Ubisoft today released its financial report for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2022. The data shows that compared with the same period last year, revenue in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2022 has dropped significantly. But Ubisoft believes that it can achieve double-digit revenue growth in the next few years.
In the past three months to June 30, Ubisoft’s net sales fell by 17% to 353 million euros ($415 million), and its net booking value fell by 21% to 326 million euros ($384 million). Although the number of bookings is slightly higher than Ubisoft’s expectations, Ubisoft is facing difficulties compared with the first quarter of last year (a record high driven by the epidemic).
The release lineup in the first quarter of this year is even stronger, including Assassin’s Creed: Hall of Valor, Watchdogs: Legion, The Crossing of Gods, Rainbow Six: Siege, Ano 1800, For Honor & The Division 2 follow-up update.
North America is still Ubisoft’s largest market, and consoles are still the main platform for Ubisoft’s revenue. However, the PC has risen from 21% to 24%, and the mobile terminal remains stable. Looking ahead, Ubisoft expects a net booking value of 340 million euros ($400 million) in the second quarter, a decrease of more than 1% year-on-year.
Ubisoft expects to make up for these declines in the second half of the year and tells investors that it expects single-digit growth in net booking value throughout the year. In the post-launch conference call, Ubisoft CEO Guillemot emphasized their strategy, which is to expand the traditional AAA-level paid content business while selling branded free games to expand the overall user scale. Guillemot said that Ubisoft is investing 80% of its future content in high-end paid games, with free games accounting for only 20%.
