We’re not sure if you remember, or if you dear reader have even been alive at this point, but there was a time when Ubisoft published titles stood for quality – and they made for some of our favorite gaming memories like…ever. Today, cancelled Ubisoft games are a dime a dozen, and the times of Ubisoft being a publisher that dreams big and delivers even bigger are long over.
Projects are being paused, rebooted, quietly shelved, or – as in the case of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake – outright cancelled, and we can’t say that we recognize the Ubisoft of old. The result is a rather uncomfortable pattern, where games that can’t exactly justify the budget, timeline, and audience are definitely, unapologetically, on the chopping block of doom and will become another of those cancelled Ubisoft games we mentioned.
We wish the story would end there, but even titles that aren’t cancelled now exist in a weird limbo, where Ubisoft still claims that they’re in development – Beyond Good & Evil 2 comes to mind, for example. And yes, we’re still bitter about that one. That, and other drama happening at Ubisoft HQ, doesn’t exactly make for good PR, guys. Trust us.
So let’s take a deep dive into some of the most famous occasions of cancelled Ubisoft games, and what those mean for a company we actually held in quite high esteem.
Why Cancelled Ubisoft Games are a Thing in the First Place
Rarely are these cancellations about a single failure within a company; they’re more likely the knock-on effect of several factors hitting all at once, if anything. For one, there are the rising costs of true AAA games (or AAAA games, as some Ubisoft employees might call them). Open worlds are common ground and demand a lot of resources, the cinematic storytelling is through the roof, and no game can possibly achieve anything without high-end visuals, right? Right.
So we guess that, at the end of the day, cancelled Ubisoft games are all about the money; everything about game development is becoming more expensive than it ever was, and what burns through your dough faster than anything else, you think? Precisely, delays and twiddling/tweaking the formula. We guess making shorter, more intimate and focused games wasn’t on Ubisoft’s bingo card for 2026, but what do we know?
The crowded market and the obvious shift in internal strategy, what with Ubisoft reshuffling leadership and reorganizing their teams to focus on projects with a clearer commercial upside will do the rest, and if that weren’t enough, the fear of creating a game with a quality risk (the reason why new IP’s are pretty rare nowadays, and remasters/remakes dominate the market), is also higher than ever.
As you can tell, there are numerous reasons why cancelled Ubisoft games have been so abundant lately, but few things can be blamed on the market itself – in our opinion, even a giant developer/publisher like Ubisoft has to rethink their strategy from time to time. The era of open-world slob is decidedly over, and we’re quite happy about it – now it’s Ubisoft’s turn to go with the flow, or sink trying.
Let’s talk about some of the cancelled Ubisoft games that stung the most in our opinion.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake is the Posterchild for Cancelled Ubisoft Games
Let’s be honest, few cancellations sting as much as the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. It was supposed to be a triumphant return for the prince, with a beloved classic returning to your big – or small – screens, with all the modern visuals and QOL improvements you could hope for. Instead, we’d be hard-pressed to find a better case study for what Ubisoft’s priorities are at this very moment.
The cancellation is symbolic, because Ubisoft isn’t just cutting experimental, obscure side projects, but even big titles that are still being talked about are among the cancelled Ubisoft games in recent years. The built-in nostalgia for Prince of Persia was perfect, but we could kind of see this one coming a mile away, since the dev cycle was already scarred with upsets, resets, changed expectations, and leadership changes.
The silver lining (if there even is one, we’re trying to stay positive here) is that Ubisoft has made it known it still values the Prince of Persia brand. But this specific remake is now the clearest example of “even safe projects aren’t safe anymore.” The next one of the long list of cancelled Ubisoft games, though…well, that one sucks even more.
Beyond Good & Evil 2: Allegedly not Cancelled, But it Might as Well be
Want to hear one of the most Ubisoft sentences possible? Here’s one: Beyond Good & Evil is still in development. Honestly? We don’t really believe it. The game was revealed in May 2008, so 17 years, roughly. That beats even disasters like Duke Nukem Forever, and you know how bad that was. Having said that, the current version has only been around since 2017, so 8-9 years – maybe there’s still hope?
The problem is that Beyond Good & Evil 2 has become shorthand for development purgatory, especially when it comes to Ubisoft as a company. Pretty much all parameters you could think of are here, such as long gaps, shifting creative visions, changing tech, and internal resets, which can turn a sequel into a moving target. When a game lives this long, it risks becoming two things at once.
- a legendary comeback story, and
- a perpetual “maybe” that absorbs time, talent, and goodwill.
At this point, we can only sigh at the thought of what Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be, if it ever gets released. There might still be internal belief in the project, but we doubt the real reintroduction to the franchise will hit home as much as that amazing trailer back then did.
What is Ubisoft Going to do Next?
Let’s make a long story short, because Ubisoft is essentially trying to become more disciplined in public: fewer projects, more accountability, and a heavier focus on proven franchises and open-world experiences that have historically carried the company. So maybe that explains the cut of some of the more dubious titles in recent memory? We don’t rightly know, but we can only hope that this is a good direction for the company.
All that might stabilize the business, but it comes with a creative cost, even without more cancelled Ubisoft games; we have no doubt about that. New ideas get riskier to approve, and long-gestating projects become harder to justify, especially when it comes to investors and such. Fans most likely feel stuck between “everything is delayed” and “everything is cancelled”, and we’re not sure what’s worse, considering the magnitude of both of those things, really.
The ugly irony of it all? For us, Ubisoft is at its best when it takes confident and creative swings, but right now it feels like the company is playing it purely defensively and close to the chest. Cancelled Ubisoft games are only a symptom of a much bigger sickness Ubisoft is dealing with, and we really do hope that someone – anyone – within the company has the common sense of returning to smaller, more creative titles – and for God’s sake, stay clear of the Ubisoft formula. If cancelled Ubisoft games aren’t a meme yet, the formula sure is.
And honestly? That should tell you everything you need to know. Wake up, Ubisoft. Wake up.
