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Ubisoft’s stock plummeted last week after the developer-publisher announced plans to push back the release of three of its upcoming games – Watch Dogs Legion, Gods & Monsters, and Rainbow Six Quarantine – until the next financial year.
Initially, the three triple-A games were due to release before the end of March 2020, with both Gods & Monsters and Watch Dogs: Legion securing firm releases dates of February 25th and March 6th, 2020 respectively. Now, all three games have been pushed back to April 2020 to March 2021.
Ubisoft announced last week it was lowering its financial targets for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, now expecting net bookings of $1.6 billion. The adjustments are occurring due to the underwhelming launch of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint which released to generally mediocre review scores and “very disappointing” sales, prompting Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot to say “we need to make sure there is more time between each iteration of live games”.
“While each of these games already has a strong identity and high potential, we want our teams to have more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players,” Guillemot said.
The CEO also mentioned the company has been disappointed by The Division 2, too.
Consequently, Bloomberg reports (thanks, Eurogamer) the lowering of its net bookings projection and the rescaling of its operating income from €480 million to €20-50 million sent the publisher’s stock tumbling by as much as 29 per cent in Paris on Friday, falling 22 per cent to their lowest level for six years.
Interestingly, Guillemot finished his statement by mentioning the company’s enthusiasm to develop existing franchises, but also to “fully tap the potential of the mobile market [and] to accelerate our growth in Asia and esports” suggesting that Ubisoft may be keen to get more involved in esports in future.
