Special Feature: Ubisoft Advances Slightly Forward

The lack of E3 2020 thanks to the ongoing (and what feels like perpetual) COVID-19 pandemic has thrown off the schedules of every company. It’s why Ubisoft only had their conference equivalent this past Sunday instead of in mid-June, with this virtual presentation being known as Ubisoft Forward. This prerecorded event involved the developers sharing progress on upcoming games, particularly those due for release by the end of the fiscal year.

What made this awkward was how it occurred while a dramatic story regarding former and current employees coming forward about the culture of harassment within Ubisoft’s Montreal and especially French studios. This served as an experiment regarding whether the company could handle providing marketing and addressing these issues simultaneously. The results were mixed.

Ubisoft showed a fair amount of games within the main presentation’s 45-minute timeframe. One of the biggest was Watch Dogs: Legion, the third game in the franchise that went MIA after a lengthy presentation from E3 2019 and trailer from Gamescom. The game looks largely identical to how it did then, an open world game taking place in a dystopian London where players can swap between several characters for specific tasks. The presentation noticeably downplayed how it takes place in a post-Brexit London, thanks to either the game’s potential for getting too close to reality (Brexit is actually happening, if you weren’t aware), though elements like mass protests and police brutality will still be included. It looked good from the previews, and will hopefully be on par with Watch Dogs 2 when it releases on October 29th.

Another key presentation was for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, just announced in late April. This will be the first full installment to revisit the Middle Ages since the first Assassin’s Creed (outside select scenes and sequences from Assassin’s Creed Unity), and will focus on the Vikings who fled Norway for territory that would later become the United Kingdom. The main Assassin here will be Eivor, who can be male or female, apparently part of the band of good Vikings not commonly heard about in history books. They’ll be as toned down here as the pirates were in Assassin’s Creed IV, basically.

This installment will make changes in response to criticism from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Levels will be gone with “Power” indicators in their place, while the Hidden Blade will return and result in one-hit instant-kill attacks during stealth again. The gameplay overall, in fact, will reemphasize stealth after it was noticeably downplayed in the last two, with social stealth returning after being absent from the last couple of installments. Changes are also being made to how side quests work, though details imply that the more rudimentary ones (kill this enemy, save this person, etc.) won’t be gone. The game looks a bit unpolished at the moment, but it could improve between now and its November 17th release date. Note that this game will release a mere two days before CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077.

The final big reveal was for Far Cry 6, leaked and then teased when the publisher realized the surprise was ruined prior to this presentation. This showing clearly wasn’t made with the expectation of it leaking, given the CG trailer and lack of any gameplay. It will take place in the fictional island of Yara, one clearly inspired by Cuba, where protagonist Dani Rojas (male or female) will help incite a revolution to overthrow a megalomaniacal tyrant of a leader (played by Giancarlo Esposito). You can bet that Ubisoft’s developers will insist that this won’t be political, and it might mimic Far Cry 5 in refusing to take a stance after initially teasing religious extremists as its villains.

Ubisoft at least provided screenshots to hold fans off for the full gameplay presentation. The game won’t release until February 18th, so they have time to show it.

Comparatively smaller games were briefly shown, like free-to-play fighting game Brawhalla and mobile game Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad, the latter of which will include Sam Fisher. It would be stunning if Ubisoft didn’t have their own battle royale title at this point, which is why Hyper Scape is coming, the open beta for which is already underway.

Other games were noticeable in their absence. The biggest was Gods & Monsters, a Greek mythology action-adventure title from the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey team that was slated to release in this fiscal year. The oft-delayed Skull & Bones also didn’t make an appearance (rumors suggest that its development has been completely rebooted), nor did Beyond Good & Evil 2. Fortunately, Ubisoft plans on holding another Forward conference sometime later this year, and might make this a normal thing.

Ubisoft said before the stream started that they wouldn’t address the articles detailing rampant sexual harassment and abuse from their studios around the world in the stream. The articles noted that several staffers important to video game production were implicated, and HR covered it up. Worse, Ubisoft owner and CEO Yves Guillemot was said to have looked the other way regarding allegations, not caring if the staffers still delivered results. They, in fairness, took action by suspending and firing staffers involved, including Assassin’s Creed Origins and Valhalla director Ashraf Ismail (accused of having extramarital affairs and misconduct with fans) and global HR head Cecile Cornet.

I don’t buy that they couldn’t include an address in the stream. Even if the entire presentation was prerecorded, it would have been fine to preempt it with an address from the CEO at the beginning of the show. The audience would have understood why if it was hastily edited and recorded.

The cynical part of me figured Ubisoft wanted to put on a show so good that their fanbase would forget about the allegations. Even though there are already plenty of pissbabies that just want their games, this show was not good enough to accomplish that. They’re likely hoping this will all be forgotten by the time the next Forward stream arrives, but while that’s a good bet, there’s at least a small chance this could remain in the gaming news consciousness.