The reason? Possibly the delay of Watch Dogs. Although Ubisoft was able to get the latest Assassin’s Creed (Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag) on a ton of different platforms before the end of 2013 (not to mention it sold incredibly well), it wasn’t enough to keep Ubisoft’s sales figures as high as they have been in the past.
For the sales quarter that ended on December 31, 2013, the sales of Ubisoft products were down approximately 35.2% ($709 million) from the same quarter of 2012 ($1.09 billion). Additionally, although digital sales were down approximately 4% in the quarter, they are already up approximately 12% on the year. Older titles such as Far Cry 3 and Assassin’s Creed 3 are down approximately 21% for the quarter, but up 6% on the year.
In the end, Ubisoft is going to be fine – especially with potentially awesome new IPs such as Watch Dogs, The Division, The Crew, and Child of Light releasing this in 2014 – 2015. We could be on the way to seeing a strong few years for Ubisoft despite poor Q4 sales, yet only time will tell.