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Ubisoft’s E3 conference felt a bit like Tom Clancy’s E3 conference this year (minus Splinter Cell), with the French firm choosing to highlight its strong offering from the inexhaustible brand rather than what many were hoping for: there was no Assassin’s Creed (which does make sense as the franchise is not annual anymore and Ubisoft tends to announce AC games on the year of their release), no Beyond Good & Evil 2, no Skull & Bones (pushed back to 2020), and admittedly not a lot of fun this year compared to Ubisoft’s remarkable E3 presence in the past couple of years.
But E3 is not only about quirky fun moments and Ubisoft took over the Orpheum Theatre with a very strong games-as-a-service offering – one that’s really hard to match and that highlights how instrumental the Tom Clancy brand is for the publisher.
First, Ubisoft unveiled Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege’s upcoming season, Operation Phantom Sight, which will be starting on June 11th. Then the French publisher focused on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, which releases on October 4th. That included the announcement of a new community program called Delta Company and a beta for the title starting on September 5th.
Ubisoft also announced mobile title Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad, which is the closest thing we got to a Splinter Cell announcement really as the 5v5 battler features Sam Fisher. Ubisoft didn’t give any release window for this upcoming mobile game though.
Meanwhile, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 got its Year One roadmap detailed, with Episode 1 coming in July, Episode 2 in fall, and Episode 3 in early 2020. The Division also got an update about its upcoming film, which has been picked up by Netflix. You can read more details about Ubisoft’s foray into TV right here.
Finally, if that wasn’t enough Tom Clancy for you, Ubisoft revealed a brand new title in the making, Rainbow Six Quarantine, created by Ubisoft Montreal. “Set several years into the future of the Rainbow Six Universe, Rainbow Six Quarantine takes the tactical action that the series is known for and sets it against the backdrop of an entirely new co-op campaign,” the official blurb reads. The survival PvE experience is set to release in early 2020.
Ubisoft has experimented in various ways in recent years – with Mario+Rabbids being its peak – but hasn’t always met success, with the firm halting Starlink’s toy production for instance, as the franchise sales ‘fell below expectations’. So we can’t blame the company for playing it a bit safer this year by relying on perennial franchises that have a proven track record, showing its ambitions to provide ongoing support to existing titles and build things from there.
Other Ubisoft E3 2019 announcements included PC subscription service Uplay+ (click here to read more), TV series Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet (click here to read more), an in-depth Watch Dogs: Legion reveal (click here to read more) and a new IP from Ubisoft Quebec, Gods and Monsters (click here to read more).
