UBISOFT Reports First-Quarter 2019-20 Sales

Higher-than-expected performance, led notably by Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Rainbow Six Siege, and Player Recurring Investment

FIRST-QUARTER 2019-20: NET BOOKINGS ABOVE TARGET

	In €m	Reported change (%) vs. Q1 2018-19	% of total net bookings
	In €m	Reported change (%) vs. Q1 2018-19	Q1 2019-20	Q1 2018-19
Sales (IFRS 15)	363.4	-9.2%	N/A	N/A
Net bookings	314.2	-17.6%	N/A	N/A
Digital net bookings	292.4	+1.9%	93.1%	75.2%
*PRI net bookings*	150.4	+19.5%	47.9%	33.0%
Back-catalog net bookings	272.5	-18.1%	86.7%	87.2%

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: very sharp increase in daily engagement, PRI and sell-through compared with Assassin’s Creed^® Origins in the first quarter
Rainbow Six Siege:
- One of the industry’s top-ten best-selling titles over the last five years
- Q1 player engagement and PRI up year on year
- Agreement signed with Neowiz to make Rainbow Six Siege available in PC bangs in South Korea
The Division 2: the industry’s biggest hit since the beginning of the year
Strong E3 performance for Ubisoft:
- Ghost Recon Breakpoint: best sentiment score out of all E3 games
- Watch Dogs: Legion: more than 65 awards and nominations
- Roller Champions: the most streamed game of all E3 games
Games for Change Awards: Ubisoft won three G4C awards, including the Industry Leadership Award in recognition of how its “longstanding dedication to social impact and the positive power of games has proven to inspire many individuals all around the world.”

TARGETS FOR FULL-YEAR 2019-20 CONFIRMED

PARIS – Today, Ubisoft released its sales figures for the first quarter of fiscal 2019-20, i.e. the three months ended June 30, 2019.

Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said

“Our first-quarter net bookings came in well above target, thanks to the very robust performance of our games ‒ notably Rainbow Six Siege and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ‒ and a very strong increase in player recurring investment for PCs and consoles, led by record-high engagement levels per player. As well as this very good start to the fiscal year, the positive reception for our games at E3 has confirmed our full-year expectations. Ghost Recon Breakpoint was highly visible among content creators and earned a record-high sentiment score out of all E3 games. Watch Dogs: Legion made a huge impression thanks to its innovative gameplay, putting the franchise back in the spotlight. Our games line-up for fiscal 2019-20 – which also includes Rainbow Six Quarantine and Gods & Monsters – is one of our strongest in the last five years.

In the coming years, Ubisoft is ideally positioned to seize the many value creation opportunities that lie ahead and therefore to generate strong revenue growth and further increase its profitability.”

Sales and net bookings

Note

The Group presents indicators which are not prepared strictly in accordance with IFRS as it considers that they are the best reflection of its operating and financial performance. The definitions of the non-IFRS indicators are provided in an appendix to this press release

In € millions	Q1 2019-20	Q1 2018-19
Sales (IFRS 15)	363.4	400.0
Deferred services/other differences* between the two revenue recognition standards	(49.2)	(18.5)
Net bookings	314.2	381.5

* Concerning license and distribution agreements

IFRS 15 sales for the first quarter of 2019-20 came to €363.4 million (€354.0 million at constant exchange rates[7]), representing a 9.2% decrease compared with the €400.0 million reported for first-quarter 2018-19.

First-quarter 2019-20 net bookings amounted to €314.2 million, exceeding the target of around €270 million, and down 17.6% (or 19.8% at constant exchange rates) on the first-quarter 2018-19 figure of €381.5 million.

Outlook

Second-quarter 2019-20

Net bookings for the second quarter of 2019-20 are expected to amount to around €310 million, approximately 15.0% lower than in second-quarter 2018-19.

Full-year 2019-20

Ubisoft is standing by its full-year targets of:

Net bookings of around €2,185 million.
Non-IFRS operating income of around €480 million.

Recent significant events

Games for Change Awards: At the Games for Change festival, which took place in New York from June 17 to 19, 2019, the Ancient Egypt Discovery Tour mode of Assassin’s Creed Origins won both the Best Learning Game Award and the People’s Choice Award. Ubisoft also received the first-ever Industry Leadership Award in the history of Games for Change, recognizing the social engagement and positive power of all of the Ubisoft studios to inspire the industry to go further.

Galit Gordon

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I'm a published author and proud US Army veteran who happens to be a gamer, so I decided to combine the two and love every minute of it! Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments and I'll be sure to get back to you.