(Reuters) – French video game company Ubisoft confirmed its guidance for the current financial year on Thursday, expressing confidence in its catalog after beating its second-quarter net bookings estimates.

The company behind the successful “Assassin’s Creed” franchise posted net bookings of 554.8 million euros for the second quarter, up 36.6% and above the company’s target. ‘around 350 million euros previously set, Ubisoft said in a press release.

“Activity was driven mainly by the performance of our back-catalogue,” Yves Guillemot, co-founder and CEO of Ubisoft, said in a statement.

Sales of the game “The Crew Motorfest” and pre-deliveries of “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” also contributed to the group’s good results.

Ubisoft, which has been penalized by cancellations and delays in game launches, reiterated its forecast for annual non-IFRS operating profit at around 400 million euros.

However, the company has not revealed the other major game which was initially scheduled to launch during the last quarter of the current fiscal year.

For the third quarter, Ubisoft forecasts net bookings of around 610 million euros.

Ubisoft’s total headcount fell to 19,410 employees as of September 30, from just under 20,000 in May, as the company said its cost-cutting plan announced in January was “on track.”

The group also reported an IFRS operating profit of 16.1 million euros for the six months to the end of September, after a loss of 215.3 million euros for the same period last year.

The rest of Ubisoft’s 2023-24 game lineup will include “Skull & Bones” and “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora,” whose launches have been long delayed, as well as “free-to-play” titles such as “Rainbow Six Mobile” and “The Division Resurgence”.

(Reporting by Enrico Sciacovelli and Olivier Cherfan, by Stéphanie Hamel, edited by Kate Entringer)

Copyright © 2023 Thomson Reuters