From bad to worse for Ubisoft. The French publisher initially hoped to take advantage of the Tokyo Game Show, which begins tomorrow in the Japanese capital, to relaunch itself. But now its presentation has been cancelled, and the launch ofAssassin’s Creed Shadows has been pushed back from fall to February 2025.
Ubisoft is also revising the way players will be able to access its titles. It is abandoning the idea of early access to Assassin’s Creed Shadows to players who paid more for their Season Pass, a subscription model that was not unanimously accepted within the gaming community.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will therefore be offered to everyone at the same time, starting February 14, 2025, and those who pre-ordered the game will be entitled to the first downloadable expansion content for free.
Its games will also be available on Valve Systems’ popular PC gaming platform Steam on day one, rather than initially being reserved for its own online gaming platform.
“Our second quarter performance fell short of our expectations, and we are determined to address this quickly and decisively, with an even greater focus on a player-centric, gameplay-driven approach and a continued commitment to the long-term value of our brands,” Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement.
Sales revised downwards
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot
These are the disappointing sales of the game Star Wars Outlawsreleased at the end of August, which finally convinced Ubisoft management that it needed to change direction. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is already essentially finished, assures the publisher, but the added months before its launch will allow it to be refined a little more to ensure its commercial success.
The failure of Star Wars Online also leads to a downward revision of revenue forecasts by Ubisoft management. Its “net bookings”, its sales excluding deferred revenues, should therefore be between 525 and 550 million in revenue (350 to 370 million euros) for the quarter. The previous forecast was for 750 million in revenue (500 million euros).
“Although tangible results from the company’s transformation are taking longer than expected to materialize, we are continuing our strategy, focusing on two key segments – Open World Adventure games and native Games-as-a-Service experiences – aiming for growth, recurrence and generation of robust free cash flow,” explains Yves Guillemot.
Ubisoft’s Board of Directors will also oversee an end-to-end review of internal processes to accelerate revenue growth in the coming months. Details of this review will be shared when Ubisoft next releases its financial results on October 30.
A minority shareholder’s request to consider selling the company has not been echoed in Ubisoft management’s comments. Industry sources close to the French publisher who spoke to The Press In recent days, however, it has been confirmed that the Guillemot family, which controls Ubisoft, has no intention of selling the company.