Investors push Ubisoft to sell amid struggles and weak performance

Video game behemoth Ubisoft is under tremendous pressure from investors. Its latest outing, Star Wars Outlaws, promised the world but delivered very little for the company, selling only one million copies in its first month of release. Nobody expected much more from the new Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which sold five million copies in three months. That was despite it being given warm reviews generally. This has left Ubisoft to delay the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows for about three months and cut the company’s expected financial outlook.
Total bookings now stand at approximately $2.1 billion, while net bookings for the second quarter have been revised down to $387-410 million from an earlier estimate of $554 million. The stock has currently touched a 10-year low as investors backed calls for a sale. Ubisoft reportedly is exploring offering a season pass for Assassin’s Creed Shadows to address performance, but the company admitted revised targets reflect the delay of Shadows and disappointment associated with the launch of Star Wars Outlaws.

AJ Investments is suing less than 1% of Ubisoft shares in tandem with other shareholders for pressure on the company to consider acquisition options, with private equity firms and Chinese gaming giant Tencent at the top of the list. AJ Investments has reportedly won support from 10% of the shareholders, and this investor is set to meet with Ubisoft management to thrash out a future for the firm. The investor threatened to stage a protest outside Ubisoft’s Paris headquarters if need be.

There are growing concerns that Assassin’s Creed Shadows might be a repeat of the sad fate met by Star Wars Outlaws, casting a shadow over one of the heavy-hitting titles coming from Ubisoft. While Ubisoft is committing to day-one Steam releases for its titles, the company still suffers from an image problem within the gaming community and is often cited among the “most hated” gaming brands. Outlaws should not have been bad at all, given the current backlash against Ubisoft in recent times and the overall dissatisfaction with content under the Star Wars name.