Ubisoft Announces Major Cancellations, Fate Of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag Remake Unknown

Ubisoft has announced the long-awaited remake of Prince Of Persia has been cancelled, but where does that leave its other projects?

Today Ubisoft announced a major organisational reset, which is already leading to some eventful changes within the company.

Last year wasn’t a massive success for the Assassin’s Creed developer as its biggest release, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, saw good sales but still lost to PlayStation’s Ghost of Yōtei.

Seemingly as a result of this reshuffle some of its ongoing projects have been cancelled, including the Prince of Persia remake which I know many fans have been waiting years for. It’s a sad day indeed.

There’s more to the story than that though as this reshuffle has led to some further developments that spell trouble for Ubisoft’s future.

For starters the usage and application of generative AI is being considered for the company’s future, something that many gamers have been very vocally against. It’s something Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios came under fire for, merely for using AI in the planning stages of its next game Divinity.

In the short-term the most worrying realisation is Prince of Persia isn’t the only game that’s been cancelled.

Has The Ship Sunk?

The first thought here was the rumoured Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag remake, which has reportedly been in development for quite some time now yet hasn’t been officially confirmed or announced by Ubisoft.

It’s possible that this is one of the games affected by the reshuffle, which would be devastating news as plenty of Assassin’s Creed fans were getting excited for it, including myself.

At the time of writing nothing relating to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag has been confirmed so if the project is indeed real it might still be going ahead, especially with the Assassin’s Creed series in general being one of Ubisoft’s heavy-hitters. It seems unlikely that such a long-awaited remake would be sent to the chopping block, but then again I don’t think anyone expected Prince of Persia to be dropped either.

Unfortunately it’s far too early to tell, but I don’t fancy the game’s chances at the moment.

The most worrying development for the long-term though is the generative AI, as while AI tools do make developing games quicker and easier that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be of a greater quality, and there’s definitely an argument to be made that it sucks the soul out of what should be creative projects.