It looks like Ubisoft won’t be investing in the VR space any longer, as the company is disappointed with the Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR sales. While the game didn’t bomb, it seems to have sold below expectations, which was enough to knock Ubisoft off the VR boat.
During one of the company’s conference calls (via VGC), Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot commented was asked about the company’s VR future. With the emergence of headsets like the Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, many assumed that Ubisoft would try to find a place in the VR space.
That was all dashed away when Guillemot said that the sales for Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR were disappointing. Although the company thinks Nexus VR did “okay,” they think that VR needs to take off in the mainstream first before they put any serious investment in it.
“We have been a bit disappointed by what we were able to achieve on VR with Assassin’s Creed,” Guillemot explained. “It did okay, and it continues to sell, but we thought it would sell more, so we are not increasing our investment on VR at the moment, because it needs to take off."
VR is still a very niche form of entertainment, with only the wealthy being able to appreciate what the tech has to offer. While there are good VR games out there, even big-name franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Half-Life aren’t able to win over the casual crowd. Only time will tell if cheaper headsets will change any of this, though most might have to accept that this is going to be niche for a long time.
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Ubisoft being disappointed in their game sales didn’t start with Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, as the company previously brought up how Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope didn’t sell too well. That won’t deter the company, as they prepare for even more game releases in the next few years.