“We have been saying for a number of years that our normal pattern is to have three or four AAA games, so we will stick to the fiscal 2022 plan,” said CFO Frederick Duguet. ‘But we see that we are gradually moving on from a model that was previously only focused on AAA releases to a model where we have a combination of strong AAA releases and strong back catalog dynamics, but also our Program of new releases compliment. with free play and other premium experiences. “He further said that the company has envisioned a number of titles, AAA and elsewhere, with the name Far Far 6, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Skull & Bones, Riders Republic, The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake and Roller. Champions. He also nods at a previously announced mobile Assassin’s Creed game planned to arrive in China with the help of Ubisoft investor Tencent, who he says is part of the company that is increasing its investment and interest in free games. , especially on mobile. Mobile currently accounts for about 9% of the company’s total business.
“In fiscal 2022, we will continue to evolve from a AAA release-centric model toward a model where AAA stands alongside new premium and free-to-play innovative platforms,” Duguet said. “These diverse experiences will feed each other through complementary game and business models.”
Strikingly, there was not a single mention on the call about Ubisoft’s free play battle Royal Hyper Scape, which jumped tremendously during launch and is currently underway.
Elsewhere in the call, CEO Yves Guillemot also noted that the company’s back catalog – or its already released games that still provide long-term revenue – will also play a heavier role in the company’s revenue in the future, and it already is. . As an example, the six-year-old Rainbow Six Siege has added 15 million new players over the past twelve months, which has increased to 70 million players since its launch, and remains a major revenue source for the publisher.“We continue to move toward an increasingly pronounced repetition of our revenue due to growing audiences,” says Guillemot. “Therefore, we expect our highly profitable back catalog to be an even bigger part of our business going forward.”
Ubisoft has struggled over the past few years to get its AAA game releases out on time, with publisher delaying Rainbow Six Quarantine, Gods & Monsters and Watch Dogs Legion a year from their planned release during a 2019 revenue call, and then Quarantine printed again the following year with Far Cry 6, and the upcoming avatar game is delayed until 2022. And this is not to mention what’s going on with Skull & Bones, which has been delayed several times already and looks like it’s completely again started during development.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s financial releases indicate that games like Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, Far Cry 5, The Crew 2, Anno 1800, older Just Dance games, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and the aforementioned Rainbow Six Siege still make significant figures for the company. , which means it does not necessarily have to emit more than one annual report per year to keep making money – although based on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s records for launch, it’s certainly not damaging.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.