Paris (AFP) – A run of new-release flops and the delay of the latest “Assassin’s Creed” instalment sent revenue at French games giant Ubisoft plunging in its third quarter, the company reported Thursday as it continues to weigh its future. “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” has been twice delayed, now pushed back to March 20 from its initial launch date of November 15.
Also sapping the pre-Christmas period were underwhelming sales for “Star Wars Outlaws”, a hoped-for blockbuster set in the universe of the beloved sci-fi movies. The game’s performance “wasn’t enough to deliver on our expectations,” finance chief Frederick Duget told reporters in Paris. Third-quarter income fell by almost half — 47.5 percent — to 318 million euros ($332 million), Ubisoft said in a statement, while over the first nine months of its financial year revenues were down by just under one-third. “Net bookings”, Ubisoft’s preferred revenue measure which excludes deferred income, fell more than half in the third quarter and almost 45 percent in the financial year to date. The company had issued a profit warning in January ahead of the results.
Ubisoft nevertheless hopes “Shadows” will be a financial boon to round out its year. “Pre-orders for the game are tracking solidly, in line with those of ‘Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’, the second most successful entry of the franchise,” the company said. The story of “Shadows” takes place in medieval Japan, long at the top of many fans’ wishlists for the series. “Over its lifetime, we want (‘Shadows’) to match the performance of ‘Valhalla’,” the previous top seller in the “Assassin’s Creed” series set in the world of the Vikings, Duguet said. New downloadable content for popular first-person shooter “Rainbow Six Siege” should also tempt fans.
Ubisoft did not comment on potential financial benefits from the release of Nintendo’s highly-anticipated Switch 2 console later this year.
– ‘Difficult choices’ –
Looking ahead, Ubisoft plans to stick to its schedule of releasing new products “each year” tied to the money-spinning “Assassin’s Creed” universe, Duguet said. Bad financial news for Ubisoft comes as workers are on strike demanding an end to layoffs and better conditions throughout the games industry in France — where the group employs around 4,000 of its 18,000-strong global workforce.
The company said it would top its target of finding 200 million euros of cost reductions this year and will continue the effort in 2025-6. Chief executive Yves Guillemot noted “difficult but necessary choices,” after Ubisoft announced closures in its global network of studios including in the United States, Japan and Britain. The company also shut down its online shooter game “XDefiant” for lack of players, killing off what was once billed as a challenger to rival publisher Activision’s omnipresent “Call of Duty” series.
Ubisoft did not say anything new about rumours the company as a whole could be sold off, with a “strategic review” it announced in January still under way. One option for Ubisoft’s future could be going private in the hands of Chinese tech group Tencent and the Guillemot family of founders that still runs the group. Tencent already owns almost 10 percent of the company after a deal with the Guillemots in 2022 to maintain Ubisoft’s independence. The Guillemots themselves own around 14 percent. But other potential buyers are lurking, including Savvy Games, owned by the Saudi public investment fund, according to French business daily Les Echos.
© 2024 AFP
