Today, Ubisoft announced its sales statistics for the first half of the year. The company’s revenues were somewhat lower than expected, but they still easily surpassed the projection that was provided after the first quarter owing to back-catalog sales.
The numbers
- Revenue Eggy Car: €731 million (down 3% year-on-year)
- Net bookings: €699 million (down 3% year-on-year)
- Operating loss: €215 million (compared to a €25.9 million operating income in last year’s first half)
The highlights
Ubisoft was optimistic when it reported its first-half sales figures for a variety of reasons, in spite of the decrease in revenue and the operational losses.
In terms of revenue, the single-digit decline was really a big improvement above what Ubisoft had informed investors to anticipate for the future.
However, the company ended up reporting net bookings of €406 million for the quarter, which is an increase of 3.3% year-over-year. This was reported in the company’s first quarter results release, in which it issued a forecast of second quarter net bookings of around €270 million.
According to Ubisoft’s Chief Financial Officer Frédérick Duguet, “The H1 bottom line significantly includes faster R&D depreciation,” including for the projects that were previously revealed as being terminated, as the company shifts its attention toward its most lucrative possibilities.
On the front of the back catalog, Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six Siege were singled out for having very great results.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla reached over 20 million unique players, while Rainbow Six Siege crossed 85 million unique players and had a year-over-year increase in net bookings of 18%.
Ubisoft has confirmed its projection of €400 million in operational income for the whole year on a basis other than IFRS, notwithstanding the operating losses that were incurred during the first half of the year. (For the sake of comparison, Ubisoft’s non-IFRS operating loss for the first half was €139 million.)
A significant portion of that operating income estimate is predicated on the recent launch of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, which was referred to as the most significant release of the publisher’s fiscal year during a teleconference after the most recent earnings report.
Duguet downplayed concerns, saying the company is “satisfied” with early sales of the game, particularly as it has yet to spend 80% of the game’s total marketing budget as it plans to make a push for mainstream audiences in the coming weeks and months. Executives were asked about a recent report that physical sales of the game are tracking behind that of the original Mario + Rabbids title. Duguet downplayed concerns, saying the company is “satisfied” with early sales of
In addition to this, he said that the game has a higher percentage of digital sales than its predecessor had.
