The first quarter was not the most successful for Ubisoft in terms of sales. However, the company is going to compensate for this by attracting a new audience to its popular franchises. It’s about motivating users of free-to-play projects to buy premium AAA games in the same universe.Ubisoft CFO Frederick Duguet spoke about the new strategy.
During a conversation with investors, he explained why the drop in revenue in the first quarter is not a disaster.
According to Duguet, the current financial indicators are in line with the company’s expectations. It is important that Ubisoft’s existing hits continue to sell well. And the upcoming freeplay games will help spur sales of hits from the back catalog.
“We will measure the impact of free—play games on other projects from our portfolio to determine their success,” Duguet stressed.
The company hopes that Tom Clancy’s XDefiant and The Division: Heartland will attract new players who will be interested in premium games on these IP in the future. According to Duguet, this will strengthen the overall performance of all Ubisoft brands.
“This strategy will build a bridge between premium and free-to-play games. This will help us create a beneficial circle for players who prefer different game modes and business models,” explained Duguet.
Previously, Ubisoft has already talked about its intention to abandon the annual release of three or four premium AAA games. However, this does not mean that the company will completely go into frituplay — it will simply release more projects in general, trying to expand the presence of its franchises on all possible platforms. 80% of Ubisoft’s current investments will still be spent on AAA titles.
The creation of The Division universe also speaks about the company’s plans to release projects on different platforms. It will consist of premium games, movies and freeplay titles. Ubisoft’s new strategy is also confirmed by recent news about Assassin’s Creed Infinity, an online platform on which a variety of projects will be released.