Ubisoft posted its financial report yesterday, revealing a surprising fact among all the announcements. For starters, we learned that no new Assassin's Creed game is coming this year, but Watch Dogs 2 is confirmed. Perhaps the most surprising bit of information from the financial report was that Xbox One players actually make the company more money than PS4 players.
Now, to be fair, this refers to the average amount of money that each player spends on Ubisoft products, not the total amount each platform has made for the company. According to the report, the average Xbox One player spends $1.25 to every $1 that a PS4 gamer spends, good for an increase of 25% in favor of the Xbox gamer. While overall sales are important, the average spent is a metric that proves quite useful because it more accurately reflects how players are using a company's product. For example, if company A had twice as many players as company B, but spends only 30% of the money, then company B is still the better targeting option.
Of course, due to the higher install base of PS4 players than Xbox One, this means simply that Xbox One players stick around longer and buy more post-launch content than PS4 players when it comes to Ubisoft's products. It also means that a higher percentage of Xbox One owners buy Ubisoft products than PS4 players.
The report states that Ubisoft made 41% of its profits from PS4 with only 27% from Xbox One. That amounts to 51.8% more from PS4 overall. That sounds great, but it's only half the battle. As we know, PS4 has basically an insurmountable lead in overall console sales over Xbox One. With the most recent reports showing PS4 consoles sold at about 36 million and Xbox One around 19 million, which is an 89% difference in favor of PS4. So, with an 89% difference and a profit margin of only 51.8%, it means a higher percentage of Xbox One owners are buying Ubisoft products than PS4.
It's an interesting number and, of course, it alone doesn't speak to the quality of any one sytem over another. On the other hand, it reflects how game companies are selling products nowadays. As you may have noticed, game companies like EA have opted for much more post release content. With season passes in the $40-50 range nowadays, it's no wonder why they are looking to keep players engaged for longer periods of time.
