PS4 Dominates Ubisoft’s Sales in Q3; PC, Xbox One, and Switch Follow

Today Ubisoft announced its financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2018-19.

This translates to the period between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.

Results are defined “In line” with Ubisoft’s targets and are broken down as follows.

• Sales for the first nine months of fiscal 2018-19 at €1,329.0 million
• Net bookings for the first nine months at €1,351.9 million, up 13.5%
  • €605.8 million in net bookings for the third quarter (down 16.4%), vs a target of approximately €600 million
  • Solid performance by Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, with a strong increase in player engagement and digital performance
  • 2 Ubisoft titles ranked in the top 10 best-sellers of 2018: Far Cry 5 (4th) and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (10th)
  • PC and mobile net bookings up by 58.1% and 77.6% respectively over the first nine months of the fiscal year
  • 205% surge in Rainbow Six Siege’s esports viewership in 2018
  • Tom Clancy communities: Surpassed 70 million unique players
•  Digital net bookings: up 33.9% to €897.8 million for the first nine months (66.4% of total net bookings vs 56.3% one year earlier)
  • PRI net bookings: up 38.9% to €444.3 million (32.9% of total net bookings vs 26.8% one year earlier)
• Back catalog net bookings: up 38.6% to €842.9 million for the first nine months (62.3% of total net bookings vs 51.1% one year earlier)

We also get a comment from CEO Yves Guillemot, boasting solid performance in a highly-competitive quarter.

He also mentioned that the company expect record sales for the current quarter thanks to sales of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and Far Cry New Dawn.

“Ubisoft delivered a solid performance in a quarter when, as expected, competition was particularly fierce. Our remarkable resilience was underpinned by the high quality of our games and services, our ability to reach a much wider audience than before – on more platforms and in more geographic regions – and the benefits gained from our digital transformation.

In view of our robust momentum and the upcoming releases of The Division 2 and Far Cry New Dawn, we expect to see record performances for fourth-quarter and full-year 2018-19.

Over the years, Ubisoft has proved its ability to adapt to and profit from new market trends, and we will continue to do so. The digital revolution is profoundly transforming our industry and is offering a major competitive advantage to content creators. It is enabling us to build a direct relationship with player communities, who have a significant impact on our games and their success.

This competitive advantage is apparent in the growing number of distribution platforms that are competing with one another to obtain high-quality content. Other key opportunities also will carry the industry forward in the coming years, including the opening up of the Asian market and the growth of esports as well as streaming and artificial intelligence.

Against this backdrop, Ubisoft is building its organizational structure for the long term. Leveraging the ownership of our IPs and studios, we are striving to provide a fulfilling working environment so that our talented people can realize their full potential and to deliver players beneficial experiences that go beyond pure entertainment.

Therefore, we are confident in our ability to continue to grow and increase our profitability over the coming years.”

As usual, we get a breakdown of video game sales by platforms and by region. North America remains at the top of Ubisoft’s regional sales, followed by Europe.

About platforms, PS4 keeps dominating sales for the publisher, followed by PC, Xbox One, and Switch. It’s worth mentioning that mobile games sold more than Switch ones if you count the first nine months of the fiscal year cumulatively.

Lat, but not least, we get a handy slate of the upcoming releases for the publisher in the current quarter.

Just yesterday, Ubisoft extended its support for Nintendo Switch by announcing a port of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed III remaster.