Oh man, so I was digging into this whole Ubisoft thing and got a bit sidetracked, but here goes. So, they’re this big French company (like, really big) and they just mentioned they’re facing a dip in their net bookings. About 2.9 percent down for the past three months. Turns out, they scooped up €281.6 million—or, if you’re more into dollars, $330.8 million—this last quarter. Yeah, I know, that’s still a chunk of change.
But, here’s the kicker: it’s not as high as they hoped. Rainbow Six: Siege didn’t bring the thunder they were expecting, and some partnership thingy they were counting on? Yeah, it got pushed to the next quarter. Classic case of “hurry up and wait,” right?
On the bright side, though, their older games are still selling pretty well, pulling in €260.4 million ($305.9 million) which, funnily enough, is better than last year by about 4.4 percent. Nostalgia, perhaps?
Now, about these Creative Houses they’ve got going on. It’s like they’re trying to shake things up internally. Imagine dividing yourself into little focus groups; that’s basically what’s happening at Ubisoft. The first one is backed by Tencent—some big name in the biz—and it got announced a while back.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s big boss (and co-founder), mentioned they’re doing this Creative Houses thing to boost creativity and all that jazz. Basically, it’s like giving the teams a bit more freedom and responsibility, hoping they’ll outperform and all that good stuff. The idea is to make each division, or house, unique and stronger in the long run.
That Tencent subsidiary, the one handling heavy-hitters like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry? Yeah, it’s gearing up. New leadership and all—big changes underway. Maybe this new setup will give them more agility and help them sort out their creative vision over time. Or maybe it’s just corporate jargon. Time will tell, I guess.
