Ubisoft's UK arm has warned that shifting player habits — fewer titles played for longer stretches and growing appetite for subscription, free-to-play and live-service games — will drive a drop in revenue in the current financial year ending 31 March 2026.
The caution comes in an official filing with Companies House, lodged on 13 November, in which Ubisoft Limited said the "traditional 'full game' model of selling a single £50–£60 game to a consumer as a one‑time purchase continues to become less ubiquitous," and that "consumers are playing fewer games, playing them for longer, and as a result, outside of a few notable exceptions, many new games are struggling to stand out and achieve the sales they may once have had."
The numbers behind the warning
Ubisoft Limited reported revenue of £33.3m for the year to 31 March 2025, up 11% from £29.9m the year before — in part, the company said, because it integrated customer relationship centre activities into the business. But the filing also recorded a 29% drop in sale of goods to £18.9m and flagged a decline in physical software and hardware purchases across the UK market.
According to the company, the UK physical software market fell by around 35% in the year to March 2025, while hardware sales were down about 25% as the console cycle matured and manufacturers offered incremental updates rather than major new platforms.
At group level, Ubisoft Entertainment SA reported sales of €1.89bn for the same period, down from €2.30bn the prior year, and swung from a consolidated net profit to a substantial loss. Industry reporting has noted investor unease — Ubisoft's Paris‑listed shares had run roughly 49% lower year‑to‑date as of mid‑November, Reuters reported — and the company briefly halted trading and postponed its parent firm's scheduled earnings call earlier this month.
Restructuring, layoffs and a pivot to franchises
The filing appeared against a backdrop of significant corporate change. Ubisoft has reorganised many of its studios into so‑called "creative houses" and struck a deal with Tencent to back a new, independent subsidiary, Vantage Studios, tasked with developing the publisher's most valuable franchises — including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six.
That reorganisation has not been without cost. The group announced layoffs across multiple teams earlier in 2025, including around 100 redundancies at Newcastle and Leamington Spa studios belonging to Ubisoft Reflections and the closure of the latter site. The group has signalled cost reductions of roughly €200m as part of a wider restructuring.
Why Ubisoft says new games are struggling
Ubisoft's assessment echoes a common industry diagnosis: a handful of evergreen, heavily invested titles dominate players' attention and wallet, while subscription services and free‑to‑play models reduce the incentive to buy many full‑price releases.
The filing specifically cites multi‑game subscription services, long‑running games‑as‑a‑service titles, free‑to‑play games and cloud streaming as "providing new and attractive ways for consumers to access gaming content." Analysts and industry figures have warned for some time that services such as Xbox Game Pass shift consumption patterns — players may spend months or years inside one live‑service ecosystem rather than sampling multiple premium releases each year.
Market research firms have also reported that many players buy only one or two paid games a year, reinforcing the idea that premium launches face a narrower pool of potential purchasers than in previous console generations.
Ubisoft's options and its mixed record
Ubisoft is not ignoring these shifts. The company has invested in live‑service models and its subscription offering, Ubisoft+, while leaning into its biggest franchises and remakes. Assassin's Creed remains central to that strategy: this year's Assassin's Creed Shadows received extra development time, and a slate of further franchise projects — from remakes to multiplayer spin‑offs — is planned.
Yet Ubisoft also runs one of the industry's longer‑running live‑service successes in Rainbow Six Siege, illustrating a tension in its public statements: the company both depends on and is challenged by live‑service economics. Some commentators interpret the filing as a candid appraisal of structural change; others see it as a plaintive call for the market to accommodate the economics of traditional, single‑purchase games.
Reactions and implications
Investors have already signalled caution. Internally, the company is reorganising and cutting costs; externally, its decision to carve core franchises into a Tencent‑backed subsidiary has fuelled speculation about control and leadership — including the recent appointment of Charlie Guillemot as co‑head of the new unit — and contributed to unease among shareholders.
For developers and smaller studios, the landscape is complex. On one hand, subscription platforms can offer discoverability and guaranteed income; on the other, the concentration of player hours around a few long‑running titles can make it harder for new, premium games to break through.
Players stand to benefit from cheaper access to large libraries and long‑running, constantly updated games. But the shift raises questions about the variety of commercially viable premium experiences in future, and whether a smaller number of franchise tentpoles will dominate investment and attention.
What comes next
Ubisoft's filing makes clear the company expects revenue pressure in FY26 because of a smaller physical new‑release schedule and changing consumption patterns. The company's response — more live‑service investment, a tighter focus on blockbuster franchises, expanding Ubisoft+ and studio reorganisations — is a roadmap that mirrors moves by other large publishers.
Whether those steps will stabilise Ubisoft's finances and preserve room for riskier, single‑purchase creative projects remains to be seen. The scenario also underscores a wider industry question: as subscriptions and live services reshape what players play and buy, how will publishers balance the commercial needs of evergreen titles with the creative diversity that built the market?
Ubisoft's warning is both a specific corporate forecast and a broader signal: the economics of games have changed, and publishers, creators and players are still negotiating what that new era will look like.