Ubisoft shares hit decade low following Assassin's Creed delay

Shares in French video game company fell 19% in Paris after announcing new game would now be released next February instead of November

The company's other high-profile release this year Star Wars Outlaws underperformed in August after receiving middling reviews. Picture: Troy Harvey/Bloomberg

Shares in game developer Ubisoft Entertainment fell to their lowest in more than a decade after the French video game company cut its outlook on weaker-than-expected sales and delayed the hotly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

The company said Assassin’s Creed Shadows would now debut on February 14 next year. It was supposed to come out in November. 

It added it needed more time to improve the game after its recent high-profile release Star Wars Outlaws underperformed.

Shares in the company fell 19% in Paris earlier on Thursday, hitting the lowest level since November 2013.

Ubisoft has over the past couple of years struggled to recover from a pandemic-era production crunch that resulted in delays in the release of new games and cancelled titles. Pushing back the latest Assassin’s Creed title also means it skips the lucrative holiday period.

Ubisoft said it now expected bookings of €1.95bn during its 2025 fiscal year which ends in March. Analysts were expecting €2.42bn, on average, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Net bookings in the fiscal second quarter are now projected to be €350m to €370m, the company said. It previously forecast about €550m.

“The revised targets are mainly a reflection of decisions taken for Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the softer-than-expected launch for Star Wars Outlaws,” Ubisoft said.

Star Wars Outlaws received middling reviews after its August launch. Ubisoft said it would strive to avoid similar mistakes with Assassin’s Creed Shadows ahead of the holiday season.

“This will enable the biggest entry in the franchise to fully deliver on its ambition,” according to Ubisoft.

Unlike prior entries in the Assassin’s Creed series, the upcoming title will not include a season pass, which supplied new content in exchange for an added fee.

The latest guidance miss is Ubisoft’s fifth in six years, said analysts Doug Creutz and Mei Lun Quach from investment bank TD Cowen. The board has not held management accountable for “repeated failures in a way that serves the interest of external shareholders”, they added.

“Ubisoft has both high-quality game IP and talented developers; despite that, the last six years have been an almost non-stop parade of game delays, followed by game launches that are still undercooked, as well as misallocation of capital to games that probably never should have been green-lit in the first place,” they said.

Bloomberg