, Ubisoft focused on the upcoming Elite Squad and the highly successful Rainbow Six Siege, offering no further information or release date for the next Tom Clancy title. Quarantine was also originally set for a 2020 release, but delayed for unspecified additional time in development. If not this year, it should release by the end of Ubisoft's fiscal year in March 2021, but with everything else on its plate too, this is uncertain.
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Beyond Good and Evil 2 has remained in limbo for much longer than some of Ubisoft's other future releases. The original Beyond Good and Evil released in 2003 and told the story of an investigative reporter on a mission to uncover an alien conspiracy. Beyond Good and Evil 2 is a prequel, first announced at E3 2017. The game will reportedly feature an open world, role-playing elements, and a player generated character, indicating a significantly different approach to exploring the setting compared to the source material.
One might expect that the game would see release dates by now, but the game has suffered in development for a long time. Footage of a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil found its way onto the Internet as far back as 2009, but since then the game has been reinvented as a prequel. Still, the game must be continuing to face challenges if Ubisoft has gone so long without discussing it further. The original game was critically acclaimed in its time, so perhaps Ubisoft is taking painstaking measures to make sure the prequel is a worthy successor.
Skull & Bones
Beyond Good and Evil 2 isn't the only Ubisoft title that has been awaiting further details since E3 2017. Another game revealed was Skull & Bones, a tactical action game by Ubisoft Singapore about pirates in the Indian Ocean. The intention is to enable the player to live the pirate fantasy, building a fleet of ones own before going out on the sea, battling and boarding other ships. The game will feature a story mode as well as PvP modes where players can assemble a crew of friends to do battle online.
Skull & Bones is even farther from release than Ubisoft's other titles with unknown fates. The intention was originally to release the game in the second half of 2018, but it has been delayed multiple times. According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot last year, hopeful players will now have to wait until the 2021 fiscal year to get their hands on the game, if not later. It will be quite some time before fans can make their own captain and take to the high seas.
Looking Forward
As major as the three Ubisoft titles that the conference focused on focused are, it has lots of other projects in different branches waiting to be discussed. Considering how many of these projects have had their releases delayed, the reason for their omission from Ubisoft Forward might be as simple as not being ready for reveal. If it's difficult to say the games are ready for a targeted release, it's not surprising that Ubisoft would choose not to discuss them at all.
However, there is still hope that more details about these games are coming soon. The conference also confirmed that there will be another Ubisoft Forward this year. The stars of the first Forward will probably still get some time if they haven't been released yet by then, but such explicit plans might mean that other Ubisoft games are approaching goals and almost ready to be discussed.
In fact, most of these games still have a chance of filling out Ubisoft's release schedule for the coming year. Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, and Far Cry 6 are scheduled to release in October, November, and February, but Ubisoft has stated that it intends to release five games before the end of the fiscal year in March. Hypothetically, a second digital conference in a month like October before Watch Dogs releases could also announce a game like Gods and Monsters or Quarantine for a December release in the holiday season, right on time to accompany Microsoft and Sony's next-gen consoles.
There mere announcement of another Ubisoft Forward to come can give some hope to followers of these games looking forward to learning more. Ubisoft does not seem inclined to leave its fans in the dark. With major reveals about three of their most anticipated titles out of the way, hopefully more games will have their time in the limelight soon.