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

gamedeveloper.com:

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.

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