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Just six months ago, Vivendi ended its attempt at a hostile takeover of Ubisoft, the big French video game publisher. And today, Ubisoft exceeded its financial targets for its second fiscal quarter and first half ended September 30.
The French publishing giant also said its latest Assassin’s Creed action-adventure game, Odyssey, had a strong launch on October 5, after the close of the quarter.
Sales came in at $870 million for the first half ended September 30. Sales for the third quarter ended September 30 were $416 million, above Ubisoft’s expectations at the high end of $403 million. Operating income was $106 million, well above the $3.5 million for the same period for a year ago.
Regarding Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement, “Community reception has been extremely favorable and player engagement rose once again, confirming the franchise’s entry among the very best [role-playing games].”
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Guillemot said Ubisoft is ramping up its presence in e-sports, artificial intelligence and streaming. He also said mobile game sales and PC sales are increasing, with the latter especially strong across all of Asia.
Ubisoft said it is standing by its previous estimates of full year revenue of $2.2 billion and operating income of $500 million.
In the first half, digital sales were 69 percent of revenues, and back-catalog bookings were 75 percent of overall bookings. Ubisoft has a net debt of $382 million, down from $622 million six months ago.
In an analysts call, Ubisoft said that monthly active users for Rainbow Six Siege, which has 40 million players, was up in October. And Far Cry 5 continues to outperform Far Cry 4 about six months after launch.
For Honor, meanwhile, is benefting from its Marching Fire downloadable content, with a four-versus-four castle siege mode. That game has 15 million players. Mobile revenues for games like Hungry Shark are up 60 percent.
Next year, Ubisoft has a big launch coming with Tom Clancy’s The Division 2.
Guillemot concluded, “The overall video game industry continues to thrive.”
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