(News Bulletin 247) – The video game publisher held this conference on Monday evening during which the group took stock of its upcoming releases. Notably star wars outlawswhich impressed the specialized press.

Ubisoft had no room for error for its great oral. The video game publisher held its “Ubisoft Forward” conference live from Los Angeles on Monday evening, which allowed it to take stock of many major expected releases.

The group controlled by the Guillemot family was expected at the turn after a 2022-2023 financial year ended last March which led it to postpone several major games and burn more than 400 million euros in cash. In addition, the company expects the current year at least five big titles at a time when the deterioration of the economy leads players to be selective in their purchases. In other words, the video game publisher does not really have the right to make mistakes on the quality of its titles.

Overall this event was rather well received by the specialized press, jeuxvidéo.com evoking “a reassuring conference”. “From the huge gameplay of star wars outlaws on release date from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandorapassing through updates on a trio of titles Assassin’s CreedUbisoft was full of novelties during this presentation”, writes for its part IGN.

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Promising returns for Star Wars

Ubisoft has indeed wowed critics by unveiling gameplay footage from star wars outlaws which our colleagues at BFM Tech described as “extremely exciting”. This open world game will give pride of place to banditry in the universe of the famous science fiction license and will be released in 2024. “The first returns seem very promising”, notes Invest Securities.

In other notable points, Ubisoft gave a release date for Frontiers of Pandora Avatarstaken from James Cameron’s cinematic series (December 7), again revealing gameplay sequences reminiscent of the series far cry. The game “promises to be sumptuous”, consider our colleagues from BFM Tech.

The group has also given dates for two other big expected releases namely Assassin’s Creed Mirage scheduled for October 12, and Prince of Persia: The Lost CrownJanuary 18.

“Recall that the last opus of Assassin’s Creed had generated more than 1 billion dollars in revenue just over a year after its launch. The next one does not seem to be taking any risks but still tweaking the style that made the success of the game”, note TP ICAP Midcap.

“Champagne years”

As for Skull and Bones, pirate game postponed time and time again, the company explained that the beta of the game would start on August 25 and end on August 28 but did not give a precise release date. Remember that this game is expected during Ubisoft’s 2023-2024 fiscal year, which runs from last April to the end of next March.

In the end, Invest Securities appreciates “a reassuring presentation” with star wars outlaws in “good surprise”. TP ICAP Midcap evokes for its conference side “very rich, clearly up to expectations with many spaces left for gameplay”. “The famous ‘champagne’ years that we were waiting for the group will therefore finally arrive. (…) And this time there are dates, close dates that allow us to see this long-awaited take-off”, continues the design office which reiterated its recommendation to buy and its target price of 80 euros.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Ubisoft shares took only 0.04% at 11 a.m. after having nevertheless gained 3% during Monday’s session. It should be emphasized that star wars outlaws had actually been unveiled on Sunday during an Xbox conference with a trailer. The same applies to Prince of Persia And Assassin’s Creed Mirage which had already been announced at previous events.

The UBS bank, which has advice to “sell” on Ubisoft, is less convinced of this presentation, which it describes as “mixed”.

“While the new Star Wars game and Assassin’s Creed Mirage seem to have received positive feedback, Ubisoft did not provide a release date for Skull and Bones“, deplores the research office. The bank continues to see “risks” on the results of the company, because of this extremely rich catalog of exits which comes at a time when the macroeconomic environment is deteriorating.