Ubisoft hopes for record quarter from Assassin’s Creed Shadows to stop its bleeding

Latest report shows devastating first half of the financial year

Ubisoft

Ubisoft released its financial report for the first half of FY 2024-25 (ending on March 31, 2025), posting a decrease in net bookings of 22% compared to the same time last year. All areas of business suffered from decline – even the company’s back catalog performed worse by 29%.

Rainbow Six: Siege, the studio’s eternal workhorse, showed a “solid” performance with other positive mentions going to The Crew, Riders Republic, and the Ghost Recon franchise. The company emphasized that player activity metrics went up over the last six months across all platforms.

Star Wars Outlaws “underperformed sales expectations,” though Ubisoft hopes that its first DLC and Steam launch on November 21, 2024, can turn things around. “This should engage a large audience during the holiday season and position the game as a strong long-term performer,” the report stated.

XDefiant was also named as a game facing challenges in the competitive market for first-person shooters.

Updating shareholders on its cost-cutting program, the company reported that it had reduced its workforce by around 2,000 over the last two years to a total of 18,666 at the end of September 2024.

Looking forward, Ubisoft appears to be hoping for a record Q4 of FY 2024-25 to salvage the year, meaning that it’s betting big on Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The series entry set in feudal Japan is set for a February 2025 release date after its recent delay. The company stated that it’s putting an extra €20 million EUR into Shadows’ development and quality control to ensure that its launch is smooth. Assassin’s Creed Shadows will also come to Steam immediately at launch, instead of being confined to Ubisoft’s exclusive PC platform.

“We are also taking the additional time to ensure that the upcoming very ambitious opus in our flagship franchise, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, is a highly polished, exceptional experience on day one and that it resonates strongly with players,” co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said.

Guillemot added that the current efforts of the studio are on “improving our execution focused on a player-centric and gameplay-first approach.”