Ubisoft backs away from VR after disappointing Assassin's Creed Nexus sales
"We thought it would sell more."
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said the company won't be increasing its investment into VR due to poor sales of Assassin's Creed Nexus VR.
The Meta Quest exclusive released in November 2023, and lets players step into the shoes of series protagonists Ezio, Kassandra, and Connor.
Nexus VR isn't mentioned at all in Ubisoft's Q3 earnings press release, but the game was addressed by Guillemot during its conference call (as reported by VGC).
In response to a caller question on Ubisoft's future plans for VR, Guillemot said the company is "not increasing our investment on VR at the moment, because it needs to take off". The area still remains a niche for gaming, and this translated to sales of Nexus VR which fell below expectations. "We have been a bit disappointed by what we were able to achieve on VR with Assassin's Creed," Guillemot said, "mainly because Assassin's Creed Nexus VR didn't sell as well as expected."
Guillemot went on to say the game "did okay...but we thought it would sell more". The lower than expected sales have prompted Ubisoft to, at the very least, not invest into VR any more than it has done previously.
In its press release, Ubisoft said it has a "promising line-up for fiscal year 2025", which will include the release of Assassin's Creed Codename Red - the highly anticipated entry to the series set in feudal Japan - and open-world adventure Star Wars Outlaws, which is set to release sometime this year.