Ubisoft Share Price Tanks As Bad News Abounds

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
Ubisoft Share Price Tanks As Bad News Abounds


Ubisoft's share price has tumbled more than 25 percent, driven down by the Watch Dogs delay and "underperforming" Splinter Cell and Rayman releases.

Ubisoft dropped some unexpected bad news yesterday with the announcement that Watch Dogs, planned as a launch title for both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, was being adjust its sales expectations [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128707-Watch-Dogs-Delayed-to-2014] for the 2013-14 fiscal year downward by about a half-billion bucks, and today, not entirely surprisingly, the company's share price has been appropriately pummeled.

The Paris-based company closed yesterday at €11.09 and opened today [http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=UBI.PA+Interactive#symbol=UBI.PA;range=5d] at €8.01 before climbing to €8.19 at the time of writing, a drop of more than 26 percent. In a conference call to investors, Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez revealed that the delays of Watch Dogs and The Crew aren't the publisher's only troubles, as neither Splinter Cell: Blacklist nor Rayman Legends have performed as well as expected.

"As we have said we have experienced lower sales than we anticipated when we gave our targets," he said. "Already released games such as Splinter Cell, Rayman and others." He did not provide specific numbers.

Losing Watch Dogs and The Crew for the current fiscal year will provide Ubisoft a potentially big boost for 2014-15, but it's hard to imagine that they'll have the same impact: Missing the holiday quarter and the opportunity to be a PS4/Xbox One launch title is bound to diminish sales, quite likely to a significant extent. On the other hand, it's unlikely that Ubisoft is facing any kind of existential peril, so if you've got a few bucks kicking around this might not be a bad time to get in.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/433979/splinter-cell-blacklist-and-rayman-legends-have-underperformed-according-to-ubisoft-exec/]


Permalink
 

NinjaDeathSlap

Leaf on the wind
Feb 20, 2011
4,474
0
0
The Gentleman said:
*Starts buying Ubisoft Stocks like mad*

Time to make some money...
Indeed.

Let's face it, regardless of the quality of the game Assassin's Creed 4 is gonna make a shit-tonne of money, because it's assassins creed, and then Ubisofts share prices will be right back where they started. So anyone who buys Ubisoft stock in the next couple of months is gonna be a rich mother-fucker come January.
 

Frozengale

New member
Sep 9, 2009
761
0
0
I'm still miffed by them for pushing back Rayman Legends. If Watch Dogs isn't ready then it isn't ready, so be it. But Rayman Legends they pushed back almost an entire year because they made a last minute decision to release it on all consoles. So I can't really say I feel sorry for them when they make stupid decisions.
 

Tahaneira

Social Justice Rogue
Feb 1, 2011
377
0
0
And now it is virtually guaranteed that every company out there will avoid delaying a game unless they have no other option, even if it really needs it.

Wonderful.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
6,651
0
0
Yeah, AC4 will more than make up for this.

I have to agree with Total Biscuit about Watch Dogs delay. Ubisoft spent a lot of money on Watch Dogs advertising to make sure that people know about it, and to make sure that Watch Dogs is seen as the signature next-gen title. And now it's getting a significant delay. Delaying it for this long at this point means that something is seriously wrong with the game. And I doubt that the fault lies within the PC version. If it did, they'd just delay the PC version because they don't really care that much about the PC. But next-gen consoles are a different story.
 

Tireseas_v1legacy

Plop plop plop
Sep 28, 2009
2,419
0
0
MinionJoe said:
[quote.]... it's unlikely that Ubisoft is facing any kind of existential peril ...
Not unless EA or some other company uses the opportunity to enact a hostile takeover.[/quote]
Take over doesn't mean existential peril either. It just means they get owned by someone else (who is more likely to eject redundant management before actually hitting the money-making parts).
 

mad825

New member
Mar 28, 2010
3,379
0
0
Yeah, bad news is bad news.

They've most likly left themselves opened-up for the wolves to scavenge on them. If this is a good opportunity for the people, business won't be slow to react.
 

octafish

New member
Apr 23, 2010
5,137
0
0
95% of PC gamers find it hard to give a shit about Ubisoft's woes. I could have told them Blacklist would be disappointing, I am a little surprised that Rayman didn't do so well.
 

james.sponge

New member
Mar 4, 2013
409
0
0
octafish said:
95% of PC gamers find it hard to give a shit about Ubisoft's woes. I could have told them Blacklist would be disappointing, I am a little surprised that Rayman didn't do so well.
Yeah on the one hand it's good they are having a bad time. I mean they alienated basically all Chaos Theory fans and have to rely on unreliable IGN kids to support them with income now that SC became an action-adventure with stealth elements thrown for good measure.

On the other hand Ubi provided us with Far Cry 3 and FC Blood Dragon both games were great. In addition Watch Dogs looks extremely promising as well as South Park The Stick of Truth, I can bear that obnoxious DRM of theirs because those games seem to deserve that. Well, time will tell.
 

Dr.Awkward

New member
Mar 27, 2013
692
0
0
Maybe if they cut their marketing and sales budgets in half, perhaps they would be able to balance their overall budget. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one where seeing the AC4 commercial for the millionth time only makes me want the game less.
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
8,687
0
0
Adam Jensen said:
Yeah, AC4 will more than make up for this.
I wouldn't be so sure about that...Brotherhood, Revelations, and III were all received relatively poorly. I wouldn't be surprised if ACIV suffers due to the franchise's recent history. For proof of concept, I'd direct your attention to the example of Splinter Cell mentioned in the article. I don't know that the promise of pirates and the entire game being built around one of the few enjoyable aspects of ACIII (that being naval combat) will be enough to boost ACIV sales.
 

wooty

Vi Britannia
Aug 1, 2009
4,252
0
0
I can see the Watchdogs delay possibly having an impact on retail sales too. I've heard of a few people who have cancelled their PS4/Xbone pre-orders because of the delay, me included.