E3 is just a day away now, and it was Ubisoft’s turn at the stage earlier this Monday to show us some of the new games it has been working on. The French studio head, Yves Guillemot, led the presentation and introduced several surprises to the crowd.
Microsoft’s presentation on Sunday had already featured one of Ubisoft’s iconic franchises, Assassin’s Creed. The latest installment, titled Origins, was also part of the studio’s showcase. Online gameplay footage was shown after the conference.
With Ubisoft’s presentation over, only two video game giants remain to reveal what they brought to E3: Sony and Nintendo. Sony will take the stage later today, and Nintendo will follow on Tuesday morning, the opening day of the event.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle – August 29, 2017
Yves Guillemot was joined by Shigeru Miyamoto, creative ambassador and former head of Nintendo, to reveal Mario + the Rabbids Kingdom Battle. It is an exclusive title for the Nintendo Switch, and it launches on August 29.
The tactical adventure is set in the Mushroom Kingdom, where the Rabbids have been teleported, and some of them have turned evil, causing chaos and instability to the world of Mario, Peach, Luigi, Yoshi, and Toad.
Mario will enlist the help of good Rabbids to help him fend off the bad ones in turn-based combats. Each playable character has a range, weapons, and skills available to them, and clearing out different scenarios is necessary to move the storyline onward.
Cooperating with your game partners helps you expand how far you can move on the platform, and some dynamic elements of stages allow you to make use of them to defeat enemies. More mechanics and characters become available down the road.
Assassin’s Creed Origins – October 27, 2017
The game’s creative director took the stage to talk a little about the challenges of bringing Ancient Egypt to life in the next installment of Assassin’s Creed. It launches on October 27 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
He emphasized the need to commemorate the franchise’s 10th anniversary by going as far back as possible to where it all began. Having seen already plenty of gameplay footage, the developer played only a cinematic trailer that shows the beauty of the world in Assassin’s Creed Origins.
The Crew 2 – First quarter of 2018
The sequel to the not-so-well received motorsports game is here, this time taking it all “way beyond driving.” Players will presumably take the role of an acclaimed all-around motorsports champion, getting behind the wheel of every kind of vehicle you can imagine.
Monster trucks race cars, supercars, helicopters, light planes, boats, motorcycles, and more will be available in early 2018. Thrill-seekers can sign up right now for beta access at the official page of the game.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole and Phone Destroyer – October 2017
Ubisoft kept it simple with South Park: The Fractured But Whole, showing just an extended cinematic trailer. Players will be the new kid in town, and they will be tasked with making peace among Coon and Friends and Freedom Pals, two rising superhero teams.
Twelve superhero classes will be available for fans to train and fight with, while most players expect the complex mechanics of The Stick of Truth to return in a new iteration in this parody game launching next October.
On the other hand, South Park will also take mobile devices by storm later this year with Phone Destroyer, a strategy RPG launching for both Android and iOS.
Skull and Bones – Fall 2018
Developed by the team at Ubisoft Singapore, Skull and Bones is a new franchise inspired by the work of the content creators in charge of the naval battles from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Drawing heavily from that combat system, the studio comes with a new IP set in the 1700s, during the Golden Age of Piracy. The title will feature a world that reacts to your actions and includes competitive events that might be season-based.
Pirates can choose to sail solo or with friends in co-op mode. A 5v5 mode was shown at the E3 exhibition, emphasizing how players will need to make use of wind to sail and gain speed, employ ships with tactical notions according to their strengths, and escape with the loot when the time is right. It launches Fall 2018.
Starlink: Battle For Atlas – Fall 2018
Ubisoft also introduced Starlink: Battle For Atlas with an intriguing trailer that highlighted the integration with physical collectible items. The game is an open world space adventure, in which pilots have to fight against The Legion, an alien race that consumes everything in its path.
Using the Nintendo Switch controller as a test device, a player placed a dockable ship on top of the controller to make it work in the game. Adding elements like weapons also translates to the in-console action.
Starlink will hit the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One during Fall 2018. The studio developers said there would be physical and digital collectibles, as well as treasure-hunting elements included in the game.
Far Cry 5 – February 27, 2018
Much has been revealed already about the next installment in the Far Cry series, so Ubisoft laid back this time and introduced us to the protagonists of the game.
Set in Hope County, Montana, a team of guns for hire will have to set free this town overrun by a fanatical cult. Grace Armstrong will be your sniper, Nick Rye will bring death from above, and Boomer will be your loyal dog companion as you infiltrate and raise hell.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 – TBC
Michel Ancel took the stage and with tears of joy thanked fans and Yves Guillemot for believing in this project, almost 15 years after the first game of the trilogy was released.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 is happening indeed, and developers had a long cinematic trailer to confirm it. It will be a prequel to the first game, set in a multiethnic, multicultural universe in which corporations make anthropomorphic animal hybrids to serve as their slaves.
These unique creatures, of course, have managed to free themselves and now live together with humans in a mixed society where a crew of rogue explorers seeks their freedom and fate among the stars. No release date was announced, though.
Other announcements by Ubisoft
Among the many announcements by Ubisoft, there was also an ominous presentation of a VR thriller called Transference. This experience will allegedly be like watching a movie in which you are a participant, feeling emotions and thoughts in your head, according to the cryptic trailer. It launches in Spring 2018.
Just Dance 2018 comes to all consoles this October, and it was introduced with a live performance by Bebe Rexha. The extreme sports game Steep, on the other hand, is getting an expansion this December 5 that packs more action on the snow.
Source: Ubisoft