Ubisoft aims to add crossplay to all pvp games

In a conference call with investors, Ubisoft’s CEO stated that the goal is to bring crossplay support to all pvp games. He says that cross-play developments are well underway at the company.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft added cross-platform support to its free-to-play fighting game Brawlhalla. According to Yves Guillemot, the goal is to add this support to all pvp games from Ubisoft, gamesindustry.biz writes based on his statements. Brawlhalla is currently the only cross-platform game from Ubisoft, next to the World Dance Floor mode of the game Just Dance, but more titles will be added in due course. There are more and more games where players can play against each other on both PC and consoles. Apart from Ubisoft, this includes Fortnite, Minecraft, Dauntless, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Rocket League.

Current Ubisoft pvp games include For Honor and Rainbow Six Siege, for example. The latter game is doing well according to Ubisoft. The company reports in its quarterly figures that the multiplayer game has a ‘record number of active players’, although the publisher does not give exact figures. Ubisoft does say that the game has 50 million registered players on all platforms combined. It is unclear whether players who have only tried the game during a free weekend, for example, are also included.

Ubisoft also speaks of a “further increase” in daily player engagement in Rainbow Six Siege and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. The company reports an increase in player recurring investments of 18.3 percent compared to the same period last year. This includes the sale of DLC, season passes and microtransactions. A continued sharp rise in revenue in this category has been a pattern for game publishers for years and Ubisoft is no different.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft postponed several upcoming games and lowered its earnings estimates due to disappointing results from Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. In its quarterly earnings report, Ubisoft says the company’s revenues have declined due to impairment charges related to Breakpoint. This is a loss of goodwill and, in simple terms, amounts to lost revenue due to reputational damage. Ubisoft reports that operating income, which represents sales before tax, depreciation and dividend, is down 93 percent from last year. The company does say that its revenue target for the past quarter has been achieved.