Ubisoft CEO Insists XDefiant’s Strategy is ‘Core’ Amid Plummeting Financial Performance

Ubisoft has held a company call to update shareholders on the first-half performance of FY 2024. This call was pitted with negativity, with the firm’s leadership expressing a downturn in the portfolio that has led to drops as significant as -28.9% year-on-year.

While playtime and MAU counts are up, spending is down, and the recent poor performance of Star Wars: Outlaws has caused further internal issues at a time when things are already critical. However, the company’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, has reassured everyone that despite XDefiant’s woes, games-as-a-service remains a core strategy moving forward.

Not Much to Say

In one question lobbied at Ubisoft’s CEO during the recent financial call, the radio silence around XDefiant was noted. One analyst questioned why Ubisoft wasn’t talking about XDefiant and asked if it was an example of games-as-a-service not panning out for the firm.

To that, Yves Guillemot said:

XDefiant is behind our expectations but the games-as-a-service strategy remains core.

XDefiant was released in May 2024 as a live-service first-person shooter, and it’s due to kick off its third season of content in the coming months. Unfortunately for Ubisoft, the shooter has been plagued with issues since it dropped, and despite it being free and readily available, the player count has dwindled and gamers have lost interest.

And now, games like Black Ops 6 have stripped XDefiant’s audience to the bare bones.

In the recent earnings call, Ubisoft confirmed that sales were down 19.6% year-on-year, and back-cat net bookings were down by as much as 28.9%. Despite the drop in sales, playtime is up 9% and MAUs across Ubisoft’s suite of games sit at around 37 million, which marks a 3% increase YoY.

Yves Guillemot continued to reassure shareholders:

Despite recent setbacks, we are continuing to deeply transform Ubisoft in order to restore the level of creativity and innovation that built Ubisoft’s success while delivering stronger execution and predictability.

To succeed, we must redouble our focus on execution and reinforce a player-centric mindset in everything we do. For example, we are improving the quality of Star Wars Outlaws, including actively addressing player feedback through title updates as we get ready for the Steam launch, the first story pack, and the upcoming holiday season.

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.

Ubisoft has been in several tricky spots over the last few months, dealing with strikes, concerns of historical inaccuracies in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows (which may have contributed to delays), and suffering with the weight of layoffs and tightening purse strings.

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