There has been quite some unrest among gamers following Ubisoft's announcement regarding increasing their focus on free-to-play titles. The news came to light after Ubisoft stated via a conference call where the focus would be more on F2P games for revenue than AAA games. This statement wasn't well-received by many who started bombarding the developer on Twitter and asking for clarification.
Today, Ubisoft clarified the doubts cast over by gamers after the company made the bold claim. While the F2P is yet to boom, the company is highly popular for several top-grossing AAA franchises like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and Prince of Persia.
In the recent financial report, Ubisoft recognized that some of its F2P games are bringing in just as much revenue as its other AAA titles. This suggests the motivation behind the creation of more rich F2P games, which currently are booming in the market. In case you're curious, you can listen to the entire conference call here.
Take Call of Duty as an example where the franchise released the battle royale, Call of Duty: Warzone, a F2P AAA title enjoyed by millions of fans across the world. Ubisoft could launch F2P versions for some of its franchises like The Division, which has been in the news lately for its recently announced standalone F2P title The Division: Heartland set to release in 2022.
Well-known Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmad also tweeted that Ubisoft's strategy is not to produce fewer AAA titles but to expand beyond what the company has been currently doing.
It's worth noting that the proper interpretation of this is not that Ubisoft will deliver less AAA premium games, but that its other non AAA premium content, such as F2P or even Just Dance, will become more important to the business.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 11, 2021
It's not about less, it's about more. https://t.co/ssUFsr2jLJ
Personally, I'd be glad if Ubisoft released some F2P titles for all of its franchises provided that the quality is top-notch. There can be a great co-op Assassin's Creed game. Plus, nobody would say no to some sort of shooter set in the Far Cry universe with its intricate open world to explore.
