Ubisoft has released its Q2 earnings report which, as well as confirming its 2022-23 release slate and a delay for The Division: Heartland, has revealed Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla to be its “second largest profit generating game”.
Valhalla, which was previously described as having the “biggest launch for any Assassin’s Creed game to date”, has reached that milestone in under 12 months (its one year anniversary arrives on 10th November), with Ubisoft saying the title has been “outperforming Assassin’s Creed Odyssey across the board since its release. In particular, it highlights “higher” daily average revenue per user and “record engagement” for its Siege of Paris expansion.
The publisher also touches on Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s recently announced second year of content in its earnings report, saying it plans to “deliver great new content…notably in the second half of the current fiscal year.”
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Ubisoft Forward June 2021.
To date, Ubisoft has revealed very little about its future plans for Valhalla, aside from teasing multiple new expansions. Datamining has suggested the first of these expansions will be titled Dawn of Ragnarök, but it shouldn’t be too long before we get first official details given we know now to expect new content at any point before March 2022.
Elsewhere in its earnings report, Ubisoft re-iterated its upcoming slate of releases, with the only change being a delay for free-to-play The Division spin-off Heartland, which is now due to release in the 2022-23 financial year, rather than, as originally announced, the current one.
Everything else remains as we already knew; long-delayed pirate adventure Skull & Bones is still due to release in the 2022-23 fiscal year, as are Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Roller Champions, the recently delayed Rocksmith+, and the still missing-in-action Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake.
Ubisoft rounds out its financial report with an HR update, saying it continues its work building a “safe, respectful, and inclusive workplace for everyone” at the company, and continues to engage with its global teams “to make incremental and meaningful progress toward this goal”.
It’s a note that alludes to the disturbing reckoning Ubisoft faced last summer when employees began calling out toxic work conditions within the company – including allegations of serious sexual misconduct aimed at members of senior management.
Following those events, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot pledged to “do everything in [his] power to ensure that everyone… feels welcomed, respected, and safe”. However, despite those assurances, over 1,000 current and former Ubisoft employees signed an open letter in July slamming Ubisoft leadership’s “empty promises” in tackling a company culture allegedly rife with “systemic discrimination, harassment and bullying”.
In response, Guillemot told employees, “We have heard clearly from this letter that not everyone is confident in the processes that have been put in place to manage misconduct reports”, before highlighting listening sessions, a company-wide survey, and a global audit, among other initiatives.
At the time, a Ubisoft employee told Eurogamer that the company “continues to protect and promote known offenders and their allies. We see management continuing to avoid this issue.”
Source by www.eurogamer.net
