Ubisoft reported its first half of 2023-24 earnings yesterday. The financial results were pretty good for the company, which registered record net booking for the first half of a fiscal year and also outperformed Q2 guidance thanks to the successful launches of Assassin's Creed Mirage and The Crew Motorfest and the overperformance of back catalog games.
Assassin's Creed Mirage had a 'solid' launch, with first-week sales comparable to those of Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey. The Crew Motorfest, on the other hand, set new franchise records for unit sell-through, consumer spending, and season pass adoption rate in the opening week.
Once again, it was Rainbow Six Siege that led the charge for Ubisoft. The eight-year-old tactical first-person shooter registered high double-digit net bookings growth following the release of Year 8 Season 3, leading to 50% net bookings growth in H1 2023-24.
Assassin's Creed back-catalog games also had a 'solid performance' on the wave of Mirage's launch, and The Crew 2 experienced 'exceptional engagement' with a record month in monthly active users (MAUs). Even Ubisoft's casual mobile business performed well, mainly thanks to Kolibri's Idle Bank Tycoon.
The company's planned cost reduction measures are reportedly on track (7% down year-over-year). The headcount is down by 1319 employees compared to September 2022.
Looking to the future, Ubisoft said it could reach the previous full-year guidance without having to release the other large game previously slated for the last quarter of the fiscal year (the first quarter of calendar year 2024). While the game wasn't named, it is believed to be Massive Entertainment's Star Wars Outlaws, which will now ship at some point in the next fiscal year (April 2024-March 2025).
Skull and Bones, one of the most delayed games ever, was moved once again and will now be (allegedly) released in Q1 2024. Before the end of the fiscal year, Ubisoft also plans to launch Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Just Dance 2024 edition, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and the free-to-play games Rainbow Six Mobile, The Division Resurgence, and XDefiant.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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