Ubisoft has revealed its latest earnings report for third-quarter 2019-2020 sales. the report details the net booking for the third quarter at €455.5 million which is up from the target value of about €410.0 million. The report also shares that Ubisoft games are being played a lot with stable high levels of active players. In 2019, 4.5 billion hours have been played. In 2016, that number was at 2.0 billion. The report has new numbers regarding certain games and information about the growth of Uplay. Furthermore, the earnings report shares plans for what Ubisoft is doing next with 5 AAA games to be released in late 2020 and early 2021. 3 games will come out in 2020 and 2 in 2021.
During the conference call, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Yves Guillemot said, “we have evolved our organizational structure in recent months in order to strengthen our focus on high-potential titles, and we are very excited about the idea of releasing five new AAA games in 2020-21. Although the competitive environment is looking especially tough, production of these games is progressing well and each of them comes with great features that set them apart. We also will be releasing other very innovative titles that have a particular focus on social interaction, such as Roller Champions.”
Earlier this year, Ubisoft announced that they were restructuring their editorial time following disappointing sales. Ubisoft’s editorial team would generate ideas that would be put in their games which is why so many of their games felt so similar. Due to poor sales of some of their most recent titles, they have decided to make a change.
In October, Ubisoft announced the delay of several games including Watch Dogs: Legion, Gods & Monsters, and Rainbow Six: Quarantine.
You can make a safe bet that these titles may be the games set to come out but there are several other titles that Ubisoft can announce and release. The next Assassin’s Creed, which is rumored to be set in the era of the Vikings could be one. Skull & Bones was also delayed so that may be a possibility as well. Guillemot confirmed that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is not one of the five games that will be released.
Talking about several games that are doing well, Guillemot said, “although the current fiscal year is well below our initial expectations, the third fiscal quarter saw excellent performances from several titles in our back catalog – particularly Rainbow Six Siege, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, The Crew 2 and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle – and from the release of Just Dance 2020, which is back on the growth track. The fact that our number of active players, MAUs and PRI on consoles and PC have remained stable year on year at high levels clearly demonstrates the depth of our game’s portfolio and the firmer resilience of our business model.”
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege has over 55 million registered players. December had a record high of monthly active users and there was an acceleration of player recurring investment in the third fiscal quarter.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey sales rose in the first nine months of 2019-20 including daily engagement and PRI, up by some 50%, 60%, and 140% respectively compared to Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Ubisoft also shared that revenue went up 73% for Uplay in the first nine months of 2019-20 which is very strong for Ubisoft’s service.