Buggy Assassin's Creed Unity to blame for slow Syndicate sales, says Ubisoft

During a recent sales and earnings call Ubisoft execs explained that sales of Assassin's Creed Syndicate have suffered because of the negative reaction to last year's bug-riddled release, Assassin's Creed Unity. 

"Clearly in the first week [Assassin's Creed Syndicate] was impacted by what had happened with Unity," said Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez, responding to a question during a Q&A session. 

Although Martinez didn't offer any numerical indication of just how poor Syndicate's first week performance was, he likened the situation to Black Flag's initial launch, which saw the game stall at release before gaining ground in the following months. 

"Black Flag was 50 percent below Assassin's Creed III in its first week. At the end of the year it was close to III, and after two years it was way above III," explained Martinez. 

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company is keen to see a repeat of Black Flag's resurgence, adding that, at this point, "word of mouth has been very positive, and we're seeing trends that are closer to what happened with Black Flag."