Paris (AFP) – Ubisoft said Thursday it would take decisive steps to reshape itself as the French video game publisher announced it would delay the release of the latest title in its top “Assassin’s Creed” franchise. The announcement comes amid repeated delays of game releases, disappointing sales, and buyout rumours. The company is “actively exploring various strategic and capitalistic options to unlock the full value potential of our assets,” chief executive Yves Guillemot said in a statement that announced disappointing holiday period sales of “Star Wars Outlaws.”
The company’s shares fell by more than 50 percent at one point last year as the game publisher postponed several releases and others faced an underwhelming response from gamers. Rumours emerged of a buyout by the Guillemot family, which founded Ubisoft and is still the main shareholder, along with Tencent, the world’s biggest game maker which also owns a stake. “We are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises,” said Guillemot.
– Rough gaming year –
Despite the video game market continuing to grow, 2024 was a tumultuous year with waves of layoffs and studio closures. Ubisoft said Thursday it now plans to make more than 200 million euros ($206 million) in cost savings in its 2025-2026 fiscal year compared with 2022-2023, and had last month closed three production studios in high-cost cities, including San Francisco and Osaka. Ubisoft has a lot riding on the latest instalment of its flagship “Assassin’s Creed” franchise but was forced to postpone it from last year.
On Thursday, it announced another delay of one month in the release of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” to March 20. “This additional time will allow the team to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months,” the company said in a statement. It also acknowledged that it had halted “XDefiant,” released in May last year, its first foray into free games that encourage players to spend in the game and have been a major growth area for the industry.
Ubisoft said it expects net revenue in the final quarter of last year to come in at around 300 million euros ($310 million). That was lower than the 380 million euros initially foreseen, “primarily reflecting lower than expected holiday sales, mainly for ‘Star Wars Outlaws’, as well as the discontinuation of ‘XDefiant’.” For the 2024-2025 fiscal year that ends on March 31, it now expects 1.9 billion euros in revenue.
© 2024 AFP
