As Ubisoft prepares for the March 20 launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the CEO, Yves Guilemot, has revealed that the company plans on keeping up with a cadence of more open world and live service titles every year. In a Q&A during Ubisoft’s recent earnings report, Guillemot spoke about the company’s plans going forward.
When asked about Ubisoft’s development pipeline for the future, Guillemot spoke about open-world titles like Assassin’s Creed Shadows as well as live service titles like Rainbow Six Siege and the more recent The Crew Motorfest.
“We have been investing significantly for a big pipeline of products for the coming years along our two verticals, [these] being open-world action adventure as well as ‘Game as a Service’-native experiences,” Guillemot said during the Q&A. “And that’s what we want to deliver year after year.”
“As you know, we are preparing a big launch for Assassin’s Creed Shadows in the very short term,” Guillemot explained, going on to talk about future plans for Ubisoft. “Next year we’ll have big plans that will benefit Rainbow Six across all platforms, that’s focusing well, and that’s a key milestone in the gross plan for the company.”
“We’ve announced that Anno 117: Pax Romana will also come next year, as well as The Division: Resurgence on mobile. All this is coming along well. We haven’t provided more colour for FY 2026 but we’ll have more to share by the time of May, and as I’ve just said, we have a strong platform for the future years across these two verticals.”
The statement comes on the heels of Ubisoft shuttering one of its studios, along with laying off more than 185 employees across various studios in Europe. An internal memo spoke about the layoffs, saying that the decision to shut down Ubisoft Leamington, along with the various layoffs, were made to “improve operational efficiency” and to ensure the “Long-term sustainability” of studios.
The studio that was shut down, Ubisoft Leamington, was previously known as FreeStyleGames. The studio was known for titles like the DJ Hero franchise. Since its acquisition by Ubisoft, however, it has worked as a support studio on major titles by the publisher, including Far Cry 5, and more recently, Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Ubisoft has also been rumoured to be working on a new venture with Tencent that would make use of its existing assets to form a potentially more profitable entity. While neither Ubisoft nor Tencent have confirmed these rumours, if they were to go through with it, Tencent would get more control over Ubisoft along with a stake in the new venture.
Ubisoft is currently getting ready to release Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The company recently released a trailer that outlines some of the upcoming open world game’s PC-specific features. The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions, on the other hand, will also include a 4K/60 FPS mode. For more on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, here are 10 details we learned about it.
