Ubisoft says it should take decisive steps to reshape itself because the French online game writer introduced it might delay the discharge of the most recent title in its prime “Assassin’s Creed” franchise.
The announcement comes amid repeated delays of sport releases, disappointing gross sales and buyout rumors.
The firm is “actively exploring various strategic and capitalistic options to unlock the full value potential of our assets,” chief govt Yves Guillemot mentioned in an announcement that introduced disappointing vacation interval gross sales of “Star Wars Outlaws”.
The firm’s shares fell by greater than 50 p.c at one level final 12 months as the sport writer postponed a number of releases and others confronted an underwhelming response from players.
Rumors emerged of a buyout by the Guillemot household, which based Ubisoft and continues to be the principle shareholder, together with Tencent, the world’s largest sport maker which additionally owns a stake.
“We are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises,” mentioned Guillemot.
Despite the online game market persevering with to develop, 2024 was a tumultuous 12 months with waves of layoffs and studio closures.
Ubisoft mentioned Thursday it now plans to make greater than 200 million euros ($206 million) in price financial savings in its 2025-2026 fiscal 12 months in contrast with 2022-2023, and had final month closed three manufacturing studios in high-cost cities, together with San Francisco and Osaka.
Ubisoft has quite a bit using on the most recent installment of its flagship “Assassin’s Creed” franchise, however was pressured to postpone it from final 12 months. On Thursday it introduced one other delay of 1 month within the launch of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” to March 20.
“This additional time will allow the team to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement.
It additionally acknowledged that it had halted “XDefiant”, launched in May final 12 months, its first foray into free video games that encourage gamers to spend within the sport and have been a significant development space for the business.
Ubisoft mentioned it expects web income within the last quarter of final 12 months to return in at round 300 million euros ($310 million).
That was decrease than the 380 million euros initially foreseen, “primarily reflecting lower than expected holiday sales, mainly for ‘Star Wars Outlaws’, as well as the discontinuation of ‘XDefiant’.”
For the 2024-2025 fiscal 12 months that ends on March 31 it now expects 1.9 billion euros in income.
© 2025 AFP