Ubisoft says that it will roll out Watch Dogs 2 later in 2016, but this comes at the expense of postponing a new Assassin't Creed title.
During the latest earnings call, Ubisoft unveiled that Watch Dogs 2 will hit the shelves in April.
However, the developers decided to push back the latest Assassin's Creed, following two less than stellar installments in the franchise.
"This year, we also are stepping back and re-examining the Assassin's Creed franchise. As a result, we've decided that there will not be a new Assassin's Creed game in 2016," Ubisoft says in a separate blog post.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the 2015 game in the long-running franchise, registered worse sales than the company expected. Coupled with the poor performance of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft saw a total sales drop in the Q4 2015 of 44 percent, reaching $636.7 million.
During the same period of last year, the gaming company scored $917.3 million in sales.
The recent earnings call (PDF) shows that Ubisoft had overestimated its Q4 sales, and only got $679 million. The company adjusted its expected revenue for the upcoming year to $1.54 billion, $0.11 billion less than the last falls' estimates.
Two heavily anticipated titles will join the company's portfolio in February and March: Far Cry Primal and Tom Clancy's The Division.
Last summer was the first in a long period when Ubisoft release no major title. The lack of a prominent title in 2014, coupled with last quarter's low rate of success makes the company look with big hope towards The Division and Far Cry Primal. Both titles caused quite some hype, so it is possible for Ubisoft to make a comeback due to its games market appeal.
One reason why Assassin's Creed Syndicate fared poorly can be tracked to its predecessor, the bug-ridden Assassin's Creed Unity. The game came out in 2014, but the players saw a myriad of performance problems, which prompted the company to release a public apology and even offer a free game as compensation. Yes, it was that bad.
Ubisoft is now aiming to collect $669 million in sales for the next quarter.
Alongside Watch Dogs 2, the company plans to launch a number of other games in the upcoming year - For Honor, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon WildLands and South Park: The Fractured But Whole.
If the latter will be as funny as its double-entendre title, we are looking forward to it.
