Ubisoft gets more revenue from PC games than Xbox One games
Ubisoft earned more revenue from PC game sales than Xbox One in the quarter. The Xbox One’s share of sales remained the same. Mainly due to the PC game Rainbow Six: Siege, the share of the PC platform continues to grow steadily.
When the revenue from sales is broken down across the different platforms, the PC accounted for 24 percent of the total revenue from game sales; the Xbox One had a 22 percent share of that. In the same quarter a year earlier, the share of PC games still stood at 21 percent and the Xbox One was already at 22 percent. In the first quarter of the 2016-2017 financial year, the PC also surpassed the Xbox One: 26 percent compared to 23 percent of the Xbox One. Over the entire fiscal year, PC sales accounted for 18 percent. In total, sales amounted to EUR 400 million in the past quarter.
The PlayStation 4 was still good for a share of 38 percent in the past quarter, but that was 44 percent a year earlier. In addition to the PC, the Nintendo Switch is another clear riser. The console was still good for 1 percent in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, but already had a share of 5 percent in the past quarter.
The increasing share of the PC platform in total sales relative to other platforms is largely explained by the revenues from the PC title Rainbox Six: Siege. During the announcement of the figures for the past fiscal year 2018, Ubisoft already spoke about expanding the opportunities in e-sports. It’s really just about Rainbow Six: Siege. The game has more than 30 million registered players and the viewership to the latest Six Invitational tournament increased by 300 percent. Ubisoft said earlier that the potential in the PC market is huge, especially in China.
Ubisoft also said that the player recurring investment category is still on the rise. This concerns the sale of microtransactions, DLC and the sale of loot boxes. In short, services and products that still generate money in addition to the sale of the games themselves. This income increased by 51.5 percent to almost 126 million euros. This category has been a major growth engine for game publishers for some time now. Over the past fiscal year, Ubisoft’s ‘recurring player spend’ rose by 59 percent to EUR 483 million.