Ubisoft Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Ubisoft’s Beyond Good And Evil 2 has a new lead writer – Sarah Arellano.The prequel to 2003’s Beyond Good And Evil was first teased in 2008 before officially being announced at 2017’s E3 conference with a trailer, though no release date was confirmed.Since then, updates on Beyond Good And Evil 2 have been few and far between. In 2020, creator Michel Ancel retired from the games industry but said work on Beyond Good And Evil 2 was “going super well,” before promising “beautiful things to be seen soon.”However, he said the same thing about Wild which was quietly cancelled in 2021.Earlier this year, it was reported that Beyond Good And Evil 2 was still in pre-production.

Tencent is reportedly looking to raise its stake in Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry publisher Ubisoft.According to a new report from Reuters, Tencent apparently expressed interest in the French publisher and is looking to raise the five per cent stake it placed in 2018.Two sources claimed that Tencent is aiming to “become the single largest shareholder” of Ubisoft with another stake purchase. At this time it’s unclear how much the company is planning on owning of the company.Additional sources said that Tencent does plan on purchasing the extrastake from the Guillemot family – the current CEO of Ubisoft – which own 15 per cent of the firm.

Apple today unveiled a first-look teaser for the third season of its critically acclaimed workplace comedy Mythic Quest, which is slated to premiere on Apple TV+ this fall.

Ubisoft has shared that the development of Splinter Cell VR, Ghost Recon: Frontline and two other unannounced titles have been cancelled.This was revealed during Ubisoft’s recent earnings call, where chief financial officer Frederick Duguet revealed Ubisoft would be undergoing “sizeable cost optimisation” in the upcoming fiscal year. With this in mind, Ghost Recon: Frontline, Splinter Cell VR and the two unannounced games have been cancelled so Ubisoft can put more resources into the company’s “biggest development opportunities” (via PC Gamer).Splinter Cell VR was announced in late 2020 for release on Oculus devices.

Ubisoft has delayed Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, quietly confirming a 2023-2024 release window in a first-quarter fiscal sales report.While the report highlights a “slightly better than expected” performance for the company, the rest of the report details a significant delay to Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora.While Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora was originally meant to launch in 2022 and coincide with the release of James Cameron‘s upcoming film Avatar: The Way of Water, Ubisoft has shared that it will now launch in either 2023 or 2024.On the delay, Ubisoft shared that while it is still committed to creating “a cutting-edge immersive experience that takes full advantage of next-gen technology,” the studio needs more time to do that.“While this additional development time is a reflection of the current ongoing constraints on productions across the industry, we are hard at work to design the most efficient working conditions to ensure both flexibility,” explained Ubisoft.In the report, Ubisoft added that it has also delayed a “smaller unannounced premium game” to 2023-2024.“The new high-value mobile partnership for one of our brands reflects the powerful appeal of our brands for the fast-growing AAA mobile segment,” shared Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot. “It also provides our teams with more time to fully realize their creative vision and deliver high-quality experiences for our fans, while at the same time increasing our visibility for both 2022-23 and 2023-24.”Earlier in the week, developers at Ubisoft discussed how “entitled gamers” make launching new games an unpleasant experience.

Ubisoft employees have addressed why developers avoid communicating with fans where possible, especially around the launch of a new title.Joe Hobbs, lead prop artist at Ubisoft Annecy, shared his thoughts via his Twitter page where he wrote that team members who are open online about their involvement with Ubisoft titles regularly receive abuse from “fans”, which has led to employees deciding to avoid associating with their achievements publicly.“I’ve received death threats in the past over Division 2. It’s unacceptable,” said Hobbs, before continuing, “The harassment that game develops receive is utterly disgusting and I see it in the comments of most devs who say pretty much anything.”Hobs then goes on to suggest that if players want devs to be more open and communicative, it cannot be met with demands and threats when they do make the decision to do those things, especially when such fans seem to be unaware of how games are made and which decisions certain roles are responsible for.Other developers responded in the Twitter thread by Hobbs to confirm that comments and abuse from fans has driven them away from social media “to the point I avoid saying anything about what I work on,” said Ubisoft artist Chris Goodridge.

Ubisoft has announced a presentation for Skull & Bones later this week, which will give players their first proper look at the gameplay of the long-delayed pirate game.Set to air at 7pm BST on Thursday 7 June via YouTube and Twitch, the showcase will feature “new gameplay, our unique take on piracy, and exclusive behind the scenes with developers” of Skull & Bones.If you tune in 15 minutes beforehand though, you’ll be treated “with a pre-show full of surprises”.Tune-in for a #UbiForward spotlight on #SkullAndBones and catch the worldwide gameplay reveal!July 7 at 11AM PT / 8PM CEST

Anno 2070 developer Ubisoft Mainz is allocating resources to upgrading the game’s online infrastructure following Ubisoft’s announcement that they would be shutting down online services for it on July 2.Ubisoft recently announced it would be shutting down online services for several of its older titles, including Anno 2070.“Closing the online services for some older games allows us to focus our resources on delivering great experiences for players who are playing newer or more popular titles. To help us achieve this, a number of older titles will be added to our list of decommissioned online services…”However, following this news, Anno 2070 developer Ubisoft Mainz made an update post on their website.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope appears to have been leaked by its publisher Ubisoft. The alleged release date was spotted on the Ubisoft Store, with the game being slated for an October 20 release. The date has since been reverted back to the vague 2022 release window, although this hasn’t stopped people from taking screenshots and posting them online.

Ubisoft has announced an Assassin’s Creed celebration stream for today (June 14). To celebrate the franchise turning 15, the developer has promised a special look at the future of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, a look back at previous releases, and a tease of what’s to come this year.The stream will go live today at 5.00pm BST (9AM PST / 6PM CEST).

last year and described Duke as “Deadpool on steroids,” envisioning a story in which the egotistical, misogynistic brute from the ’90s transports into an alternate universe to meet a more respectful, woke version of himself in the future. Various producers have been trying to get a “Duke Nukem” movie off the ground since the ’90s, including a version by Lawrence Kasanoff, another by “Max Payne” producer Scott Faye during the late 2000s and again in 2018 when it was even set at Paramount and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes with John Cena attached to star.Counterbalance Entertainment is the creative force behind “Cobra Kai.” Baronnet is the co-founder of Marlas Studios, a production company specializing in adapting video games into movies and TV shows.

Ubisoft has announced that The Division 2 is getting a brand new season, the first in almost two years, this week.Season nine, titled Hidden Alliance, will feature a new episodic narrative within The Division and will go live this week on May 12.Instead of exploring the multiple districts of Washington, the season’s focus will shift to the smaller areas of the map, and provide “more contained, concentrated stories, and to avoid repetition from season to season.” You can check out the Season Nine launch trailer below:Hidden Alliance will also introduce a new antagonist, named Captain Lewis, as well as four new mini-bosses for players to challenge that will release across multiple months. Starting on May 12, players can take on Major Castillo, with Sergeant Daniels following on May 31.

Ubisoft has announced that it has ended online services for 90 of its older games, including Assassin’s Creed 2, the original Far Cry, and a number of Just Dance titles.All of the titles featured on the list that will be losing online services are older Ubisoft games and are not necessarily across every platform. Assassin’s Creed 2 is specifically losing online services on PC, Mac, iOS, and OnLive – whereas Far Cry will only be losing them on PC.The official statement on the page reads, “The online multiplayer services for the titles listed below have now been shut down. The offline features for each game remain available”.

Ubisoft has officially revealed a new third-person shooter, currently codenamed Project Q, after gameplay leaked online.After a lengthy amount of gameplay was leaked of Project Q, Ubisoft has officially announced the new title on Twitter. “So, we heard you heard…” wrote Ubisoft on Twitter, acknowledging the gameplay leak.

Rainbow Six Siege update Y7 S1.2 is set to go live today (April 19), alongside a brand new map, balance changes, and more.Ahead of the update’s release, Ubisoft has published the patch notes detailing everything players can expect from Year 7 Season 1.

Late in 2021, Ubisoft announced it would be adding non fungible tokens (or NFTs) into the PC version of ‘Ghost Recon Breakpoint’, and while even the company’s own staff reported didn’t understand the scheme, it has not put Ubisoft off, as it seems more NFTs are coming, and will be making their way into games outside of ‘Breakpoint’.

Ubisoft is developing a new third person shooter called Pathfinder.Various sources have spoken to Exputer about Pathfinder, which could also just be a codename for the project.According to these sources, Pathfinder will be a slightly different take on the standard battle royale format. Teams of four will be dropped into a map before navigating their way through two walls that have a series of breakable and unbreakable gates that must be overcome.

Ubisoft has revealed a piece of cloud computing technology it’s developing called Ubisoft Scalar.Yesterday (March 18), Ubisoft revealed Ubisoft Scalar, a new piece of cloud computing technology that will apparently enable “the construction of gigantic game worlds at a scale far greater than anything that’s come before,” as noted in its reveal trailer. The project is being helmed by Ubisoft Stockholm, alongside an IP that it is developing using this technology.

Ubisoft is committing to The Crew 2 for at least another year, bringing a 60FPS update to Xbox Series X and PS5, as well as plenty of new content, all as part of Year 5 for the game.Community director François Roussel at Ubisoft explained in a new announcement video that “One of our main goals is to continue to deploy content for The Crew 2 and for all players.”Brand director Delphine Dosset added “Year 5 will start this July, which means that three new seasons will be deployed, and The Crew 2 still has a lot of promises to fulfil. This is why we will continue to add a lot of content to the game in upcoming months.”This new content will include new cars; new events; rewards; competitions, and more improvements.The new console update was left to Quentin Betton (live project coordinator) to explain.

Ubisoft Massive later this year, after 17 years at the studio.Ubisoft Massive is based in Sweden and is responsible for the Tom Clancy’s The Division series, the upcoming Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, and the recently announced Star Wars game.Last year Polfeldt announced he was stepping down from his managing director role but planned to return to a new position after a six-month break. However, it has now been reported that he has submitted his six-month resignation earlier this year and will be leaving the company for good.

Rainbow Six Siege receiving its seventh year of updates, a developer has answered questions about why the game has no competitors.Rainbow Six Siege is approaching the launch of Demon Veil, the first content drop of the game’s seventh year, and creative director Alex Karpazis has discussed the shooter’s long term-goals. Speaking to PCGamesN, Karpazis said that Rainbow Six Siege is “going to receive all the support it needs to be as successful as it needs to be. We have long-term ambitions”.Karpazis was also asked about the lack of competition that Siege has seen, as very few games have attempted the same formula.

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be available to play for free next weekend, just after the game’s 1.5 update releases.The next major expansion, Dawn Of Ragnarok, will release for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on March 10, and ahead of that Ubisoft is letting players try the base game for free (via GamesRadar).Players will be able to try Assassin’s Creed Valhalla  for free between February 24 to 28.

Ubisoft has revealed what’s coming in Year 7 Season 1 (Y7S1) of Rainbow Six Siege, including a new operator called Azami, a defender who can fix damage to map environments.Announced today (February 19), Azami’s gadget is a throwable device that applies circular bulletproof cover wherever it hits. As demonstrated by Ubisoft, this allows her to patch up damage to walls, hatches and doorways that have been breached by attackers.Players can choose either a 9x19VSN submachine gun or ACS12 shotgun when playing Azami, and her loadout also includes a D-50 handgun.

Beyond Good And Evil 2 is still only in the pre-production stage at Ubisoft.This comes from a recent Bloomberg report that had spoken to developers on the title. In video games pre-production often refers to the planning phase, where certain concepts and ideas are being fine-tuned and outlined, although no such specifics are given in the Bloomberg article.Beyond Good And Evil 2 was announced at Ubisoft’s E3 2017 presentation five years ago, and it was said that the game would have multiple planets to explore and use a procedural generation tool in its design.It was also announced at E3 2018 that HitRecord – founded by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt – would be crowdsourcing fan work to put into the game.

Ubisoft has revealed some statistics and anti-cheat information concerning Rainbow Six Siege, including total bans over the last 18 months.The official Rainbow Six Siege Twitter account detailed everything in a thread, with ban data for the game split between BattlEye and general data bans as well. Since August 2020 it’s estimated that around 167,250 bans have taken place, or around 9,500 a month for 18 months.It’s also added that 3,114 idle bots were banned between November to January as well, with the data going right the way up to last month (January 2022).The thread also outlines that a few cheats have been permanently stopped in the last 18 months as well, like the ability to instantly kill a whole lobby, drones that crash matches, and drones that can do melee damage.We're committed to detecting and banning cheaters.

Riders Republic is getting an event later this week that will see it collaborating with Italian fashion brand Prada.Ubisoft has announced that from February 10 to February 14 Riders Republic will be free to play on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One, with the ability to pre-load now. Players who play during the free weekend will retain their progress if they choose to purchase the full game.

Ubisoft has added a memorial to Rainbow Six Siege that pays tribute to Michael ‘KiXSTAr’ Stockley, a caster and former professional Siege player who died in late 2021. As reported by the BBC (via PC Gamer), Ubisoft has added an in-game plaque to Rainbow Six Siege commemorating Stockley.Rainbow Six Siege esports director Wei Yue shared a photo of KiXSTar’s plaque in the game, and posted it alongside text that represents Tachanka, a Rainbow Six Siege operator, saluting.{-}7 pic.twitter.com/4jYhPbo7vB— Wei Yue (@Wei2Yue) January 25, 2022The plaque can be found on the Plane map, and has been placed on a spot where Stockley once killed all five members of an enemy team in just eight seconds during a competitive map.You can watch the moment that Stockley secured his eight second ace below.The Rainbow Six Siege Twitter account acknowledged the memorial by saying “our community has been forever changed thanks to KiXSTar’s work ethic and passion for [Rainbow Six Siege].

Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovations Lab which oversees NFTs, has said that NFTs are for the players “but they don’t get it for now.”Ubisoft‘s NFT programmes; Quartz and now Digits, met with backlash from developers and players alike upon their reveals. Upset over the decision was so loud that CEO Yves Guillemot held a surprise meeting in support of its launch. The company further doubled down on its decision to pursue NFTs despite a very disappointing uptake.In an interview with Finder, Pouard elaborated on Ubisoft’s NFT goals and how he believes the strategy benefits the players, but that they lack the understanding of how it will work.