Ubisoft Forward, the company’s E3 2021 event, has officially come to a close. The stream brought brought news of updates to currently available titles, and also introduced a few we hadn’t heard of before (and some that got leaked). Instead of doing a whole giant rundown of abso-flappin-lutely everything, we thought: why not just lay out what is big and important here? Things that, if you aren’t already a fan of something, you might find yourself caring about?
With that, here are the big news drops that came from Ubisoft Forward.
Rainbow Six Extraction release date: Sept. 16, 2021
Rainbow Six Extraction takes the stealth, tactical shooting of Siege and puts it to work in a squad-based experience that has players infiltrating alien quarantine zones. We’ve known about this one for some time — it was once called Rainbow Six Quarantine, actually — but now there’s a release date attached to it. Looks like everyone will be gunning for the Fall, which is going to make that time incredibly busy.
Rocksmith Plus takes Rocksmith into subscription land
At Forward, Ubisoft announced the next generation of Rocksmith, which will be called Rocksmith Plus. It appears the company is doing away with those standalone software releases for this, and will instead be going the subscription route. You’ll pay for access to everything in the Rocksmith Plus catalog, learn how to play guitar, and finally impress your cowboy father. There was no specific release date given, though players can expect it to drop during the summer on PC and in the fall on consoles. You can sign up for the closed PC beta by heading to the Rocksmith website.
Riders Republic races in on Sept. 2, 2021
Ubisoft really seems to dig extreme sports, and this spin on the genre looks like something truly wild. An open, massively multiplayer world where everyone is biking, snowboarding, flying, and doing who knows what else all at once? Chaos! It looks like chaos! But who knows — maybe that chaos will be a lot of fun, too.
I wasn’t as interested in Steep, but Riders Republic has my eye a little bit. I want to see what comes of it. We’ll all find out together in early September if this game has, err, wheels. Or air. Or, again, who knows what else.
Just Dance 2022 arrives on Nov. 4, 2021
Just Dance comes out every year, so this particular announcement should’ve surprised absolutely no one. It is going to be Just Dance. It challenges you to dance along with songs. That’s the game. What is new here is the Just Dance Unlimited subscription, which will give you access to absolutely everything in the Just Dance catalog (sort of like Rocksmith Plus is doing). It seems Ubisoft wants to lean a lot harder into subscriptions, as so many other companies are doing nowadays.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is indeed legit
The only thing to be fully leaked out of this show was Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, which made its way online earlier this morning. That Nintendo of all companies leaked it is pretty hilarious. Let me just say, though: I may be looking forward to this Ubisoft title more than any other in today’s lineup! Which makes it all the more sad that we didn’t get more news about when it might possibly drop.
Also, there are some rumblings that Ubisoft didn’t mention a platform, which has people guessing this will be coming to the Nintendo Switch Pro.
I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but Ubisoft did indeed say it was coming to the Switch. That doesn’t mean the Switch Pro is out of the question, but I just want to make sure we’re all operating on the same set of facts here.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a game Ubisoft is making
If you had an Avatar game on your bingo card, hats flippin’ off to you. This game looks very, very pretty. Aside from that? We don’t have a lot of detail, other than we know it’s coming in 2022. But hey, Ubisoft is making an Avatar game. That is some news right there.
A new Splinter Cell is not a game Ubisoft is making
I really, really feel for Splinter Cell fans. Every year, they show up to Ubisoft events full of hope. Every year, they are smacked down. Some — despite this tradition of disappointment — still really believed Ubisoft would throw Splinter Cell fans a bone and announce a new game in the series. It did happen. It may never happen.
