Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws Underperforms, Impacting Share Price
Ubisoft's highly anticipated Star Wars Outlaws, intended as a financial turnaround for the company, has reportedly underperformed in sales, causing a significant drop in Ubisoft's share price. Despite positive critical reception, sales have been described as sluggish.
Share Price Decline and Sales Projections
The game's launch, initially projected to be a major boost for Ubisoft, failed to meet expectations. This led to consecutive days of share price decline last week, reaching levels not seen since 2015. J.P. Morgan analyst Daniel Kerven lowered his sales projection for Star Wars Outlaws from 7.5 million units to 5.5 million units by March 2025.
Ubisoft's Q1 2024-25 report emphasized the importance of Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin's Creed Shadows as long-term growth drivers. While the company noted a 15% increase in session days and a 7% year-on-year rise in monthly active users (MAUs), the underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws clearly overshadowed these positive metrics.
Critical Acclaim vs. User Reception
The discrepancy between critical acclaim and user reception is noteworthy. While critics generally praised the game, user reviews on Metacritic show a significantly lower score (4.5/10), suggesting a disconnect between professional opinion and player experience. Conversely, Game8 gave the game a high rating (90/100), highlighting its quality. This divergence underscores the complexity of predicting commercial success based solely on critical reviews. For a comprehensive analysis of Star Wars Outlaws, see our full review (link removed for brevity).
