Ubisoft had a tough year, but is pleased with Assassin's Creed: Shadows release. Company hopes for a new opening thanks to its partnership with Tencent

The successful launch of Assassin's Creed: Shadows has made Ubisoft look to the future with hope, even though it ended the year on a sizable negative note. The company is counting on its partnership with Tencent to help it come out ahead.

Hubert Sledziewski

May 15, 2025 05:52

Ubisoft had a tough year, but is pleased with Assassin's Creed: Shadows release. Company hopes for a new opening thanks to its partnership with Tencent Source: Ubisoft.

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Ubisoft just released its financial report for the fiscal year 2024-2025, covering the period from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. The total revenue of the French company was almost 1.9 billion euros, which was 17.5% lower than the one generated in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Nonetheless, the company seems happy with the result, as they mention that it is only "slightly lower than intended," which is due to "worse-than-expected partnerships, especially the age of time."

Of course, most of that amount comes from sales of games, DLC, subscriptions, virtual items, etc. It's almost 1.85 billion euros, which is 20.5% worse compared to last year.

It's important to note that 85.9% of this amount came from digital goods, which is about 1.59 billion euros. In the previous 12 months, it was 85.6%. Also, a whopping 70.2% (around 1.3 billion euros) were products from the "back catalog," meaning they were released in previous years, including games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
For comparison: in the fiscal year 2023-2024, they constituted "only" 64.5% of the total revenue, which, let's remind, was 17.5% higher than the one generated in the year 2024-2025.

Successful Assassin's Creed: Shadows release

It's important to note that AC: Odyssey, but it can be assumed that the financial report published today doesn't fully reflect the impact of AC: Shadows on Ubisoft, which will only become apparent in the coming months.

Either way, the French corporation seems to be pleased with the launch of Assassin's Creed: Shadows. As we read, the game "prompted very strong praise from players and delivered a solid performance, clearly ahead of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, highlighting the strength of the brand." The last statement is about the sales on the first day after the release, which turned out to be lower only compared to AC: Valhalla.

Besides, according to Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows has an average player rating of around 91/100 across all major platforms, and players have already spent over 160 million hours in the game, which is supposed to "highlight its engaging gameplay and the enduring appeal of the franchise."

New chapter for Ubisoft

The report also mentioned the ongoing transformation of Ubisoft, linked to a major investment from Tencent as a strategic partner. The transaction should be finalized by the end of the year, which will allow the announcement of the rules of the "new organization," and most importantly, end the current fiscal year with a profit. The savings resulting from restructuring are also indispensable in this regard. Within two years, the company plans to reduce costs by 110 million euros, focusing primarily on open-world action-adventure games and games-as-a-service.