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COVID-19 concerns may lead Ubisoft to delay one of the 5 AAA games it previously planned to release in its current fiscal year.
The company is not ready to say for sure yet whether the delay, which would push the unspecified game's release date past March 31, 2021, will be necessary. As Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained in the company's latest financial statement, "the coming months" will determine how much of an impact the transition to working from home and external partners facing delays will have on production.
The four currently revealed AAA games that Ubisoft plans to release this year are Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Gods & Monsters. That leaves one unannounced game, which is rumored to be another entry in the Far Cry series. Ubisoft did not specify which of those five games it's considering delaying, although of the five only Assassin's Creed Valhalla has a somewhat definite release window (holiday 2020). It's probably not that one, since Ubisoft just announced it a couple weeks ago.
Furthermore, Ubisoft confirmed back in February that three of the five games were planned for release sometime this calendar year - it's not clear if that would still be the case if Ubisoft ends up delaying one. This is starting to feel like one of those logic puzzles where you know Mary is taller than Sam and that Sam arrived at the party immediately before the shortest person.
In any case, Ubisoft is still calling its AAA plans for the next 10 months the "most ambitious lineup" of the entire games industry, whether it needs to make the delay or not. In the interest of having more stuff to play while we all stay home, let's hope Ubisoft's next few months of work go smoothly.
