Ubisoft Montreal, the studio responsible for entries in the Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, and Far Cry series' has canceled a secretive IP after three years of work.
According to tweets from Louis de Carufel, a programmer who works at the studio, the project was in development for three years with a team of over 200 people. Even at a studio whose employees number around 3500, this would seem to have been a significant project.
Carfuel's tweets have since been taken down.
What the canceled IP was is unclear, as is whether it is something previously announced or something that was stuck in the early stages of development. According to posts by Kotaku's Jason Schreier on ResetEra, it was a "Destiny-like" IP from the Watch Dogs team, and he could only say that it was not the project codenamed Pioneer, which began as a non-violent space exploration game and was internally rebooted as a co-op multiplayer shooter.
Thankfully, the project's shuttering doesn't appear to have resulted in any mass layoffs, with Carufel stating that no one assigned to the project lost their jobs, instead of being reassigned to one of the studio's many other projects.
The apparent move by Ubisoft comes after the company admitted a less-than-stellar year for sales, at least compared to their financial expectations.
The underwhelming performances of titles such as The Division 2 and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint prompted Ubisoft to seemingly shift away from the aggressive live service structure they have implemented in more and more releases in recent years. A number of the studio's upcoming titles were delayed including Watch Dogs: Legion, Gods and Monsters, and other major upcoming releases, with Ubisoft committing to a massive overhaul of Breakpoint shortly after release.
At the time of writing, Ubisoft has not released any statement on the cancellation or Carufel's tweets.
