Today Ubisoft held its quarterly earnings call and overall, things look pretty great for the company financially. The publisher reports that 2018 was its strongest year ever, supported by its service games as well as mostly strong release sales. Overall, Ubisoft brought in over 2.27 billion dollars, a 17% increase over the previous year.
A big bulletin in the report was Rainbow Six Siege (shown) bringing in over a billion dollars for the company since its launch back in 2015. Not bad for a game that many doubted thanks to its rough launch. Far Cry 5 is also the biggest-selling game for Ubisoft’s current generational titles. The publisher also made sure to call out its engagement numbers, pointing to Siege’s audience of 45 million players, a 40% increase since last year.
However, on the less rosy side of things, Ubisoft reports that the console version of The Division 2 didn’t meet the company’s initial sales expectations (though the PC version is performing well). Given Ubisoft’s investment in service structures for its game, it’ll be interesting to see how microtransactions affect The Division 2’s profitability in the year to come.
While The Division 2’s lackluster performance might stand out amidst all the other success stories in this earnings report, it’s worth keeping in mind that Ubisoft, like no other publisher out there, plays the long game, offering continuous support for titles like For Honor and Siege to court communities and keep players invested in the games. As far as The Division 2 goes, this seems like it could very much be a “lost the battle but will win the war” situation.
