PS4 Leads the Charge for Ubisoft
Ubisoft has had a strong year so far as evidenced by its financial results for the first half of the fiscal year 2017-2018. Which just recently ended on September 30th, 2017. Once more, the PS4 versions of Ubisoft’s games were at the top of the chart, with Xbox One following behind.
While the PS4 numbers are not so surprising, the strong Nintendo Switch numbers are. Nintendo Switch debuted strongly considering they had one strong title. That being Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, which is a fantastic game by the way. Be sure to check out our review HERE.
While its overall percentage for the six months was 12%, the percentage of sales on the Nintendo Switch for the July-September quarter that saw the debut of the Nintendo crossover title was a whopping 19%. We also get a breakdown of sales by region, which you can see below. North America is still firmly Ubisoft’s biggest market, followed by Europe.
Chief Executive Officer Yves Guillemot released a statement, giving more information on the situation of Ubisoft’s business during the period examined. Quite interestingly, we learn that Assassin’s Creed Origins sales were up 100% compared to Assassin’s Creed Syndicate in the first 10 days on the shelves.
“We continue to offer players outstanding game experiences with unrivalled variety – ranging from Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle to Assassin’s Creed Origins, and including South Park: The Fractured but Whole. In addition to these new releases, players are engaging with a large amount of additional high-quality content which provides them with longer-term entertainment. This includes Blood Orchid, the recent major update to Rainbow Six Siege, and Ghost War, the highly-acclaimed PvP mode for Ghost Recon Wildlands. And it doesn’t stop there: in the coming weeks we will notably release Resistance, a massive free update to The Division, and South Park: Phone Destroyer, a free-to-play mobile game. Our commitment to providing high-quality game experiences and supporting them for the long term is driven by the importance we place on our player communities. This winning content strategy drove a 66% surge in our sales for the first half of 2017-18 – largely exceeding our targets – as well as a sharp increase in our earnings.”
He goes on to say:
“The quality of our new releases is the result of our effort to transform our model and make our business more profitable and recurring. Given longer development lead times, our talents can fully express their creative visions and therefore maximize the potential of our games. The success of these releases – notably the 100% sales growth for Assassin’s Creed Origins – combined with solid live operations demonstrate that Ubisoft is ideally positioned to deliver further growth in future fiscal years, both in terms of financial performance and shareholder value.”
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, Rainbow Six Siege, Ghost Recon Wildlands and For Honor were identified as growth drivers.