Ubisoft has revealed plans to pivot away from AAA video games in favour of “high-end free-to-play” titles.
During an earnings call on Tuesday (May 11), Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Duguet discussed the company’s game development and release strategy moving forward. He said that the company will be moving away from its traditional strategy of releasing a handful of premium games a year as part of its evolving content creation plans.
“In line with the evolution of our high-quality line-up that is increasingly diverse, we are moving on from our prior comment regarding releasing 3-4 premium AAAs per year. It is indeed no longer a proper indication of our value creation dynamics,” Duguet said, per VGC. “Additionally, we are building high-end free-to-play games to be trending towards AAA ambitions over the long-term.”
However, Duguet also noted that this strategy shift is “purely a financial communication evolution”. He reassured investors that Ubisoft will continue pushing out a “high cadence of content delivery, including powerful premium and free-to-play new releases”.
The first of these high-end free-to-play games is The Division: Heartland, which was revealed last week. “The way we think about building the audience reach growth for our biggest franchises, so starting with The Division, is to come with high-quality free-to-play games,” Duguet said.
Earlier this week, Ubisoft also confirmed in a statement that it plans to brand all of its first-party games as “Ubisoft Originals”. The branding first appeared when the company revealed The Division: Heartland.
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