Ubisoft to focus on triple-A free-to-play games going forward

During its recent earnings call, Ubisoft has announced changes to its business strategy; notable moving from premium to free-to-play games. 

Moving forward, Ubisoft will not only publish three to four premium titles annually but also focus on creating free-to-play games to reach a larger audience with its existing successful franchises.

Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Duguet commented: "In line with the evolution of our high-quality line-up that is increasingly diverse, we are moving on from our prior comment regarding releasing three to four premium triple-A [games] per year.

"Additionally, we are building high-end free-to-play games to be trending towards triple-A ambitions over the long-term."

Changing tastes

Duguet confirmed that this strategic change was driven by market conditions. 

"This is purely a financial communication evolution and doesn’t change the fact that we continue to expect a high cadence of content delivery including powerful premium and free-to-play new releases," he added. 

This change was evident after the recent expansion announcement for Tom Clancy's The Division franchise.

The Division Heart Land PC/console game was announced along with a mobile game based on The Division franchise - both of which are free-to-play

While The Division Heartland is expected to release in the current financial year, the release timeline for the mobile game is still unknown.