The Daily Populous Thursday July 24th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by gamedeveloper.com and submitted by samiy2k

Ubisoft has released its financial report for the first quarter of the fiscal year (ended June 30, 2025), with numbers below expectations for the French publisher. Consolidated Q1 net bookings fell by 2.9 percent year-on-year to €282 million ($330.8 million), which Ubisoft confirmed was below its guidance. Back catalog net bookings stood at €260 million ($305 million), up 4 percent year-on-year and 6 percent excluding partnerships

The company said that consolidated downturn was due to the underperformance of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X and "unfavorable" exchange rates. It also claimed its new business units (which includes a new Tencent-backed subsidiary) will deliver stability moving forward.

Co-founder and chief executive officer Yves Guillemot explained player spending in Rainbow Six Siege faced "temporary but significant disruptions due to technical pricing issues," which have now been identified and addressed. "Despite this one-off setback, the growth potential of the game is strong with solid traction on activity and in-game spending," he added.

Guillemot also noted that Assassin’s Creed Shadows "delivered on expectations" with over 5 million unique players—although it's unclear how many copies have been sold.

He then touched on the wider organization's structure and the newly-formed Tencent subsidiary:

Related:Xbox lowers the price of The Outer Worlds 2 from $80 to $70

"We also continued to make meaningful progress on Ubisoft's transformation by outlining a new operating model built around business units, called Creative Houses. These units will reflect our diverse types of gaming experiences and will allow for enhanced quality, focus, autonomy and accountability.

"The new Subsidiary announced earlier this year and overseeing our flagship brands—Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six—is the first of these Creative Houses. The recent announcement of its leadership team marks an important milestone as we move toward a more agile and focused organization while ensuring necessary long-term stability and creative vision."

Ubisoft is still conducting layoffs despite Tencent investment

During the quarter and in the time since, Ubisoft has conducted layoffs across several studios, the most recent being 19 jobs cut at Ubisoft Red Storm. Red Storm is largely known for its work on the Tom Clancy series and was said to be part of Ubisoft's "ongoing, targeted restructuring and global cost-saving efforts" at the time. The cuts came despite the massive Tencent investment and creation of a special subsidiary with the Chinese conglomerate.

Related:Update: Mobile developer Sandsoft is laying off 21 internal developers to 'double down' on publishing

The as-yet-unnamed subsidiary (touted in today's financial report) is slated to head up development on key Ubisoft franchises like Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, and Rainbow Six.

Last month, three former executives at the company were tried in French court on accusations of sexual harassment and bullying. They were sentenced to prison terms in early July.

JaySouth84 on July 23rd, 2025 at 15:08 UTC »

"WE NEED MORE MICRO TRANSACTIONS!!!"

Fuzzy_Instance1 on July 23rd, 2025 at 13:49 UTC »

when you expect to make a billion dollars with every game yeah, they will underperformed lol

moediggity3 on July 23rd, 2025 at 13:46 UTC »

Maybe your company has deeper problems if it is financially underperforming in the first quarter of 2025 based on expectations out of a game released in the fourth quarter of 2015.