The team behind last year's "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" is adding a pacifist Discovery Tour mode and getting ready to release mythical fantasy "Gods & Monsters," while publisher Ubisoft preps dance and fitness franchise "Just Dance" for its tenth anniversary, readies subscription plan Uplay+, and steers "Roller Champions" to launch. The team that came up with 2018's Ancient Greek action adventure "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" have taken their familiarity with the era and pulled it in a more obviously mythical direction with "Gods & Monsters." Heavily inspired by Nintendo's 2017 masterpiece "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," this new adventure also holds on to its "Odyssey" origins, challenging players to restore the Greek pantheon after monsters took their place. It's due on PS4, XBO, Switch, PC and Stadia in February 2020.
As with the Ancient Egyptian "Assassin's Creed Origins," more recent franchise entry "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" is adding a historical tour mode that removes combat and conflict so that players can instead explore the monumental edifices and everyday goings-on in historical Greece. It's to be a free update for "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" owners and as a separate, paid experience in Fall 2019; a story creator mode, which is based on developer tools and lets players piece together their own missions to share with the wider community, is available immediately from the "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" website.
Another familiar Ubisoft franchise, all sun, smiles, and swish moves, is "Just Dance." It was a runaway success from the start, and 10 years later Ubi is bringing back co-op mode (absent in "Just Dance 2018" and "2019") and implementing a song recommendation algorithm for "Just Dance 2020"; the smartphone app and Just Dance Unlimited subscription remain intact. Just like every one of its annual ancestors, November's "Just Dance 2020" is releasing on the Wii, as well as the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and, new for this year, through Google Stadia.
Altogether new on the scene is "Roller Champions," a brightly-colored sports game that looks to have taken inspiration from both roller derby and handball -- a happier, friendlier version of 1975 film "Rollerball." Players skate around an arena, scrambling for the ball and completing a full circuit before scoring a goal. A hint of sci-fi allows for neon skate contrails that denote team allegiance, and a free-to-play pricing model helps "Roller Champions" compete against another unlikely sports mash-up, the hugely popular RC car and soccer cross "Rocket League." The game is telegraphed for early 2020 on PC with a demo running until June 14 via Ubisoft's Uplay client.
Ubisoft also revealed its subscription service, Uplay+, which provides access to over 100 games for $14.99 USD per month. It will compete with the established Xbox Game Pass (Xbox One, $9.99 or $14.99 with Xbox Live; PC, $9.99), PlayStation Plus ($9.99 per month, $59.99 per year) and PlayStation Now ($19.99 per month, $44.99 per quarter), and November's cloud gaming service Google Stadia (around $10 per month when a Pro Tier launches), which Ubisoft is also supporting.
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