Keep playing, keep paying: Ubisoft seeks games with “longterm engagement”

Games like Rainbow Six: Siege are indicative of a new focus on long-lasting "live" games at Ubisoft.

For a long time, Ubisoft was known for cranking out annual or near-annual releases in popular franchises like Assassin's Creed, Just Dance, Far Cry, the Tom Clancy games, and more. Now, though, the company is signaling it is in the middle of a major change in direction, focusing on fewer big-game releases that draw long-term support from both developers and players.

"New releases now only represent a part of our business, which is now focused on longterm engagement with our player communities," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot writes in a sprawling 256-page annual report released this week. "Our players not only play for more hours at a time, but do so over a period of months or even years. We are thus able to offer them new experiences and content, thereby extending the lifetime of our games."

Guillemot points to Rainbow Six: Siege as the primary example of this new focus; the game saw its player base double between February 2016 and February 2017. But continued developer refinement and player engagement with online-focused titles like The Division, For Honor, and Steep also reflect the company's focus on "live" games, Guillemot says.