MOVIE NEWS – Ubisoft’s film projects are in jeopardy as the company fractures in two. Amid lawsuits, strikes, and a stock price collapse, adaptations like Watch Dogs and The Division face uncertain futures. Unless a miracle happens, many of these films may never see the light of day.

It’s a strange moment for video game-based films. In recent weeks, reports have surfaced that Ubisoft—once a dominant force in gaming—is splitting in two. The company is desperately walling off its most valuable properties to protect them from an impending financial meltdown. This leaves upcoming projects like Watch Dogs, Beyond Good & Evil, Skull & Bones, Driver, and The Division films and series in limbo. Even if they finish shooting, promotional budgets will be thin. The company is drowning in lawsuits, under pressure from furious investors, cutting staff left and right, and struggling with a reputation so toxic it has lost over 90% of its stock value in six years. By this time next year, the rights to these IPs could be in the hands of companies with zero interest in ever finishing them.

Ubisoft has become a masterclass in corporate failure. According to a now-deleted Ubisoft post on X, principal photography for Watch Dogs wrapped in Fall 2024, but its release is anything but guaranteed. It may end up being the only adaptation lucky enough to survive the wreckage of its parent company. The rest? Collecting dust on forgotten hard drives.

The Ubisoft-Movie Curse Continues

Just when you thought companies like EA or Disney had monopolized online scorn, Ubisoft emerges from the shadows to reclaim the title. Back in 2021, Ubisoft proudly announced a live-action adaptation of its Driver franchise was in the works at Binge.com. That project was scrapped without fanfare, its cancellation buried in a 350-page financial document released in 2024. Another casualty: a high-budget film based on 2016’s The Division. Once set to star Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain, with Rawson Marshall Thurber (of Red Notice and Skyscraper) directing for Netflix, the film quietly faded into nothing. At least this time, someone spoke up. Former producer Kelly McCormick gave this explanation to Discussing Film in 2022:

“To be honest, when COVID hit, we left The Division because it felt like it was a documentary. You know, in the sense that the story deals with this outbreak that happens in real-time, the dangers that occur, and the anxiety that it creates. It was like, ‘Whoa, this is no longer fun.’ […] It’s such a cool property and what you could do with the imagery of a team of agents coming in with that kind of post-apocalyptic prospect is really amazing, but we actually did end up letting it go because we got moved away by COVID.”

Surely Ubisoft has other IPs to adapt, right? Not so fast. In 2019, there were whispers from The Hollywood Reporter about a live-action Skull & Bones series with a female lead. Since then, nothing but a sad little IMDb listing. Given the game’s disastrous release, PR nightmares, and bloated development budget, it’s essentially dead. Then there’s the Beyond Good & Evil film, which fell completely off the map between 2021 and 2025. And let’s not forget the Splinter Cell movie, still stuck in limbo after more than ten years. Now, we finally know why none of these things materialized.

How Ubisoft Became the Most Hated Name in Entertainment

Aside from Watch Dogs, 2024 exposed the rot festering beneath Ubisoft’s nostalgic image. When you examine the company’s finances, the crumbling movie projects suddenly make perfect sense. This has nothing to do with the decline of theaters or cable TV. Ubisoft’s stock is at a twelve-year low, internal panic is rampant, and waves of layoffs have broken morale. 700 workers walked off the job last year, with labor actions spreading to Italy according to Deadline. 2025 hasn’t improved the outlook—Ubisoft cut another 185 jobs in January, shuttering its UK office entirely.

Yves Guillemot, co-founder and chairman of Ubisoft, has a long track record of infuriating his most loyal fans. A class-action lawsuit could now redefine consumer protection laws and digital ownership in gaming, according to Techspot. And that’s not even the only case: Lawyer Monthly also reported on a separate investigation into the alleged sale of private user data by Ubisoft. At this point, selling user information might be a more stable revenue stream than making games or films.

And the shareholders? They’re livid. IGN reports that international investors planned a protest at Ubisoft’s Paris HQ last month, citing the company’s “failure to adapt effectively to market trends.” In plain English: Ubisoft’s modern games are lazy rehashes packed with microtransactions, and fans have lost patience. Maybe the striking workers and protesting investors can carpool to the event and split the gas bill. Let’s not forget: in over a decade, Ubisoft has produced just two films—Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed—and they had nothing to do with 2008’s laughably bad Far Cry from Uwe Boll.

To calm the chaos, Guillemot sliced the company in half. Weeks later, Chinese conglomerate Tencent acquired a 25% stake in the “valuable” half, a move officially branded as “strengthening the balance sheet” in a press release. But here’s the twist: this new “stable” subsidiary doesn’t include Watch Dogs, Beyond Good & Evil, Driver, Skull & Bones, Splinter Cell, or The Division. The only hope now is that someone else picks up the pieces—and actually does something great with them.

Source: MovieWeb