Not content with releasing the highest turnover in its history (2.3 billion euros, up 27%) Ubisoft changed its face with an operating profit of 314 million euros and a net profit of 158 million euros, far from the heavy losses recorded a year earlier. CEO Yves Guillemot had announced an annual cost reduction target of 200 million euros by 2025-26. However, this is very well underway since the company has already reduced its fixed costs by 150 million euros at the end of March 2024. This “ thanks to strict control of recruitment, targeted restructuring and a favorable exchange rate effect “, we can read. By cutting the group's workforce, Ubisoft reduced the number of its employees to 19,011 at the end of March, a drop of more than 1,700 people since September 2022.
Ubisoft's recovery is certainly faster than expected, because it is an understatement to say that not all the games released during the year necessarily shone. If Assassin's Creed Mirage and The Crew Motorfest did the job and Rainbow Six Siege's performance is described as “spectacular”, the engagement metrics used to comment on the reception of Skull and Bones do not create an illusion for long (a while average game time of 4 hours during the first weeks, great) and the results remain simply silent on the case of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. If not having achieved huge sales, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown can at least legitimately boast of having been praised by critics and players. “ The Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six franchises each enjoyed a strong fan base of over 30 million active players during the year, underscoring the reach of Ubisoft's flagship brands “, underlines also the editor. In total, Ubisoft claims 138 million active users, 4% more than the previous year.
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For the future, Ubisoft announcement its desire to focus on two main segments: open-world adventure games (Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Shadows) and native GaaS experiences (XDefiant, Rainbow Six Mobile, The Division Resurgence). The Division Heartland should also have been part of this second segment, but Ubisoft decided to cease its development without fanfare and to redirect its resources towards other free-to-play. Ubisoft also explains that it has “ streamlined Ubisoft's Anvil and Snowdrop branches », its two proprietary game engines, which will apparently simplify the life of development teams and facilitate sharing between studios. At the same time, Ubisoft continues to invest in generative artificial intelligence, a technology which, if used correctly, will undoubtedly always be more useful than NFTs.
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