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Ubisoft admits weak Assassin’s Creed Syndicate launch was “impacted” by Unity
With a series a prolific as Assassin’s Creed, there are bound to be a few disappointments in the bunch, but last year’s Assassin’s Creed Unity was a particularly rough release from Ubisoft Entertainment SA. While reviews were mixed in regard to the game’s story and gameplay, Unity was almost universally panned for the numerous bugs and glitches that plagued it from release.
There had been some speculation by critics that the memory of Unity’s many issues would negatively affect the sales of this year’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and during an earnings call this week, Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez admitted that this seems to have been the case, at least at first.
“Clearly in our first week we were impacted by what happened with Assassin’s Creed Unity,” Martinez said on the call (via Eurogamer).
Of course, while Syndicate may not have broken any sales records in its first week, it certainly was not a failure, and Ubisoft noted that its week two sales were already stronger than those of Unity thanks to the overall positive reception to the new game.
“Versus Unity, Syndicate was down in the first week,” Ubisoft head Yves Guillemot admitted, “but nicely outperformed it in the second week as it benefited from the positive word of mouth.”
According to Guillemot, Syndicate appears to be following a similar sales curve to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed game released in 2013. Like Syndicate, Black Flag also followed the release of a less favorably reviewed Assassin’s Creed game and suffered from lower week one sales than its predecessor. Despite that, however, Black Flag went on to become one of the more highly praised games in the series, and its sales picked up thanks to its positive reception.
Guillemot highlighted the many positive reviews that Syndicate has received so far, particularly one from Gamespot, which Guillemot quoted as calling the new game “a triumphant return to form” for the franchise.
He also congratulated Ubisoft Quebec for successfully serving as the lead studio on a mainline Assassin’s Creed game for the first time ever. The Quebec branch had previously supported other Ubisoft studios, particularly Ubisoft Montreal, in the development of the franchise.
Image credit: Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate | Ubisoft Entertainment
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