Ubisoft: The Death of Roller Champions has been greatly exaggerated
Ubisoft’s Roller Champions journey has been bumpy and long. The title has been mentioned a lot at E3 2019. However, the publisher and developer in France have made exaggerated claims about its cancellation during quarterly financial calls. The dull, repetitive thud that the multiplayer-free-to-play sports game produced was so subtle that few people noticed it. After Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb received a message from a source stating that Roller Champions would be canceled following season 3, it was an episode on the Xbox Era podcast when people began talking about the game again.
It could be Roller Champion’s fate to be only in the news when it’s being discussed whether or not it’s dead.
Ubisoft, however, has made a surprising denial of Grubb’s claims in this instance, posting a message today on social media to argue against its demise as well as explain why development has been slow.
“Hello, Champions! Let’s get this out of the way: Roller Champions isn’t being canceled, and Ubisoft fully supports them,” the tweet begins in plain text. The image continues similarly. It contains many words that say roughly the same thing. The Roller Champions team describes how they will fix people’s problems with the game using feedback before adding new content. It is implied that they are trying to improve the game before the next season and have been quiet enough to let people think they are dead.
One person claims the game will be canceled after the following season. The developer and publisher insist that it is not being canceled. This is probably the end of this story. While I believe that Ubisoft is committed to making Roller Champions successful, I don’t think Jeff Grubb is entirely wrong here.
Each entity has a different message, and each one needs to be analyzed. First, the word “canceled”, which could refer to various things for this type of game, is not something I believe anyone should use. Roller Champions has been released. It’s available to play right now. It’s not possible to cancel it today. This is contrary to our definition. Ubisoft claims that a live service game without any long-term promises sunsetting won’t be canceled.
It’s easy to imagine a situation where the game doesn’t get the resources it needs after season 3. Is this a cancellation? It could be. You could also see that they are moving resources elsewhere because something isn’t performing as well. Ubisoft has not spoken out about Roller Champions’ success. This would lead one to believe that there isn’t much to discuss.
Ubisoft may be devoted to it, and reports about its death are incorrect. Ubisoft would not make this the first time they have tried to turn around a failed launch. However, it would be the most dramatic.
