Ubisoft Announces 2.9% Decline in Net Bookings

Alright, so let me just say this upfront—I have no clue why this caught my attention, but it did. Ubisoft, right? It’s this giant French publisher. Apparently, their net bookings are down by 2.9% for the quarter ending June 30th. Not great, but not a disaster either. They pulled in about €281.6 million, which is like $330.8 million? Math is not my thing.

Anyway, they’re saying this little dip was because Rainbow Six: Siege didn’t do as well as they hoped. And, oh, there was this partnership that was supposed to happen, but it got pushed to the next quarter. Timing, huh? Or just bad luck—who knows?

Their back catalog, though, is killing it. A whopping €260.4 million (around $305.9 million) came in from that. They’ve actually seen a 4.4% bump from last year. Kind of like discovering money in your winter coat after a long forgotten spring.

Now, here’s where it gets a bit wild: They’re doing this whole restructuring thing. They call it “Creative Houses.” Sounds fancy, but it’s like splitting into different sections, kind of. The first one’s got backing from Tencent, you know, the big name. They dropped this news earlier this year.

Yves Guillemot, CEO and co-founder—honestly, cool name, right? He talked about Ubisoft’s transformation. Buzzword alert! They’re doing these Creative Houses to have different experiences or whatever. Claims it’ll lead to better quality, more focus, and some other corporate spiel. Picture a bunch of tiny Ubisofts inside the big Ubisoft, each doing their own groovy gaming thing.

The Tencent-backed one will handle Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Biggies! They just announced who’s going to lead it too. It’s supposedly part of some grand plan to stay creative but also stable.

Honestly, maybe it’ll work. Or maybe it’s just corporate jazz. We’ll see.