With E3 once again canceled this year, many of the larger publishers have found different outlets for unveiling their upcoming projects. For French publisher Ubisoft, this means another independent event titled Ubisoft Forward, which will be used as an opportunity to showcase several high-profile titles in the publisher's catalog. The previous Ubisoft Forward back in September 2022 focused on Assassin's Creed Mirage, the next installment of the popular franchise, which is set for an October 2023 release. Mirage is still expected to feature here, but probably not as prominently, with other big hitters planned to appear and one or two surprises that may also pop up.
While Assassin's Creed is arguably Ubisoft's biggest franchise, the publisher is far from a one-trick pony. Far Cry and Watch Dogs are just two of the other series under the vast Ubisoft umbrella. Neither of those are thought to have active projects in development right now though, and the showcase will instead look to shine the spotlight on a couple of other Ubisoft projects. The long-awaited Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is confirmed to feature alongside The Crew Motorfest, the third game in The Crew series. Fans will also get a full reveal of the highly anticipated Assassin's Creed Nexus VR, the franchise's first foray into the world of virtual reality. The trailer for the event also hints at the inclusion of another mystery title, leading to plenty of speculation from fans.
Ubisoft Forward Will Showcase Several High-Profile Games
Amazingly, there are a total of six new Assassin's Creed games currently planned. Only Mirage and Nexus are expected to feature at the showcase though, with the others likely not ready to be properly unveiled yet. Many will be eager to learn more about Nexus, especially considering Ubisoft's recent omission of the PSVR2 from the list of headsets the game will be playable on. Whether this was purposely done in order to allow for a more shocking reveal at the showcase or not remains to be seen, but the exclusion of Sony's headset will be viewed as another blow to its long-term prospects.
Much like its movie counterparts from acclaimed director James Cameron, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has been in development for what seems like an eternity, having been originally announced in 2017. Official news of the third-person open-world game has been sparse of late, but developer Massive Entertainment confirmed via a tweet that the game will very much be a part of the Ubisoft Forward, and fans will be keen to understand exactly how the game's development is progressing. Those hoping for a 2023 release should probably temper their expectations though, given that the Swedish developer has recently advertised for a VFX artist to join its team and assist with the project, implying that the game still has a ways to go yet.
The Crew and its 2018 sequel are open-world racing games, with the latter branching out to include other vehicular racing such as boats and airplanes. The series has its fans, even if neither game quite managed to win over critics. Not a great deal is known about the third outing other than the fact it will retain its open-world style, and unlike the first two games, it will take place in Hawaii, which could potentially give it some distinctly Forza Horizon vibes. Speculation over what the mystery game could be ranges from the unnamed open-world Star Wars project to The Division 3 or even the elusive Beyond Good and Evil 2.
Of course, there's always a danger of over-hyping these showcases, which can often lead to severe disappointment when the event inevitably fails to live up to fans' sometimes unrealistic expectations. This was evident at the recent PlayStation Showcase, which left a lot of questions unanswered and ended up being rather underwhelming in the eyes of some. Strangely though, in some ways, this takes a little bit of pressure off these independent showcases, but some will be expecting the Ubisoft Forward to deliver the goods regardless.