French studio and publisher Ubisoft has pushed Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine into 2021 release dates following their latest earnings report call.
This also includes the sequel game for 2009 third person shooter James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, which is now set to coincide with Avatar 2‘s release date.
According to GamesIndustry, Ubisoft’s decision puts its upcoming games up on shelves between April and September 2021. It’s also reeling from the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic which has set development teams back, along with “production challenges related to work from home.” This means players will be waiting a bit longer from Far Cry 6‘s initial release date of February 18, 2020. The zombie-spin of Rainbow Six was slated for a 2020 launch since its announcement at E3 2019.
Despite the setbacks, Ubisoft reported an 8.5 percent increase in overall game sales and raking over $880 million during the first half of 2020. The studio also gained results from switching to digital services, with the focus growing from 82 to 86 per cent between games and its player base. For Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, it was a fast growing section for games while “competitive advantages continue to be fully validated by recent industry announcements of consolidation and new platform launches.” He also suggested the next generation of consoles would significantly change Ubisoft’s model for releasing digital games as more players secure their favourite titles without going to stores.
Much of the pandemic has also resulted in Ubisoft losing over 1.3 per cent in revenue since June 2020, dropping shy of $385 million. But as 2020 comes to an end, Ubisoft said they hope to come back from some losses. Its next-gen and current-gen launches of Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Immortals Fenyx Rising are a tip of the iceberg for Ubisoft’s revenue in the coming months despite delays for future games.
It’s worth noting many of the company’s plans include a next-gen development of a movie-licensed game based on James Cameron’s anticipated sci-fi 3D sequel Avatar 2, with Ubisoft publishing the game in tandem with Massive Entertainment (The Division 2, Far Cry 3, Ground Control). The release has been pushed to April 2022, at the start of a new fiscal year for counting game sales and revenue. The game will also tie closely to the Avatar 2 release, out in theatres on December 2022.
