Ubisoft launched a mobile game called Wild Arena Survivors last week, although the radio silence from official channels surrounding its arrival might mean this is the first you've heard of it. That definitely would not have been the case if it had been branded as a Far Cry game which was apparently the original plan.
That's according to Mobilegamer.biz which had as much revealed to it by a “well-placed source”. According to that source, Wild Arena Survivors was originally called Far Cry: Wild Call. If you had heard about the mobile game before this and you've played it, you'll have noticed that elements of that base idea still remain. Such as being tasked with competing in the Wild Call Festival.
Elements including the setting are also clearly inspired by Far Cry 6. Not to mention the animals you can utilizie or battle against (Fortnite-style). As for why Ubisoft didn't push on and place this game under its growing Far Cry umbrella, it's all about the money. The source claims Wild Arena Survivors was soft launched without the Far Cry name attached. When it didn't perform well enough, Ubisoft scrapped the idea to give it recognizable IP.
You might think a failed soft launch would be reason enough to scrap the game entirely. However, Ubisoft has likely launched it with zero fanfare in an attempt to recoup some of its development costs. “I’d imagine they spent more money than they should have on development, and this is an attempt to recoup what they can,” the source said.
Launching Wild Arena Survivors is also a chance for Ubisoft to learn from its mistakes in the mobile market, an area it seems intent on expanding into. The studio's CEO has mentioned mobile games on a number of occasions with The Division and Rainbow Six Siege getting spinoffs on the platform soon. Ubisoft also has a lot of Assassin's Creed news to reveal at its Forward this weekend. It's entirely possible that the series will have an announced mobile game of its own by the end of the week too.