Ubisoft will not invest in virtual reality until further notice

While Assassin's Creed Nexus has been well received by VR fans, that's not enough for Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. He expressed his disappointment (and the team's) with the sales of the latest VR game and revealed the studio's position on the future of VR gaming. Until the VR world really takes off and until they see better sales of similar VR games, Ubisoft will not increase its investment in the world of virtual reality.

Assassin's Creed Nexus is a very interesting game and we can finally immerse ourselves in the role of an assassin and relive even deeper feelings than we have been able to until now by playing on PC and consoles. The feeling of climbing the tallest buildings and temples is great, as long as you don't suffer from motion sickness, which is a perennial problem with VR games. The famous falconry jump is thrilling, although initially stomach-churning. We can explore the worlds of famous assassins (Ezio, Kassandra, Connor), while quietly "eliminating" everyone who gets in our way. Critics gave it a score of 78/100 on MetaCritic, and players gave it an even 8.9. These are very decent reviews, but apparently did not have a positive effect on sales.

"We were somewhat disappointed with what we were able to achieve with the Assassin's Creed VR game," Guillemot said during a call with investors. "The results aren't bad and it's still selling, but we thought it would sell better, so we're not increasing our investment in VR at the moment because it needs to take off first."

“We've been very impressed with what Apple has come up with and we think it's fantastic hardware. However, we continue to see VR as something we need to explore, but not invest too much in until it grows enough.”

Apple recently introduced Vision Pro VR/AR glasses, or glasses that they say open the world to spatial computing. These are undoubtedly fantastic glasses, but they cost more than US$3,500 - a figure that is too high to bring virtual reality technology to the masses.

The Meta Quest 2 (around €300) and Meta Quest 3 (€600) VR glasses are among the most popular among VR enthusiasts, mainly due to their low price and solid selection of games and other applications adapted for virtual reality. Despite this, several high-profile AAA games are missing, which in turn means that gamers also lack the motivation to make the purchase of VR glasses their first choice. Have you noticed a vicious circle? If there are no good games, there are no sales of VR glasses. If there are no good sales of VR glasses, game developers will not invest in this technology.

The latest Steam survey shows that only 2 % of Steam users are engaged in virtual reality. Of course, this number does not tell the whole story, but it is still an indication that VR technology has not yet experienced the key breakthrough that Ubisoft, for example, would like.

Guillemot did not reveal what exactly will change in the field of Ubisoft's VR games due to poor sales. Either they will cancel any of the games they are currently developing (announced or not), or they will simply not be involved in the preparation of new ones.

They've already canceled one, Splinter Cell VR, which was announced in 2020 and canceled after two years of development.