Far Cry to become more multiplayer focused as Ubisoft hints at live service game

Far Cry’s done multiplayer before but past games have typically focused on the single-player content (Ubisoft)

It sounds like you can expect a Far Cry live service game now that Ubisoft is talking about prioritising ‘multiplayer aspects’ for the series.

It’s been nearly four years since Far Cry 6 launched and there’s barely been a whisper about the seemingly inevitable Far Cry 7, at least officially.

Persistent rumours have claimed that Ubisoft has two Far Cry projects on the go at the moment: a traditional single-player game and a multiplayer spin-off. Apparently, both were planned for a 2025 launch but have since been pushed back to 2026.

While there remains no official announcement for either game, Ubisoft has finally commented on the Far Cry series, but only to state that it wants to prioritise its multiplayer elements.

As reported by Game File, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot made an appearance at Saudi Arabia’s New Global Sport Conference last month; one that wasn’t widely publicised.

It’s where the sudden announcement for a Assassin’s Creed Mirage DLC expansion came from, which will be set in 9th century AlUla, an ancient city located in Saudi Arabia.

When asked about the future of Far Cry, Guillemot answered with, ‘it’s really to bring the multiplayer aspects more predominantly pushed, so that it can also be played for a long time by players [sic].’

Admittedly, the series has been no stranger to multiplayer, with many of the previous games featuring competitive and/or cooperative multiplayer modes.

However, the focus has always been on the single-player campaigns, particularly more recent entries where the marketing centred almost entirely around their main villains.

Considering one of the rumoured Far Cry projects is a multiplayer extraction shooter, it stands to reason that that will be a priority within Ubisoft.

Although there were rumblings of a live service Far Cry game as far back as 2021, there was nothing to indicate this extraction shooter would have live service elements, but that may have changed.

Ubisoft has been especially eager to launch a new live service game, even though its efforts so far have been mostly disastrous. It announced it would be shutting down XDefiant just seven months after its launch and we bet you don’t even remember Hyper Scape.

Since Yves’ comments are vague it may simply be that the single-player Far Cry game will have more multiplayer elements added, such as bringing back the competitive multiplayer that was absent in Far Cry 6 – which only offered campaign co-op.

It could also lead to a very different post-launch for Far Cry 7. Far Cry 6 did see a lot of DLC to extend its life cycle and keep bringing players back, but it was all single-player content.

A decade or so ago, Ubisoft was convinced that open world titles were the best way to attract players at launch, due to the perceived value for money – which also benefited Ubisoft, because that meant people tended to keep the games long enough for major DLC to be released.

If Guillemot is pushing for more of a multiplayer focus, perhaps that DLC wasn’t as successful as Ubisoft wanted it to be. It doesn’t help that the company still hasn’t shared total sales figures for Far Cry 6, which strongly implies Ubisoft considers the game a disappointment.

Ubisoft’s push for live service games is second only to Sony but its only success is, like the externally developed Helldivers 2, somewhat ironic, in that Rainbow Six Siege was released long before the current fashion for games as a service titles and everything they’ve done since has been a flop.

Regardless, Ubisoft clearly views Far Cry as one of its tentpole franchises as evidenced by it being spun off into the company’s new Tencent funded subsidiary, alongside Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.

Ubisoft’s a firm believer in the mantra ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again’ (Ubisoft)

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