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Publishers Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive have both reported financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, each reporting a year-over-year decline.
Ubisoft generated €455.5M ($498.7M USD) in net bookings, down 25% compared to €605.8M ($663.3M) in Q3 of fiscal 2019. This did exceed the company’s forecast, which Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot attributed to strong performance from back catalog titles including Rainbow Six Siege. The steadily growing esports title has reached 55M registered players and reported record December monthly active users (MAUs), though Ubisoft did not disclose the actual number as part of its earnings report.
The company’s outlook projects a continued decline, with Q4 net bookings of roughly €333M ($364.6M), a 50% drop year-over-year. Ubisoft also confirmed its full year target of €1.45B ($1.59B) in net bookings.
NBA 2K20 developer and publisher Take-Two reported Q3 net bookings of $888.2M, a decrease of 43% from $1.57B in fiscal 2019. Recurrent consumer spending did grow 6%, accounting for 41% of total net bookings, with Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K titles as strong contributors. According to a release, NBA 2K20 has sold 8M units to date. Take-Two has however adjusted its expectations for the game’s net bookings to no longer reach record results due to lower than expected recurrent consumer spending on “parts of the online version,” as explained by Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on the company’s earnings call.
Earlier in the week, it was reported that Rockstar Games (creator of Grand Theft Auto) Vice President Dan Houser will be leaving the company in March, but Zelnick confirmed on the company’s earnings call that his brother and Rockstar President Sam Houser will remain with the company. The Grand Theft Auto games and Rockstar as a whole are major contributors to Take-Two’s revenues.
