A “solid” first quarter for Ubisoft

(Paris) French video game giant Ubisoft recorded an 11.4% increase in revenue in the first quarter of its staggered 2024-2025 financial year, to 323.5 million euros, it announced on Thursday, also confirming its objectives for the period.

Driven by the good performance of its licenses, such as Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six Or The Crew, The publisher posted a 7.8% increase at constant exchange rates in net bookings (i.e. sales excluding deferred revenue, its reference indicator), to 290 million euros, it said in a press release.

“In a selective market, we have had a solid start to the year with net bookings above target, confirming that we are on the right track,” commented Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, quoted in the press release.

Ubisoft also welcomed the “encouraging start” of XDefianta competitive shooter that launched in May and attracted “more than ten million players in its first two weeks.”

In the second quarter, Ubisoft anticipates “net bookings of around €500 million” and confirms its financial objectives for the rest of the year, notably predicting “solid growth in net bookings” and a “slight increase in non-IFRS operating income”.

The French publisher is playing big in the coming months as it plans two major launches by the end of 2024: on August 30, Star Wars Outlawsa space adventure game set in the universe of the famous film series created by George Lucas, then on November 15, Assassin’s Creed Shadowswhich takes its most popular franchise to feudal Japan.

” We expect […] “It’s going to be among the biggest games, in terms of sales, in the industry this year and among our best historical sales,” stressed Frédérick Duguet, the group’s financial director, during a conference call.

Star Wars Outlaws will thus benefit from the biggest marketing campaign in the history of the French giant.

The first Activision Blizzard games should arrive in streaming on the Ubisoft+ platform “by the end of the fiscal year,” he also indicated, a consequence of the agreement reached with Microsoft last year to allow the owner of the Xbox to validate its acquisition of the publisher of Call of Duty.

Despite “underperforming at launch” in February, the pirate game Skull and Bones is “among the best games in our portfolio in terms of player engagement and retention,” Frédérick Duguet also said.

The group also indicated that it had postponed the release of two mobile games, Rainbow Six Mobile And The Division Resurgencewhich are no longer expected for fiscal year 2025.

Its plan to reduce costs by 200 million euros by 2025-2026, announced in January 2023, is continuing through increased selectivity of investments, simplification of its organization, growth in internal mobility and strict control of recruitment, Ubisoft said.