Ubisoft Faces Heavy Stock Market Losses After AC: Shadows Delay and Investor Investigation
Ubisoft's share price fell about 20% in the first session after the French publisher's recent announcements, most of which were unlikely to delight investors.
After the latest announcements, Ubisoft's stock price on the French stock exchange fell by about 20%. After the opening of today's session at 9:00 AM CEST, the value of the shares of the publisher of, among others, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six is about €9.12. Just yesterday they were valued at €11.40.
What's worse, this significant loss is a continuation of a trend that has been ongoing since mid-June. Back then, Ubisoft shares were priced at around 19-22.5 euros. So we are talking about a drop in the exchange rate exceeding 50% within 3 months.
The ongoing problems of Ubisoft
It's easy to point out what caused today's change in the exchange rate. Yesterday Ubisoft announced a delay in the premiere of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, the last major title of the French publisher this year. Furthermore, investors compelled an investigation into the company due to the lack of significant achievements, thus somewhat aligning with the wishes of one of the company's minor shareholders. It's possible that this will result in the removal of Yves Guillemot, the current CEO of Ubisoft.
In this context, we could even venture to say that the company came out of today's session unscathed. At least for now, because a lot can still change by the end of the day, and we still have one more day of potential exchange rate changes this week.
Paradoxically, it cannot be ruled out that the "modest" decline is because the aforementioned investigation within the company could partially reassure investors, giving hope for favorable changes in the company. Moreover, Ubisoft has confirmed that all future games from the publisher's catalog will immediately hit Steam. For 5 years, PC editions first launched in the publisher's store (and in the Epic Games Store), and only later appeared on Valve's platform.
Of course, these are just speculations, and Ubisoft's situation is still dire. Since 2021, the value of the company's shares has drastically decreased, despite many - seemingly - big premieres. The fact that even with a rich catalog of its own series and with the support of brands such as Star Wars, Avatar, or Mario, the results of the French publisher have long raised investors' concerns, says a lot about the realities of the publisher.
Just like the entire industry, we will be closely monitoring the situation of Ubisoft and providing further information regarding the condition and potential actions of the publisher.
