Ubisoft shares nosedive 40 percent after Prince of Persia cancelation and restructure
On Wednesday, Ubisoft canceled several games and shut down multiple studios in a major company restructure. At the same time, the studio pledged to double down on generative AI in game development moving forward. On Thursday, the stock market treated the company accordingly.
Specifically, Ubisoft shares tumbled by 34 percent on Thursday morning, per CNBC. As of this writing, Ubisoft shares are now down 39.83 percent.
The company has been struggling financially for some time now, with flagship franchises like Assassin's Creed demanding huge budgets and prolonged development cycles, and other titles not necessarily making the kind of sales impact Ubisoft hoped for. Given that Ubisoft recently had to shutter studios in places like Halifax (a Canadian union argued this move was a case of union-busting) and Stockholm, on top of the litany of game cancelations announced on Wednesday, it's no surprise that the market is losing faith in the longtime games publisher.
Most of the canned projects were unannounced titles with no real information to speak of yet. However, the cancelation of the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake dominated headlines, and justifiably so.
The project was announced in 2020 with a 2021 release date, then went radio silent for several years before being unceremoniously killed six years later. It's not clear from the outside looking in how a remake of a PlayStation 2-era game could miss its due date by five years, but it feels emblematic of everything going wrong with Ubisoft and big-budget game development writ large right now.
In any case, hopefully those affected by these cancelations and studio closures can land on their feet.