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On Wednesday, Ubisoft said that they are "facing major challenges as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and long-lasting titles that can reach players across the globe, across platforms, and business models." That is to say, some of Ubisoft's latest releases didn't perform all that well and the company isn't doing as well as they had expected.
Ubisoft flatly says that their "recent launches have not performed as well as expected." The company's software sales over this recent holidays season were "markedly and surprisingly slower than expected." Some of their big holiday releases failed to make sales expectations. Those games being Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023.
The news for Ubisoft just gets worse as they have yet again delayed the release of Skull and Bones. This marks at least the sixth time that game has been delayed. It was most recently expected to release on March 9, 2023 but will now instead early in the next fiscal year for Ubisoft. That fiscal year runs from April 2023 through March 2024. I told you not to hold your breath on it releasing March 9th.
Ubisoft says that the additional time spent developing the game "has already paid off and brought impressive improvements to its quality." Ubisoft expects that "players will be positively surprised by its evolution."
Joining Skull and Bones in the new fiscal year will be Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and "yet-to-be-announced premium games." These "premium games" include at least one major release and some free-to-play titles based on Ubisoft's popular brands. A couple of the known free-to-play releases include The Division Heartland for PC and consoles. There will also be The Division Resurgence and Assassin's Creed: Codename Jade for mobile.
Ubisoft also says that they have cancelled three titles that were in various stages of development. These titles were not previously announced and names for these cancelled projects were not shared.
"We are clearly disappointed by our recent performance. We are facing contrasted market dynamics as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and everlasting live games, in the context of worsening economic conditions affecting consumer spending.
"Despite excellent ratings and players’ reception as well as an ambitious marketing plan, we were surprised by Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope underperformance in the final weeks of 2022 and early January. Just Dance 2023 underperformed as well.
"Therefore, with the approval of the Board of Directors, we are taking additional important strategic and operational decisions today. It is key to continue adapting our organization, to further strengthen our execution and to ensure we both deliver amazing games to players as well as great value creation.
"The industry’s long-term prospects remain promising, and I am convinced Ubisoft is well positioned to benefit from this momentum thanks to the strength of our teams, brands, production capacity, technology and balance-sheet. Our back-catalogue remains very healthy with notably robust activity on Rainbow Six Siege, great momentum for our Assassin’s Creed games, and generally solid performance from our live games.
"We expect our strategy to build long-lasting live games and transform our biggest brands into truly global phenomenon with multiple offerings across platforms and business models, to ultimately generate significant value creation, with strong topline and operating income growth over the coming years." - Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot
"Despite excellent ratings and players’ reception as well as an ambitious marketing plan, we were surprised by Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope underperformance in the final weeks of 2022 and early January. Just Dance 2023 underperformed as well.
"Therefore, with the approval of the Board of Directors, we are taking additional important strategic and operational decisions today. It is key to continue adapting our organization, to further strengthen our execution and to ensure we both deliver amazing games to players as well as great value creation.
"The industry’s long-term prospects remain promising, and I am convinced Ubisoft is well positioned to benefit from this momentum thanks to the strength of our teams, brands, production capacity, technology and balance-sheet. Our back-catalogue remains very healthy with notably robust activity on Rainbow Six Siege, great momentum for our Assassin’s Creed games, and generally solid performance from our live games.
"We expect our strategy to build long-lasting live games and transform our biggest brands into truly global phenomenon with multiple offerings across platforms and business models, to ultimately generate significant value creation, with strong topline and operating income growth over the coming years." - Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot
