In announcing its financial results for the first half of fiscal 2016 (ended September 30, 2015), Ubisoft revealed the PlayStation 4 as the most dominant platform for the publisher's games.
According to the report, which features a breakdown of its games sold by platform, Sony's PS4 takes the top spot with 27% of the share. The PC is the next most popular platform for Ubisoft games at 20%. Surprisingly,t he Xbox One only takes 12% of the share, only slightly higher than last-gen systems. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 made up 10%, each, of sales of Ubisoft games.
At first glance, the difference in PS4 and Xbox One market share is quite jarring. I don't think anyone is surprised of the PS4's dominance, given the system is approaching 30 million consoles sold; however, I think it is surprising just how low the Xbox One's market share is.
Microsoft has been reluctant to reveal how many Xbox Ones have been sold with the latest confirmed number from Microsoft (10 million consoles shipped) coming back in November 2014. Since then, the Xbox One's sales have been a mystery. In October, MIcrosoft said Xbox hardware sales were down 17 percent during the first quarter (ended Sept. 30), but attributed that mostly to slumping Xbox 360 sales.
So what can this dominant performance from the PS4 mean for the future of Sony and Ubisoft? Well, for starters, it could encourage Ubisoft to come up with some platform-exclusive incentives on PS4 for its future games, but that's just my own speculation.
For the first half of its current fiscal year, Ubisoft reported weakened sales and a net loss. Sales dropped 57 percent to €207.3 million ($227.8 million). The company posted operating losses of €107.8 million ($118.5 million) and €65.7 million ($72.2 million) in net losses. Despite the grim report, Ubisoft expects a turnaround heading into the second half of the year, thanks to a heavy release schedule spanning through March 31, 2016. The remainder of Ubisoft's fiscal year includes releases for Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Just Dance 2016, Rainbow Six Siege, The Division, and Far Cry Primal. So I'd say things will probably turn around for the publisher.
[Ubisoft]
