Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws: A Sales Disappointment Despite Critical Acclaim?
Ubisoft pinned significant hopes on Star Wars Outlaws as a financial turnaround, but initial sales figures have reportedly fallen short of expectations, impacting the company's share price. Last week saw consecutive drops, raising concerns about the game's market performance.
The game, launched on August 30th, received generally positive critical reviews. However, this positive reception hasn't translated into strong sales, leading to a downward revision of sales projections by analysts like J.P. Morgan's Daniel Kerven. Kerven reduced his sales forecast from 7.5 million units to 5.5 million units by March 2025, citing "sluggish" performance.
This underperformance, coupled with the anticipated success of Assassin's Creed Shadows, another key title for Ubisoft, has impacted investor confidence. The company's share price experienced a significant decline—falling 5.1% on Monday and a further 2.4% on Tuesday, reaching its lowest point since 2015. This adds to an already substantial year-to-date drop exceeding 30%.
While Ubisoft highlights a 15% increase in console and PC session days and a 7% year-on-year rise in monthly active users (MAUs) to 38 million, driven largely by Games-as-a-Service titles, the underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws casts a shadow on the company's overall financial outlook for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The stark contrast between positive critical reception (e.g., a 90/100 rating from Game8) and a significantly lower user score of 4.5/10 on Metacritic underscores the disconnect between critical acclaim and consumer response. The situation leaves Ubisoft facing challenges in its efforts to reposition itself financially.
