Ubisoft moving away from Xbox 360 and PS3, starting with Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft will start moving away from last-gen systems and will start focusing solely on the newer Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Assassin's Creed will be the first of Ubisoft's major franchises to make the move, with the newly revealed Assassin's Creed Syndicate only coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. But it won't be just Assassin's Creed ditching the last-gen; other franchises liek Rainbow Six and Tom Clancy's The Division will also follow suit. Just Dance is one of the few major franchises that'll continue to be offered on PS3 and Xbox 360.

"On Just Dance, we will continue to bring old-gen console versions," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during an earnings briefing today. "But on the other products like Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, The Division, and the unannounced franchise, we will not have old-gen versions."

Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Rainbow Six: Siege are scheduled to launch later this year for PS4 and Xbox One, while The Division and the mysterious unannounced game are slated to arrive in early 2016.

Ubisoft isn't the first to ditch last-gen systems. As I mentioned, EA is also focusing on current-gen, bringing Star Wars Battlefront only to Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Similarly, Activision has only announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 for current-gen systems and PC, though the publisher maintains that "actual platform availability is to be determined."

Point being, it seems that publishers are no longer fearful of moving on from the established last-gen markets. For good reason too. According to Ubisoft's sales breakdown, Xbox One and PS4 software made up 52 percent of all of Ubisoft's sales for the recent fiscal year ended March 31st. There finally seems to be enough PS4 and Xbox One owners to justify the transition, and the result should be higher quality games that aren't hamstrung by the limitations of older hardware.