(BFM Bourse) – The video game publisher announced that this game was the biggest success of “The Crew” license in its first week. Even if it is not the group’s most important game, this good start constitutes a positive signal for the company, which will have a series of important releases in the coming months.
In a sluggish market, with an SBF 120 which is barely 0.36%, Ubisoft stands out once again. The video game publisher rose 5.7% around 11 a.m., to 29.88 euros, marking the largest increase in the SBF 120.
The progression of the title is linked to the announcement, Tuesday evening, of the good start of “The Crew Motorfest”. This title is the third opus in the “The Crew” series, an online racing game in an open world launched in 2014 with a second part “The Crew 2” released four years later.
Ubisoft announced in a statement that “The Crew Motorfest” was “the highest-rated title in the franchise and [avait] “experienced the franchise’s best first week in terms of total unit sales, overall consumer spending and season pass adoption rate.”
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A good reception
IGN France, for example, gave a score of 7, judging the title “fun and cool” while believing “that it’s missing a little something”. On the site jeuxvideo.com, readers on average rated the game with a score of 16.7, which is rather good given that readers tend to be more severe than the media.
“We are delighted with the enthusiastic reception that has broken all records for the franchise, and we would like to thank our community for their incredible support,” said Ahmed Boukhelifa, managing director of Ubisoft Ivory Tower, quoted in the press release from the society.
The game is available on most consoles currently in existence, namely Playstation 5 and 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and on PC.
“The Crew” is not the most important franchise from the Franco-Canadian company. In a note published in May, UBS expected total video game sales for Ubisoft’s entire 2023-2024 fiscal year, ending next March, of 30 million. But, in these forecasts, “The Crew Motorfest” would only bring in 2 million units this year, compared to 4 million for “Skull and Bones”, 6 million for the game Avatar and 10 million for the new Assassin’s Creed.
A good omen for the “AAA”
However, this good start for the group’s first release this fall sends a positive message for the publisher’s next “AAA” games (video game blockbusters) which are arriving soon.
“Without being major because The Crew was far from being expected as the main contributor of the exercise, this news is good and has the merit of launching the pipeline (the catalog of future games, Editor’s note)”, appreciates TP ICAP Midcap which confirmed its purchase opinion on Ubisoft.
“It’s very encouraging given that this is their first outing,” adds a financial analyst.
Many major Ubisoft games will soon hit the shelves. The big piece will notably be “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” which is scheduled for release in early October. “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” will arrive in early December. “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown” is scheduled for January 18. “Star Wars Outlaw”, which made a strong impression during its presentation a few months ago, should be released at the beginning of 2024.
This large catalog of releases is not without risk for Ubisoft to the extent that other publishers will market flagship titles in the coming months and that high inflation could force players to limit their purchases and to be very demanding in their choices.
At the end of August, Ubisoft shares gained more than 8% after the group announced that it would buy the rights to streaming games from Activision-Blizzard on the condition that Microsoft’s takeover of the studio comes to an end. This was appreciated by investors, because such a decision would strengthen the group’s own online distribution platform (Ubisoft+) thus allowing it to improve its profitability, because direct online sales are made with much less intermediary costs and are therefore more profitable.
Julien Marion – ©2023 BFM Bourse
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