Ubisoft Delays Rainbow Six Quarantine, Watch Dogs Legion, And Gods & Monsters After Ghost Recon Disappoints

Three of Ubisoft's biggest upcoming games have been delayed for the sake of applying further polish. Release dates for Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Gods & Monsters are all now scheduled for the company's 2020-21 fiscal year. That means the soonest we can expect to see any of them is April 2020, although it's likely that it'll be further into 2020 before the first of them arrives.

Previously, Watch Dogs Legion was set for March 6, and Gods and Monsters was scheduled for February 25. Rainbow Six Quarantine was set for this fiscal year, which ends on March 31. The new fiscal year targets mean the games will release by March 31, 2021. In an investor call, Ubisoft suggested Watch Dogs Legion and Gods and Monsters are planned for the second half of 2020. Specific release dates for none of the games were announced, while a fourth--Skull & Bones--has also apparently been pushed back until at least April 1, 2021.

In a statement, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained that its recent AAA releases have been met with disappointing reception, in particular, Ghost Recon Breakpoint. He says this is partly due to live games coming too close together, and not having enough differentiation. He also, more generally, said that new features aren't being given the time to be perfectly optimized. It's in this context that he says delays on these next three projects are necessary.

"We are tackling these issues head-on and already are implementing significant changes to our production processes," Guillemot said. "We are confident in our capacity to adapt and evolve, as we have done successfully many times in the past. In this overall context, we have decided to postpone the releases of Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine and Watch Dogs Legion until 2020-21. While each of these games already has a strong identity and high potential, we want our teams to have more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players."

The Watch Dogs development team also released a statement, saying that it is taking the extra time to deliver on its ambition "at the best possible level of quality." The team continued, "We are confident this will ensure Watch Dogs: Legion is the immersive, innovative experience we set out to create and the one you aspire to play."

Alongside all of this, two AAA games from major Ubisoft franchises are also due out during next fiscal year, so it's going to be a crowded time from April 2020 through March 2021. No specifics were shared regarding which franchises these will come from.