Ubisoft recently released its fiscal 2023 results, the first financial report since a troubling January report that saw meetings called, Guillemot insulting his own employees in the middle of a speech and then having to apologize publicly, unions calling strikes, and a new business strategy being announced.
The company posted a profit of 1.74 billion euros for the past fiscal year, which is equivalent to a year-on-year decrease of 18%. The number itself does not look very favorable, so it is not surprising that the management is ordering changes. However, as in the case of a recent report from Electronic Arts, one can also notice the growing player interest and earnings from established brands and games as a service.
The number of active users of the games in the Assassin’s Creed series was the highest in the history of the brand – during the past year, 44% more people played it than during the Origins era, while the company made 82% more profit from them and 19% more than in the Odyssey era (increase profit by 61%).
Rainbow Six Siege also did well, with the community playing 30% more time and the game earning 13% more than last year, and The Division 2, which saw a 28% increase in hours spent and even a 36% increase in profit. In addition, Ubisoft also praises the positive reactions to the beta of the upcoming free-to-play shooter XDefiant and promises it a strong iron among the fierce competition on the f2p market.
In other words, Creedy is simply dragging its feet, and in such a context, the previously announced decision to focus primarily on the company’s flagship seems logical. Therefore, Ubisoft intends to send more people to work on the series – to the current two thousand employees, they will transfer another 800 from other divisions and from other projects. This 40% increase means that in the coming years there will be almost 3000 people working on games from the Assassin’s Creed series.
There is no danger that they might not have something to work on – let’s remind you that the company is currently officially preparing five titles from the aforementioned universe: Mirage, Hexe, Red, Jade and a mobile issue for Netflix. In reality, however, they may be working on up to ten titles.
We should learn more about Ubisoft’s future plans on June 12, when the Ubisoft Forward conference will take place.
