Ubisoft shared its results for the first half of its 2020-2021 financial year, posting net bookings of $880.09 million (€754.7 million). That is up 8.5% compared to the previous year, and 86% comes from digital net bookings.
The Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six publisher attributed the growth to the strength of its back catalog and live service games. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which came out two years ago, is selling more at this point in its life than its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Meanwhile, its hit multiplayer shooter Rainbow Six: Siege has over 65 million registered players.
Across all of its games, Ubisoft had 100 million active players on PC and console during the financial period.
Ubisoft has been trying to change its company culture after accusations of harassment and inappropriate behavior swarmed the publisher earlier this year. Along with its earnings, Ubisoft released a statement updating investors on its actions to combat these problems. This includes noting that 75% of Ubisoft’s teams have completed anti-sexism and anti-harassment training. Ubisoft also touts the creation of a new Content Review Committee, which will hopefully make sure that future games and ads will feature fewer tone-deaf gaffes.
While the back catalog carried the first half of the financial quarter, new releases will dominate the second part. The publisher has some big games coming out for the rest of this year, including Watch Dogs: Legion out today, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla on November 10, and Immortals: Fenyx Rising on December 3. Ubisoft could also see a boost thanks to the November launches of new consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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