Ubisoft’s new mobile battle royale game Wild Arena Survivors, which quietly launched last week, reportedly used to be a Far Cry game.
A source familiar with Wild Arena Survivors told mobilegamer.biz Once known as Far Cry: Call of the Wild, it was intended to be a battle royale spinoff of the series, with a similar art direction to Far Cry 6. The name is retained in some parts of the game – players take part in the Wild Call Festival – and the game is reminiscent of Far Cry 6 in other ways, including its color palette, art style, roaming animals, and more.
The Far Cry title was reportedly removed from the game as a means for Ubisoft to cut marketing and other costs after the game failed to make much of an impact during the beta phase. The source also claimed that Ubisoft’s mobile games received less attention and attention than the publisher’s larger console and PC titles, which appeared to have contributed to the quiet launch of Wild Arena Survivors last week.
“You have the publishers we all know — Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy — and you have the cell phone, which is the forgotten child,” the source said. “Move has little oversight, support or financing from the larger parent company.”
As for why it was released under the new name: “I think [Ubisoft] Sources say they spent more money on development than they should have in an attempt to recoup what they could and learn from launching a fully real-time multiplayer game. “Even if the game is bloated, expensive, and has underperforming metrics, if there’s something to learn from the launch, there’s value in doing so”
While Ubisoft seems to have refused to release the Far Cry mobile game, it’s working on a set in The Division universe and bringing Rainbow Six: Siege to mobile.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He would talk about wizards all day.
