Ubisoft’s pirate ship battler - a spin-off from 2013 Assassin’s Creed game Black Flag - has been repeatedly delayed, though test footage leaked late last month suggested a launch was now finally on the horizon. Today, Ubisoft reconfirmed it would indeed see the light of day this financial year (before 1st April 2023). Also up this year, finally, is Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Developed by The Division studio Massive Entertainment, it was first announced more than five years ago. As with Skull and Bones, there’s no official release date for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - though we’d expect it to arrive around the same time as this year’s upcoming Avatar film sequel The Way of Water, due in December. Finally, there’s Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, the highly-anticipated sequel to Ubisoft Milan’s brilliant Switch-exclusive turn-based strategy game. As with the above titles, it’s set to arrive at some point before next April - but will it be before or after Christmas? Ubisoft today published its annual financial results, where it also mentioned “other exciting titles” due out this year which it termed as “premium games”, as well as “free-to-play releases… based on our biggest IPs”. Last year, Ubisoft announced a free-to-play version of The Division named Heartland - we’re still waiting to hear more on that. We’re also waiting to hear an official announcement of the smaller, stealth-focused Assassin’s Creed game expected to arrive later this year. It’s reportedly set to star popular Valhalla character Basim, with gameplay more akin to the franchise’s earlier entries.
