In their most recent investor’s call, Ubisoft has announced that the company’s first major release of the year, The Division 2, has not met their sales expectation. Specifically, it appears the game suffered in sales on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This is due to consoles being what Ubisoft’s CFO, Frederick Dugue, considers to be a crowded marketplace for games as a service type games.
This lack of the game meeting sales expectations is somewhat surprising. The game was the best selling game in the U.S. during the month of March. Ubisoft also decided to forego Steam for the game’s PC release in favor of releasing on Uplay and the Epic Games Store which both provided the company with a better cut of the profits. In fact, on Uplay, The Division 2 sold ten times better than its predecessor did when it released on the platform in 2016.
Despite the game not hitting expectations, the company is still hopeful for the game’s future performance. The company has a good track record with their games as a service type games usually finding a very dedicated playerbase over time. After being delayed out of April, the game’s biggest content drop yet, Title Update 3.0, released earlier this week, and will most likely bring players to the game.
While The Division 2 did not meet Ubisoft’s expectations, the company has plenty in the pipeline for the upcoming year. Last week, the company announced Ghost Recon: Breakpoint which is set to release this October. Then, yesterday, the company announced they had three other AAA titles, aside from the aforementioned Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, that they plan to release before the end of their fiscal year 2020. Unfortunately, the company also announced that the long in development Skull & Bones was delayed out of that window, and the game will not be at E3 this year. However, with these unannounced titles, Ubisoft will most likely have an impressive conference at the event next month.