Ubisoft earnings fell, but still exceeded the forecast
Ubisoft reported for the last quarter and for the last nine months of 2018.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
October — December 2018 proved difficult for many publishers.
Financial reports from Electronic Arts, Take-Two and others accelerated the fall in their shares last week. At the same time, Ubisoft shares also fell by inertia, but it reported only yesterday. And Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot is very pleased with its results for the third fiscal quarter of 2018.
The publisher confirmed that if things continue to go well, he will release four new AAA titles by April. If not, then there will be three new items.
Indicators for the quarter
- In the third quarter, net bookings (net sales plus deferred transfers from games) decreased by 16% year-on-year. And amounted to $684.3 million. But Ubisoft is not upset, because it expected a result of $ 678 million.
- Net sales reached $615 million, which is 20% lower than expected.
Indicators for 9 months
- In April-December 2018, Ubisoft’s earnings (the same net bookings) reached $1.5 billion. This is 13.5% more than in the same period of 2017.
- Earnings from digital versions of games at this time amounted to $1 billion (66.4% of the total amount). Half of this amount — $500 million — brought DLC, in-game items, season passes, subscriptions and advertising. And Ubisoft managed to earn the same amount on physical retail.
- In the same nine months, the company’s net sales reached $1.49 billion.
Distribution of quarterly revenue by platforms
- PS4 — 31%;
- PC — 24% ;
- Xbox One — 18%;
- Nintendo Switch — 11%;
- mobile platforms — 8%;
- Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U — 3%.
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2Successes of individual titles
- Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 in Uplay pre-ordered six times more players than the original. A record number of Ubisoft users took part in the closed beta of the future game. We add that the game will not appear on Steam — only in Uplay and Epic Games Store.
- Far Cry 5 and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey entered the top 10 bestsellers of last year, taking fourth and tenth places, respectively.
- The audience of Rainbow Six Siege has reached 45 million people. The increase in viewers of esports matches for this title was 205%.
- Even For Honor has something to brag about. The game has not been very popular since its launch in 2017. But in the last six months of 2018, 6 million new players have registered in it.
Forecast for the fourth quarter and for the whole year
- In the fourth quarter, Ubisoft plans to achieve sales of $642 million and net bookings of $785 million.
- Also, the company and, in particular, Yves Guillemot expect record annual figures: revenue of $2.3 billion, $494 million operating profit and $337 million cash flow.
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