Ubisoft Announces 2.9% Decline in Net Bookings

Alright, so picture this: Ubisoft, the big ol’ French gaming company, just dropped some news that’s got a lot of folks buzzing. Apparently, their net bookings took a little bit of a tumble—a 2.9% dip for the three months ending June 30th or something like that. But hey, don’t freak out just yet. They’re still pulling in a hefty €281.6 million, which, for us dollar folks, is like $330.8 million. Not exactly broke, right?

Now, why the drop, you ask? Well, they say it’s a mix of things. Rainbow Six: Siege didn’t exactly light the world on fire this time, and some big partnership they were banking on kinda got postponed to next quarter. Timing, huh?

But here’s a twist: their back catalog—yeah, all those older games—is actually doing pretty well. We’re talking €260.4 million in the first quarter alone, up 4.4% from last year. Not too shabby for oldies, huh?

Oh, and get this: Ubisoft is shaking things up internally. They’re breaking into something they’re calling Creative Houses. Sounds fancy, right? Honestly, it feels like they’re just creating little mini-companies within the company. The first one already has Tencent’s backing—yeah, them.

Yves Guillemot, the CEO and co-founder, gave the lowdown on this. Something about enhancing quality, focus, autonomy, and all those corporate buzzwords. Each Creative House is supposed to pump up creativity and business like nobody’s business. I guess that’s the plan, anyway.

And, side note, the first of these Creative Houses is supposed to handle all the big guns—Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six. So, it’s kinda a big deal. They even announced who’s heading it up. Maybe this will make things more streamlined and future-proof? Or it’s just another reorg. Who knows.

Anyway, that’s the skinny on Ubisoft right now. Fascinating stuff, or maybe not, but there it is.