Best Ubisoft Game Franchises the Company Has Neglected

Currently, Ubisoft is making headlines due to the delay of its earnings report and the halt of share trading, two acts that could be a sign of an upcoming major upheaval (but nothing is confirmed, so let's keep speculation to a minimum). Over the last few years, few publishers have struggled to clean up their public reputation as much as Ubisoft, despite releasing awesome games like The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. At this point, most people have made up their minds on whether they enjoy the Ubisoft formula or not, which is mostly represented by the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry series. Now, those IPs are not releasing new games as frequently as they did during the 2010s, but they reached a breaking point where the prospect of a new game just wasn't as exciting as it used to be.

The thing is, there are so many great Ubisoft franchises that have been left to rot waiting for a revival. Series that have name recognition and relatively established fanbases that would love to receive new entries, and they would have helped diversify Ubisoft's recent portfolio. At the moment, the future of all Ubisoft IPs feels up in the air, but some franchises have been figuratively dead for years.

Some criteria and notes:

If a franchise has received a game in the last 5 years or has a new entry announced for 2025 (with a title and everything), it will not be considered. Prince of Persia and Heroes of Might and Magic are examples of such franchises.
We will list the number of mainline entries and the last game's release year. Also, if Ubisoft picked up an existing franchise, we would list the number of releases pre- and post-acquisition.
Ubisoft has created many great games over the years. Just wanted to say that.
We are only considering IPs with multiple games. So, nothing like Child of Light, For Honor, and Immortals Fenyx Rising.

Rayman (Mario + Rabbids DLC Notwithstanding)

The Biggest Ubisoft Franchise That Has Been Mostly Dormant For A Decade

Number of Main Rayman Games: 5
Last Mainline Rayman Game: Rayman Legends (2013)
Last Appearance Of Any Kind: Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope DLC 3: Rayman in the Phantom Show (2023)
Fun Fact: Since the last proper Rayman adventure, there have been roughly 10 Rabbids games or releases.

When people think of underused Ubisoft franchises, Rayman will likely pop into their minds first, as this series was a staple for roughly two decades. While never reaching Mario or Sonic's level of exposure, Rayman was right under them as a major mascot synonymous with gaming as a whole. The original trilogy is consistently brilliant, with all three being timeless (but still very much of their time) platformers. Then, somehow, they were surpassed by Rayman Origins and, especially, Rayman Legends, the latter of which is arguably one of the best games of the 2010s. If we are talking solely about mainline entries, Rayman has produced arguably nothing but masterpieces.

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In the mid-2000s, Rayman's importance started to decline, with Ubisoft focusing more on the Rabbids spin-off franchise. Now, I will say that this shift has produced gold over the years, particularly the bizarrely fantastic Mario + Rabbids crossover games; unfortunately, this success seemingly came at the expense of Rayman himself, who nowadays feels like a footnote in the Rabbids' legacy rather than the other way round.

Splinter Cell

A Genre-Defining Stealth Franchise With No Games Since The PS3 And Xbox 360 Era (Although, A Remake Has Been Announced For 2026)

Number of Mainline Splinter Cell Games: 6 (Not Counting Compilations)
Last Main Splinter Cell Game: Blacklist (2013)
Last Appearance: Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (2025)
Upcoming Release: Spinter Cell Remake Aiming For 2026
Fun Fact: As Open-Critic launched in 2015, a Splinter Cell game has yet to receive an average score. That said, Blacklist has an Open-Critic page.

Hard to believe nowadays, considering how things have gone in the last decade, but Splinter Cell used to be right up there with Metal Gear and Hitman as one of the definitive stealth franchises. Hell, an argument could be made that Ubisoft's series had a stronger early 2000s than its contemporaries, a period that, in hindsight, was the genre's golden era.

Since 2013's Blacklist, Sam Fisher has been largely retired, only appearing in rumors of a potential new entry that ultimately went nowhere and side quests like Netflix's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. The series completely skipped the eighth console generation, and it won't debut until, at least, 6 years into the ninth's run.

Driver

Ubisoft Published The Best Driver Game And Then Mostly Nothing

Number of Main Driver Games Before Ubisoft's Acquisition: 4
Number of Main Driver Games After Ubisoft's Acquisition: 4
Last Driver Game Of Any Form: Driver: Speedboat Paradise (2014)
Fun Fact: Driver: San Francisco was delisted in 2016 and is difficult to get nowadays. If you have never played it and come across a physical copy, pick it up. The game is relentlessly fun.

In 2006, Driver acquired Reflections Interactive, the developer behind Driver. As great as the original PS1 game was, the series had lost its way by the mid-2000s, with the third entry being notoriously broken. Parallel Lines was an improvement, but not enough to really turn the franchise around. Therefore, the franchise falling under the Ubisoft banner was a positive move both at the time and in retrospect, as we would likely have never gotten Driver: San Francisco.

By far the best game in the series, San Francisco said to hell with realism and instead gave you the power to possess the bodies of drivers and quickly switch between cars. This mechanic was absolutely incredible and, perhaps, served as inspiration for Watch Dogs Legion, and it could and should have been expanded by a sequel. Speaking about Watch Dogs, the first game reportedly started life as a Driver sequel, before morphing into its own thing. Honestly, that series was a good spiritual successor, but they are still different enough that they don't scratch the same itch.

In 2024, Ubisoft mentioned that a few Driver projects were in the works, so a revival might be on the cards in due time. There is hope.

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Silent Hunter

Ubisoft's Submarine War Sim Series Is Resting At The Bottom Of The Ocean

Number of Silent Hunter Games Before Ubisoft's Acquisition: 1
Number of Silent Hunter Games After Ubisoft's Acquisition: 5 (But Also Multiple Spin-Offs And Mobile Games)
Last Silent Hunter Game: Silent Hunter Online (2013–16)
Fun Fact: Silent Hunter 3 is the best submarine sim game of all time. Admittedly, it does not have a lot of competition, but it executed the concept perfectly for its era.

Here is a more niche series that, for a while, was a fixture of Ubisoft's release calendar. Between 2005 and 2010, Ubisoft published three Silent Hunter games, which is impressive considering the concept was hardly mainstream. While all of them are decent, the later games garnered a bit more criticism than their predecessors, with Silent Hunter 5 being probably the weakest in the series.

You can still purchase the Ubisoft entries on PC, so they have not been eradicated from history by any stretch of the imagination; however, Silent Hunter might have been a casualty of the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry boom of the 2010s. In the last 15 years, the IP became a poor fit for Ubisoft's preferred type of project, and a new entry might not have been seen as worth the risk.

Red Steel

The Second Game Was A Lot Of Fun, But Red Steel Died With The Nintendo Wii

Number of Red Steel Games: 2
Last Red Steel Game: Red Steel 2 (2010)
Fun Fact: I loved Red Steel 2 back in the day.

OK, hear me out. Yes, Red Steel was not particularly great to play and is mostly remembered as a mediocre Wii launch title. However, the 2010 sequel was far, far better in pretty much every area, to the point of being arguably a must-play for anyone who had (or still has) Nintendo's console. Neither game has been re-released or ported to another system, and Red Steel effectively died when the Wii stopped being relevant.

While sold based on its use of the Wii Remote, the controls could have been adapted to a standard gamepad since the run-and-slash/gun gameplay is not all that different from the Shadow Warrior trilogy. If designed for all major systems, a sequel could have focused on fine-tuning the bombastic and gory action, creating a fun single-player experience that was far removed from Ubisoft's other releases in the last 15 years.

Special Mention: The Core Might And Magic Series (Not Full Franchise)

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Number of Main Might and Magic Games Before Ubisoft's Acquisition: 9
Number of Main Might and Magic Games After Ubisoft's Acquisition: 1 (But Also Multiple Spin-Offs And Mobile Games)
Last Magic and Might Game Of Any Form: Might & Magic Fates (2025)
Fun Fact: There has been a Might & Magic release nearly every year since 2018, at least in some form.

OK, Might and Magic is a bit of a strange case, as Ubisoft has kept the franchise fairly active since its 2003 acquisition. Some of the series' most beloved releases, like Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, have come under the publisher's supervision, but the company has seemingly been hesitant to produce new mainline entries. Speaking solely about numbered Might and Magic games, Ubisoft's only release was Might and Magic X: Legacy, and that came out nearly a decade after its predecessor.

Ubisoft has been more than happy to celebrate the series' storied legacy, and spin-offs like Might and Magic: Era of Chaos are available on mobile platforms for anybody who wants to try them out. However, at this point, Might and Magic XI seems unlikely to happen anytime soon, although we should be getting a new Heroes of Might and Magic soon.