Ubisoft, the multinational video game developer and publisher, has let loose flood at of new information in their 2015 earnings presentation, that was released yesterday. The presentation marked the announcement of an unnamed AAA title in development, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, release dates on up and coming games and, of course, some interesting financial data. Another key point is that going forward all Ubisoft games (except Just Dance) will release only on next-gen.
Unannounced AAA title coming in 2016
Ubisoft has an unannounced AAA title in development due for release by the end of March 2016.
The title will join previously announced games Rainbow Six Siege and The Division, as well as new games in the Assassin's Creed and Just Dance franchise.
Teased in the 2015 earnings report, the unannounced title is expected to become a "key driver" among the listed titles for Ubisoft in the coming year:
"The upcoming releases of the latest opuses of the Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance franchises as well as Tom Clancy's The Division, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and another triple-A title that has not yet been announced."
The 2015 earnings presentation highlighted Ubisoft's recognition of the demand for open-world titles, referring heavily to "Players’ growing appetite for Freedom" in games. It is not too much of a stretch to think that Ubisoft might want to steer the development of the unannounced AAA title in the direction to feed that appetite of gamers. For now, that is just speculation and we will have to wait to see exactly what Ubisoft has up their sleeve for 2016.
Ubisoft Sales: PS4 generates more revenue that Xbox One
For the fiscal years 2014-15, Ubisoft have seen a gross profit of 1.463 billion Euros and a net income of 112.7 million Euros.
PlayStation 4 has dominated the sales in the fiscal year, bringing in 32% of the revenue, followed by the Xbox, that generated 20% of the company's income. Taking a look at the latest quarter of sales, we something rather interesting. The latest quarter PS4 and PC were on top with 23%, followed by Xbox One with 19%. PC however, seems to be keeping in line with PS4 sales, as it too managed to pull in a fair share of the platform sales, with 23%.
The press release included a statement by President, Yves Guillemot, about the outlook for Fiscal Year 2015/2016.
“We have another very high-quality line-up for 2015-16, including new Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance® games, the hotly anticipated return of the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® franchise and the launch of a new high-potential creation, Tom Clancy’s The Division . Thanks to these new releases, very solid back-catalogue and digital revenues, and favorable exchange rates, we expect to see a further improvement in profitability.”
“We intend to continue pursuing our strategy of in-house creation of major franchises for the entertainment industry. Driven by ever more engaged communities, the ramp-up of our high-potential live services and overall growth in the sector, we believe this strategy puts us in a strong position for the foreseeable future”
Ubisoft also confirmed that going forward, all games will release exclusively on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC - with the exception of Just Dance. Yesterday Ubisoft also announced that Tom Clancy's The Division will be delayed until first quarter 2016.
What do you think about the latest information coming out of Ubisoft's 2015 financial report? Do you think Assassin's Creed Syndicate will live up to expectations? Do you think the unannounced title will be an open world game?
Let us know by commenting below or hitting us up on Twitter or Facebook.
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