New cancellation at home Ubisoft : according to a report from InsiderGaming, Alterrasocial simulation inspired byAnimal Crossingwas stopped dead after nearly three years of development at Ubisoft Montreal. The project was to mix quiet management, construction and exploration in a colorful voxel world.
Never made official by the publisher, Alterra only existed for the public through the 2024 leaks, which were still enough to arouse the curiosity of fans of cozy games. One question remains for the community and the industry: what did this project really represent for Ubisoft, and why was it ultimately abandoned?
Alterra, the Animal Crossing x Minecraft crossover that Ubisoft is already packing in its boxes
In initial reports, Alterra was described as a voxel-based social simulation, a cross between Animal Crossing And Minecraft. Concretely, the player arrived on an island populated by NPCs called Matterlingswith a look similar to Funko Pop figurines, with big heads and cute silhouettes. The objective: to discuss, help these inhabitants and gradually shape its environment.
The artistic direction was based on voxels, these small cubes strongly reminiscent of Minecraft. The materials collected in different biomes made it possible to manufacture furniture, tools and buildings, with freedom of construction announced as very broad. Each biome hosted its own creatures and resources, giving the game a more marked dimension of exploration than in a Animal Crossing classic.
According to leaks relayed on Reddit, Alterra even inherited an old internal voxel project, Project Renaissancealready canceled after about four years of work. Two successive attempts at a creative game would therefore have ended up in the closet, without ever being officially shown to the general public.
Ubisoft cancels Alterra after three years of development: a brutal decision for Montreal
According to Insider Gaming, the Ubisoft Montreal teams were informed of the cancellation on a Tuesday, before being sent home for the rest of the day. The shock is real for a project which was approaching three years of production and which was led in particular by the creative director Patrick Redding and veteran producer Fabien Lhéraud.
Important point in a context of massive layoffs in the industry: no specific social plan was announced immediately. Alterra developers are being placed on “on call” to be reassigned to other Ubisoft games. On the other hand, the fate of the support studios involved in the project remains unclear, which fuels internal concerns.
Alterra, new symbol of Ubisoft in full restructuring and an abandoned cozy niche
Alterra’s cancellation comes as Ubisoft is carrying out a vast restructuring of its catalog, with several games already discontinued at the start of the year and the closure of certain historic studios. The publisher regularly explains these choices by a desire to concentrate its resources on a reduced number of licenses deemed to be priorities.
For the players, the disappointment is twofold. On the one hand, Ubisoft is giving up on what could have become a rare “AAA” alternative to Animal Crossing on non-Nintendo consoles and PC. On the other hand, part of the community was already wondering if a cozy game from Ubisoft would not be weighed down by microtransactions, given the publisher’s recent policy.
With two major voxel projects successively canceled, Ubisoft seems for the moment to abandon the field of ambitious social simulations. It remains to be seen whether the publisher will one day return to this highly demanded segment, or whether it will definitively leave room for independents and Nintendo.