Alright, here goes nothing. So, Ubisoft—you know, the French gaming bigwig that’s been around forever—just had this sorta meh quarter. Like, their net bookings took a hit, dropping 2.9% for the three months ending June 30th. Not exactly the news you’d send a postcard home about.
Apparently, they raked in €281.6 million, which in non-Euro speak is around $330.8 million. And you might wonder, why the drop? Well, they blamed it on a mix of things. Rainbow Six: Siege didn’t quite hit the bullseye, and some big deal got pushed to the next quarter. Timing, right?
But hey, not all doom and gloom. Their old game sales are cruising along nicely, pulling in €260.4 million—that’s $305.9 million if you’re counting at home. That’s actually up 4.4% from last year. Go figure.
Now, here’s where it gets kinda interesting, if you’re into corporate shuffleboard. Ubisoft is shaking things up with this new concept called Creative Houses. Don’t ask me to explain it perfectly—sounds like they’re forming little mini-companies inside the big company. The first one’s backed by Tencent. Yup, the big bucks.
CEO Yves Guillemot (and man, don’t ask me to say it out loud without butchering it) mentioned they’re transforming. Basically, organizing into these ‘houses’ should supposedly boost creativity and, you know, all that good stuff. Each “house” will have its own vibe and focus.
There’s this new subsidiary, keeping an eye on their biggest titles—Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. It’s like the cool club of their games, I guess. They announced some new leadership over there, too, which Guillemot claims is a big step towards making them more nimble, yet stable. However that works.
So, will this work out? No clue. But it sounds like Ubisoft’s trying hard to keep the creative juices flowing while boosting performance. Let’s see where they go with this.
