Ubisoft drops out of publishing The Matrix Online

Ubisoft and Warner Bros have terminated their agreement to publish The Matrix Online, a massively multiplayer title based in the Matrix universe which is currently in development at Monolith.

The announcement is not expected to have any impact on the development of the title, which is still said to be on track for a November release and will go into an open beta period later this spring.

Publishing duties on the title will now revert back to the recently formed Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment division, although it's expected that the group will now sign up another publishing partner for the project since it doesn't have any muscle of its own at retail as yet.

It's not known why the Ubisoft deal was terminated, but it was described as a mutual decision and neither company is emanating the usual whiff of sour grapes that generally goes with such an announcement, with WBIE boss Jason Hall describing Ubisoft as a "great partner" while Ubi.com managing director Gilles Langourieux vowed to continue the company's "strong and positive relationship" with WBIE.

Commenting on the impact which this will have on Ubi's release schedule, Langourieux said that "Our commitment to online gaming and MMOs remains stronger than ever as we continue to grow our existing offerings like our worldwide gaming portal and our award-winning multiplayer games on both PC and console platforms."