Ubisoft has told investors that times are a-changin’ and it will no longer solely rely on releasing 3-4 premium AAA video games each financial year. The company now wants to expand its content by adding high-quality free-to-play games to the mix.
Evidently inspired by the success of titles like Call of Duty: Warzone, Ubisoft’s chief financial officer Frederick Duguet said:
In line with the evolution of our high-quality line-up that is increasingly diverse, we are moving on from our prior comment regarding releasing 3-4 premium AAAs per year. It is indeed no longer a proper indication of our value creation dynamics. For example, our expectation for Just Dance and Riders Republic are consistent with some of the industry’s AAA performers. Additionally, we are building high-end free-to-play games to be trending towards AAA ambitions over the long-term. This is purely a financial communication evolution and doesn’t change the fact that we continue to expect a high cadence of content delivery including powerful premium and free-to-play new releases.
Duguet’s comments were apparently misinterpreted by a number of publications, who reported that Ubisoft is now steering away from 3-4 premium AAAs per year in favor of F2P games. A senior analyst from the company took to Twitter to clarify the aforementioned statements.
“It’s in reference to F2P becoming a larger share of the revenue pie, not an indication that there will be less traditional paid games like Assassin’s Creed,” he wrote. “The content mix is expanding, not changing. A good comp is the evolution of Call of Duty since Warzone.”
