Poor Star Wars: Outlaws Sales Leave Ubisoft at Disadvantage. Assassin's Creed: Shadows is Expected to Come to the Rescue

Source: Ubisoft.

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Ubisoft has published its financial report for the first half of its 2024–2025 fiscal year, i.e. for the period from April 1 to September 30. The French company recorded significant declines during this period.

Ubisoft with big drops

1. Ubisoft's total revenue in the first half of the fiscal year 2024-2025 amounted to 671.9 million euros. This is as much as 19.6% less than in the same period of 2023–2024 (EUR 836 million).
2. Sale of games, DLCs, subscriptions, virtual items etc. offered by the French also decreased compared to the first half of the fiscal year 2023-2024 (EUR 822.4 million) – by as much as 21.9% (EUR 642.3 million).
3. It should be noted here that after the first quarter of the current fiscal year, Ubisoft was in the black year on year - in the period from April 1 to June 30, the company's total revenue was 323.5 million euros (an increase of 12%), and the revenue from the sale of games, DLC etc. 290 million euros (an increase of 8.3%).
4. After deducting the costs of obtaining income, Ubisoft has recorded a loss of €246.5 million in the 2024-2025 fiscal year so far. Importantly, in the same period of the previous fiscal year, the loss was several times smaller (34.4 million euros).
5. Nevertheless, by the end of March 2025 the company expects to generate a total sales revenue of €1.95 billion, which undoubtedly is to be achieved with the help of Assassin's Creed: Shadows, launching on February 14, 2025 on PC, PS5 and XSX/S.

Sales of Star Wars: Outlaws "below expectations"

These results are largely due to the premiere of Star Wars: Outlaws. Ubisoft once again admitted that the Star Wars game sold "below expectations" (unfortunately we still do not know the exact numbers), despite good reviews and a good reception from the players. This latter one is said to be improving a bit after updates. The company hopes that the fourth "big" patch will particularly help with this, especially since it will debut simultaneously with the game's premiere on Steam - November 21st.

Assassin's Creed is still a powerhouse

Ubisoft's most attractive brands according to the gamers were Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six: Siege, with each said to have attracted 30 million unique viewers over the last 12 months. All titles of the studio were played by 138 million unique users during this time (an increase of 4% year on year). As for their live-service games, RSS is leading the way. The Crew 2 (thanks to a sale), The Crew: Motorfest, Riders Republic (thanks to the title's presence in Game Pass) and the Ghost Recon franchise are also doing well.

Layoffs at Ubisoft are bearing fruit

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot believes that the strong sales of games from recent years – up 12% year-on-year – confirm the strength of the company’s brands and live-service games, as well as the company’s potential to “deliver recurring revenues, sustainable growth and long-term value for its shareholders.”

1. They are to be helped by both a player-focused strategy and the release of more polished productions, as well as "strict recruitment control, targeted restructuring and lower external expenditures."
2. The latter have helped save over €200 million in the last six months alone. As of the end of September 2024, Ubisoft had 18,666 employees worldwide, compared to 19,410 people at the end of September 2023.