A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

A financial analyst described Ubisoft’s sales collapse and its delaying of Assassin’s Creed Shadows a “total meltdown” and the company’s stock collapse proves that true.

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

Valliant Renegade reacted to the news that broke yesterday afternoon in the United States that Ubisoft was not only delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but that they were reducing their sales expectations for its second quarter by 30% from €500 million to €350-370 million. On top of that the company also revised their entire year expectation to “around break-even” instead of profitability. He described it as a “total meltdown.”

Valliant Renegade specifically reacted to the stock price crashing nearly 20% since the market opened this morning around €9.

He stated, “A little over four years ago Ubisoft was trading at nearly €90. 9-0 euros. And four years and seven months later here we are nine euros. That means the company has shed 90% of its total market capitalization. And right now as this continues on, this is going to make Ubisoft worth probably less than $1 billion on the open market by the end of trading today.”

A screenshot of Ubisoft’s stock price taken on September 26, 2024 at 8:47 AM ET.

From there, Valliant Renegade reacted to the latest statement from AJ Investments, who had previously called for the company to sell its assets and go private and replace CEO Yves Guillemot.

According to a report from Reuters, AJ Investments, which itself holds around a 1% stake in Ubisoft, claims it has “gathered support from 10% of the French videogame publishers shareholders.”

The company also reiterated its position, “We call on the management of Ubisoft to allow the sale of the company to third parties or private equity firms at a fair price.”

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

Renegade reacted to this saying, “Ubisoft, of course, has made no comment on this, but as I stated earlier I think that 10% is going to continue to expand and it’s going to happen probably pretty quickly after today.”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Yves Guillemot may not be the CEO there anymore before Assassin’s Creed actually manages to release in February if, of course, it still manages to release in February,” he added.

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

In a statement to That Park Place, Valliant Renegade also shared, “UBISOFT (UBI.PA) opened this morning on the Paris based Euronext exchange at 3AM EST and immediately responded to news following yesterday’s close that Assassins Creed Shadows would be delayed until February 2025. Intraday trading has UBISOFT collapsing some 20% at points, bringing the overall market cap down to less than $1 Billion Euros.”

This is a total meltdown as investor confidence was already at historically low levels and hanging by a thread following the relative flop of Star Wars Outlaws, made in tandem with Disney Lucasfilm,” he declared.

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

He also speculated that the reason for delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows has nothing to do with Ubisoft’s official statements about polishing the game, but has more to do with attempting to ensure the company at least breaks even for its fiscal year.

He stated, “Once UBISOFT cancelled their worldwide press events, even pulling out the massive Tokyo Game Show, the writing was on the wall that AC Shadows was going to get pushed back. UBISOFT obviously saw what was coming, and that was likely a serious underperformance of sales upon the games initial release date target of Nov 15th.”

“UBISOFT says the next 90 days will afford them time to “polish the game” but they also seem desperate to release it BEFORE the end of their fiscal year on March 31st 2025 as profitability guidance has concurrently been adjusted DOWN with the gamemaker basically hoping to just maybe break-even on the year,” Valliant Renegade added.

He concluded, “It’s a total mess right now.”

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

What do you make of Valliant Renegade’s analysis of Ubisoft’s stock collapse, delaying of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, strategy to break-even, and admission that Star Wars Outlaws sales were horrible?