Ubisoft has published its financial report for the first quarter of 2022, and the data shows a decline in every key metric compared to the same period last year.
The company has posted sales of approximately $323.3 million (a year-on-year decline of 9.8 per cent) and bookings of 298 million dollars (a 10 per cent decline.)
Despite this decline, performance is ahead of target, with net bookings singled out as a strong point, exceeding the target of $284.3 million.
The board has maintained the confidence of shareholders, all resolutions having been approved with a minimum of 95 per cent.
The continued popularity of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and the Assassin’s Creed franchise were particular standouts for the company. The company has also become the first “pure-player video game company to get its official Target Validation by the Science Based Target Initiative” as part of its commitment to the environment.
The report suggests mobile gaming as a strong point for the company, citing Roller Champions as a particular success with strong retention and revenue KPIs, and the testing phases of XDefiant, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Mobile, and The Division Heartland earned good feedback from players worldwide.
The upcoming release of Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence is also pointed out as a positive item in the company’s upcoming release schedule.
However, in contrast to the current (and prospective) success of the company on mobile platforms, there are some notable delays in the company’s mobile schedule. The much-anticipated Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has been delayed to 2023-2024, missing the rumoured release date in December to coincide with the release of Avatar: The Way of Water. An “unannounced premium game” has also been delayed from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024.
In addition to these delays, the company announced the cancellation of four projects this week: Splinter Cell VR (Oculus), Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline (PC and console), and two unannounced projects.
The big takeaway from the delays and cancellations is that all of the named titles are for console, PC, or VR platforms, and as such involve longer development time – and significantly higher development costs. While it doesn’t appear that Ubisoft is planning to focus entirely on mobile gaming in the imminent future, it does appear that mobile gaming is a particularly strong sector for the company at present.
More details on Tom Clancy’s The Division: Resurgence were unveiled earlier this month.
