Ubisoft detailed plans to expand its Assassin’s Creed team by 40% “over the coming years” as it looks to focus its resources on “big brands and long-running live games.”
The news comes as part of the publishing house Financial Year 2023 Earnings Reportthe first earnings report since its disappointing quarterly update in January, which announced “increased caution over the coming years” and cancellation of three unannounced projects.
In today’s year-end report, Ubisoft recorded net bookings of €1.74 billion, an 18% decline for the publisher compared to last year, but there were some notable wins for its biggest franchises, including a record number of active users for the Assassin’s Creed franchise for last year, which is 44% higher than Origins and 19% higher than Odyssey.
This no doubt helped Ubisoft’s decision to lean even more heavily on Assassin’s Creed, as the publisher announced plans to expand the team working on the series by 40% in the coming years. To achieve this goal, which will increase the team’s staff from 2,000 to 2,800, employees will be transferred from other franchises.
Ubisoft certainly has many Assassin’s Creed is already on your tablet, with five titles are confirmed to be in development: this year’s Mirage of Baghdad, Project Hexe and Codename Red, as well as the mobile game Codename Jade and another mobile offering for Netflix.
Ubisoft’s increased focus on Assassin’s Creed comes as it hones in on what it calls its key strategic pillars: “big brands and long-term live games.”
In the second camp, Ubisoft reported milestones for both Rainbow Six: Siege and The Division 2 in its latest financial report, with the former notching a 30% increase in playtime in the fourth quarter and the latter a 28% increase in session days in the same quarter.
Its fun with free-to-play games has so far been much less visible, but Ubisoft describes the “recent developments” as “encouraging”, underscoring the positive response to its an upcoming free shooter The latest beta version of XDefiant.
Ubisoft is set to reveal more about its slate of upcoming games during its big summer Ubisoft Forward presentation broadcast on June 12.