During Ubisoft's report on its sales and earnings figures for the fiscal year ending on March 31, co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot spoke about the results and what the future holds for the company, as well as how their strategic plan has worked out.
"The execution of our strategic plan fully paid off in 2016-17, with further very strong growth for the digital segment - which now accounts for 50% of total sales - and an ever-more recurring profile," he explained. "With 44 million unique registered players, the size of the Tom Clancy community has increased by almost 150% in less than 18 months. This impressive performance for a brand created almost 20 years ago clearly illustrates the strong popularity of Ghost Recon Wildlands, Rainbow Six: Siege, and The Division. Our Live titles continue to beat records for player engagement and have seen a sharp rise in player recurring investment. Our results for 2016-17 demonstrate the success of our new model, with record high operating income and outperforming the target announced a year ago, and operating margin up for the third consecutive year."
"Over the last three fiscal years, Ubisoft has - with remarkable success - created numerous new brands and rebooted Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. These successes have strengthened our visibility for the coming two fiscal years, with a line-up of releases principally comprised of established franchises. In 2017-18 we will see the exciting returns of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, The Crew and South Park. In 2018-19 we intend to pursue our digital transformation and consolidate our new business model, which is much more recurring and more profitable and is now significantly less exposed to new releases. This revision of our assumptions gives greater visibility for meeting our targets."
Guillemot also outlined what he believes the future holds, as "beyond 2018-19 we will continue to catch up with our competitors in terms of player recurring investment, which represents huge value creation potential for our shareholders."
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