Ubisoft axes six games, including the Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake that felt like it was finally within reach

Ubisoft has today announced a "a major organizational, operational and portfolio reset" that will see six in-development projects canceled and a further seven upcoming games delayed. The only one of the six scrapped projects to be named is the Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake, which has had a long and arduous development at the hands of multiple studios but looked set to launch within the next few months.

"Ubisoft's strategic decision to undertake this major reset is driven by the continued shift toward a persistently more selective triple-A market and an increasingly competitive shooter landscape, combined with the growing challenge for publishers to create brands in a context of higher costs," the company says in a post announcing the changes. It says that its new strategy will be "centred" around two unsurprising pillars for Ubisoft - open-world games and "GaaS-native experiences." This will be supported by "targeted investments, deeper specialization, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing generative AI."

Ubisoft says it has formed what it calls "Creative Houses," which are groups of studios and teams that are "built around a clear genre and brand focus, with full responsibility and financial ownership, led by dedicated leadership teams." You can see a summary of the brands and specialities each Creative House is responsible for below.

However, all of this movement and reorganization will impact Ubisoft's many in-production games. It has today announced that six projects have been canceled. The big surprise here is that the remake of Prince of Persia Sands of Time is included in the list. First announced way back in 2020 (and already a couple of years deep into development), it began life at Ubisoft's Mumbai and Pune studios, before being given to Ubisoft Montreal in 2023. In 2024, Ubisoft slapped a 2026 release window on it, and financial reports had indicated that it could arrive before the end of the current financial year, which would wrap on March 31, 2026. It seemed like the project was finally close to being ready, but now it'll never see the light of day.

As for the other canceled games, these include "four unannounced titles, including three new IP's, and a mobile title."

While that might sound like Ubisoft is putting all its eggs into the 'existing brands' basket, there are still some original projects in the works. "We still have four new IPs in development, including March of Giants which we just acquired, so we still believe that there are four innovative new IPs that we can bring to market with a great level of success," Ubisoft's chief financial officer, Frederick Duguet, told select media such as VGC prior to today's announcement.

The seven delayed games include an "unannounced title initially planned for FY26, that has been delayed to FY27." There is a very strong chance that this is the long-rumored remake of Assassin's Creed Black Flag, which has also felt close to a release for some time.

Ubisoft does not explicitly name any of the games it's delayed, but other likely candidates based on what's already been publicly announced include The Division 3, mobile game The Division Resurgence, Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe, and the remake of the original Splinter Cell.