Ubisoft Announces 2.9% Decline in Net Bookings

Sure, let’s dive in—Ubisoft, the big player in the game world from France, just had a bit of a stumble. Their net bookings dropped by 2.9% for the quarter ending on June 30th. Yeah, not the greatest news.

They told their shareholders (the folks with the money) that they pulled in €281.6 million, or around $330.8 million if that’s more your cup of tea. Not terrible numbers, but not exactly what they were hoping for. Apparently, Rainbow Six: Siege didn’t quite bring the house down, and a new partnership they were counting on this quarter got pushed to the next. Bummer, right?

But hold on—there’s a bright spot! Their back catalog is doing the heavy lifting, bringing in €260.4 million, which is a nice little 4.4% bump from last year. So, old games still rock, I guess. Go figure.

Now, here’s where it gets funky. Ubisoft is shaking things up by setting up “Creative Houses.” Sounds fancy, right? It’s basically them organizing into units. The first one is backed by Tencent, which they mentioned earlier this year. No idea what that partnership is like, but it sure sounds intriguing.

Yves Guillemot, the CEO, had a few choice words about this whole transformation thing. He’s all about building “Creative Houses” to foster better games and business mojo. Each house will have a distinct vibe and hopefully jazz up their creative output and performance. He was pretty pumped about setting up these units, saying they’re essential for keeping things stable yet innovative.

It’s kind of like rearranging the furniture in your room to spark new ideas—only on a much larger scale with games like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six leading the charge. They’re setting up their leadership team, which feels like a big step in this whole reshuffle adventure. Let’s see how that pans out.