Ubisoft credits "long-lasting" live games for third quarter success

Ubisoft is looking up its slate of "long-lasting" live games. In its newest financial report, titles such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and the upcoming The Crew Motorfest were highlighted as potential avenues for "strong revenue growth" similar to its third quarter for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

In that report, Ubisoft earned €726.9 million ($776.3 million) in net bookings, meeting its adjusted sales expectations of €725 million. Even so, that earning wasn't a complete win: compared to the previous year's €746.1 million, it's a decline of 2.6 percent. 

Rainbow Six Siege was a big highlight, and said to have a "very strong performance" during December 2022 and January 2023. Though Ubisoft didn't state it outright, it may have been worried about the Tom Clancy shooter going up against the smash success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

Another title that received a shout out was Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. Though it initially seemed like the game underperformed during the holiday period, Ubisoft now said it expects the game to be a "long-term system seller."

Ubisoft previously adjusted its third quarter expectations after it reported declining sales during the 2022 holiday season. That sales decline resulted in three unannounced projects being canceled in an effort to reduce costs around the larger company.

Brands will drive Ubisoft for 2023 and beyond

Despite early third quarter setbacks, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the publisher's franchises and its plethora of live games, like the aforementioned Rainbow Six Siege, have performed "solidly." He expects that momentum to go even further with the eventual release of Rainbow Six Mobile sometime this year. 

Likewise, he believed The Division Resurgence, a mobile spinoff for the other Tom Clancy live service shooter, to release sometime in the next fiscal year. With how recently vacated the mobile shooter market became after EA canceled Apex Legends Mobile, it's a prime opportunity for Ubisoft's two shooters to fill that niche.

For the first nine months of 2022, the Assassin's Creed franchise hit "new engagement records" as it shot up in active players by 30 percent. That was attributed to the "highly successful and profitable" entries Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. 

Towards the end of 2022, Assassin's Creed Valhalla released on Steam, and it was one of the publisher's first games to release on the platform in years. No doubt that attributed to the surge in players for the stealth-action franchise. 

For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Ubisoft plans to focus on "big brands" with titles such as Assassin's Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Somewhere in that mix will be the long-delayed Skull & Bones, which it intends to be both another "long-lasting" live service game and its first $70 retail release.