Ubisoft Moves Star Wars Outlaws to Next Fiscal Year, Delays Skull and Bones to Q1 2024
Ubisoft reported its first half of 2023-24 earnings yesterday. The financial results were pretty good for the company, which registered record net booking for the first half of a fiscal year and also outperformed Q2 guidance thanks to the successful launches of Assassin's Creed Mirage and The Crew Motorfest and the overperformance of back catalog games.
Assassin's Creed Mirage had a 'solid' launch, with first-week sales comparable to those of Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey. The Crew Motorfest, on the other hand, set new franchise records for unit sell-through, consumer spending, and season pass adoption rate in the opening week.
Once again, it was Rainbow Six Siege that led the charge for Ubisoft. The eight-year-old tactical first-person shooter registered high double-digit net bookings growth following the release of Year 8 Season 3, leading to 50% net bookings growth in H1 2023-24.
Assassin's Creed back-catalog games also had a 'solid performance' on the wave of Mirage's launch, and The Crew 2 experienced 'exceptional engagement' with a record month in monthly active users (MAUs). Even Ubisoft's casual mobile business performed well, mainly thanks to Kolibri's Idle Bank Tycoon.
The company's planned cost reduction measures are reportedly on track (7% down year-over-year). The headcount is down by 1319 employees compared to September 2022.
Looking to the future, Ubisoft said it could reach the previous full-year guidance without having to release the other large game previously slated for the last quarter of the fiscal year (the first quarter of calendar year 2024). While the game wasn't named, it is believed to be Massive Entertainment's Star Wars Outlaws, which will now ship at some point in the next fiscal year
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