Ubisoft Announces 2.9% Decline in Net Bookings

Alright, so here’s the lowdown—and trust me, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. Ubisoft, that big-shot French gaming company, spilled the beans on a tiny 2.9% drop in their net bookings for the three months up to June 30th. Yeah, it’s not dramatic, but it’s something they’re yammering about.

So, they managed to rake in a cool €281.6 million (or $330.8 million if you’d rather think in greenbacks) for the start of their fiscal year. Now, they’re pointing fingers at a bunch of reasons—like Rainbow Six: Siege didn’t really bring its A-game and some big partnership deal that was supposed to drop in Q1 just ghosted them for now.

Yet, hold up—back catalog sales are apparently riding high. They pulled in €260.4 million ($305.9 million) for that first quarter, which is up 4.4% from last year. So, yay for old stuff, right?

Oh, and plot twist: Ubisoft’s mixing things up with this funky new idea they’ve got—Creative Houses. Sounds fancy, but it’s basically them slicing themselves into different sections. Their first big splash? Some Tencent-backed offspring they’ve been bragging about since early this year.

Yves Guillemot, the big cheese and co-founder, went off about their makeover: “We’re putting together these business units—Creative Houses. Think of it like diversifying our gaming smorgasbord with a focus on quality, autonomy, all that jazz.”

Pretty corporate-ish, but hey, he insists that these Creative Houses will boost creativity and shuffle their business game. The first player in this new game? A new arm handling heavyweights like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. They’ve also decided who’s gonna steer this ship, marking some kind of milestone as they aim to be more nimble while keeping their creative mojo intact.

And there you have it. No idea if it’s gonna pan out, but that’s Ubisoft for you—always cooking up something in their cauldron.