Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws Underperforms, Impacting Share Price
Ubisoft's highly anticipated Star Wars Outlaws, intended as a financial turnaround point, has reportedly underperformed in sales, causing a dip in the company's share price. Despite positive critical reception, sales have been described as sluggish, leading to consecutive days of share price decline.
Initial projections for Star Wars Outlaws were significantly higher than current performance. J.P. Morgan analyst Daniel Kerven revised his sales forecast downward from 7.5 million units to 5.5 million units by March 2025. This follows the game's release on August 30th.
Ubisoft's Q1 2024-25 sales report emphasized the importance of Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin's Creed Shadows (AC Shadows) as key drivers of future growth and organizational transformation. While the company reported a 15% increase in console and PC session days, largely due to Games-as-a-Service, and a 7% year-on-year increase in monthly active users (MAUs) to 38 million, the underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws casts a shadow on these positive metrics.
The market reacted negatively to the sales figures. On September 3rd, Ubisoft's share price fell 5.1%, followed by a further 2.4% drop the next morning, reaching its lowest point since 2015. This adds to a significant 30%+ drop experienced since the beginning of the year.
The discrepancy between critical acclaim and player reception is notable. While critics generally praised the game, the user score on Metacritic stands at a mere 4.5 out of 10. Conversely, Game8 awarded Star Wars Outlaws a 90/100 rating, hailing it as an exceptional title. For a more detailed perspective, consult our full review [link to review].
