“We have said for several years that our normal model was to come with three or four AAA games, so we are going to stick with that plan for fiscal year 2022,” said CFO Frederick Duguet. “But we see that we are progressively changing from a model that used to be focused only on AAA releases to a model where we have a combination of AAA releases and a strong previous catalog dynamic, but also complementing our new release program with free experiences. and other premium experiences. “He went on to specify that the company had several titles, AAA and others, in preparation, naming Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Skull & Bones, Riders Republic, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake and Roller Champions. He also nodded at a previously announced and planned Assassin’s Creed mobile game to come to China with the help of Ubisoft investor Tencent, who he said is a part of the company that is increasing his investment and interest in free games, especially in Mobile. Currently, mobile devices represent about 9% of the company’s total business.
“In fiscal year 2022, we will continue our evolution from a model centered on the AAA launch to a model where AAA is alongside new innovative premium and free experiences across all platforms,” said Duguet. “These diverse experiences will feed through gameplay and complementary business models.”
Notably, there was not a single mention in the call about Ubisoft’s free Battle Royale, Hyper Scape, which failed tremendously at launch and is currently undergoing a review.
Elsewhere in the call, CEO Yves Guillemot also noted that the company’s previous catalog – or its already released games that still generate long-term revenue – will also play a more important role in the company’s revenue in the future, and already are. As an example, six-year-old Rainbow Six Siege added 15 million new players in the last 12 months, growing to 70 million players since launch, and is still a major revenue driver for the publisher.“We continue to move towards an increasingly pronounced recurrence of our revenues as the public grows,” said Guillemot. “So we expect our highly profitable catalog to account for an even larger portion of our business going forward.”
Ubisoft has struggled in recent years to launch its AAA games in a timely manner, with the publisher delaying Rainbow Six Quarantine, Gods & Monsters and Watch Dogs Legion by a year from the planned launch during a 2019 revenue call, and then pushing the Quarantine again the following year alongside Far Cry 6, and delaying his next Avatar game in 2022. Not to mention what’s happening with Skull & Bones, which has been delayed several times and appears to have been fully restarted in the middle of development.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s finances 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 are still making significant numbers for the company, which means it doesn’t necessarily have to produce several box office hits a year to keep making money – although based on the record breaking sales of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s release, it certainly doesn’t hurt.
Rebekah Valentine is an IGN reporter. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.