Ubisoft’s third-quarter report is in and after confirming plans to place Assassin’s Creed on the shelf for 2016, the mega-publisher has locked in a release window for upcoming titles including Watch Dogs 2, For Honor, Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Obsidian’s South Park: The Fractured But Whole.
Aligning each game for a release before the end of the company’s next financial year, Ubisoft has confirmed all titles will hit the market by March 31, 2017.
“Ubisoft will launch a very high-quality line-up, including For Honor, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, [and] the next instalment of Watch Dogs.”
Now that the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed has left a sizeable chunk in the publisher’s fall slate for 2016, all signs point to Watch Dogs 2 swopping in to fill the void with a hacking adventure that will reportedly swap Chicago for San Francisco. While that remains purely conjecture at this early stage, the company has conceded that there is plenty of room for improvement coming out of the 2014 original, with Creative Director Jonathan Morin and the creative team gunning to take more risks with the sequel.
Despite proving divisive upon release, Watch Dogs carved out a strong user base after shipping more than 9 million copies, irrefutably proving that demand for a sequel exists. However, whether Watch Dogs 2 can shoulder the burden of a high-profile fall release – often the busiest corridor in the industry – will be told in time.
In light of today’s news, Watch Dogs 2, For Honor, Ghost Recon: Wildlands and RPG sequel South Park: The Fractured But Whole will all land at some point before March 31, 2017.