Ubisoft net bookings ahead of projections in Q1
Company reports $466 million in sales for the quarter, remains on track for full-year estimates
Ubisoft has released its first quarter financials for the current fiscal year of 2018-2019, reporting €400 million ($466 million) in sales and an 88.8% spike in net bookings, considerably ahead of projections for the quarter.
The original net bookings target for Q1 was around €350.0 million. Ubisoft posted €381.5 million ($444.8 million), with digital net bookings making up 75.2% of the total at €287 million ($334.6 million).
By platform, PlayStation 4 accounted for 38% of Ubisoft's Q1 net bookings, the most of any platform. It was followed by PC at 24% and Xbox One at 22%. The Nintendo Switch at 5% was behind even mobile, which accounted for 8%, with older consoles making up the remainder.
By region, 45% of the company's net bookings came from North America. 35% were from Europe, and the rest of the world made up the remaining 20%.
"We had a record first quarter, which exceeded our expectations," said CEO Yves Guillemot. "This performance was fueled by steady growth for our back catalog and an excellent momentum for PRI (player recurrent investment), once again confirming the increasingly recurring profile of our business and the ever-greater success of our digital transformation."
Looking forward, the company remains optimistic for the remainder of the fiscal year and the second quarter in particular, expecting a year on year increase in net bookings due to Ubisoft's back catalog and initial in-store shipments of Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
For the second quarter, Ubisoft anticipates sales between €345 million ($402.1 million) and €355 million ($413.8 million) and net bookings at around €345.0 million ($402.1 million), compared to €264.2 million ($307.9 million) in net bookings for the second quarter of last year.
Ubisoft says it remains on target for its yearly anticipated sales of around €2 billion ($2.3 billion) and net bookings around €2.1 billion ($2.4 billion). Along with Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Ubisoft has Tom Clancy's The Division 2 on their way before the end of the fiscal year.