Giuseppe Nelva
According to the press release, net bookings for the first half are “well above target” and up 3.6% year-on-year.
It’s worth reminding that if you’re not familiar with the term “net bookings,” it’s very similar to sales.
The results were driven by overperformance for both the Assassin’s Creed franchise and Rainbow Six Siege, which reached 85 million unique registered players. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla passed 20 million unique players.
We also get the traditional statement from CEO Yves Guillemot, who talked about the new Assassin’s Creed announcements and more.
Assassin’s Creed: strong performance across Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla, with record numbers of active players. Valhalla crossed 20 million unique players.Enthusiastic response from fans on the brand roadmap reveal. Players are incredibly excited for the upcoming two titles, Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Codename Red
We then hear from CFO Frédérick Duguet, who explained the reasons behind the overperformance mentioned above:
In September, with the objective of growing our business collaboration with Tencent, as well as bringing stability to the Company, we expanded our shareholding concert. This was essential to deliver on our full value creation potential with significant topline and operating income growth over the coming years. The Board made sure that this transaction does not restrict the Company from freely selecting the best value creation opportunities, in the interest of all stakeholders, going forward.”
If you want to compare, you can check out the results related to the previous quarter, which were published in July.
Following positive trends in Q1, Rainbow Six Siege saw double digit year-on-year topline growth this quarter with increased engagement from players and record DARPU, while Assassin’s Creed continued to outperform.
On the back of this stronger than expected back-catalog performance and solid growth prospects in H2, we are confident in our capacity to reach our 400 M€ non-IFRS operating income target for the year. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, our key new release of the semester, is a major critical hit. We will build its momentum through the Holiday season with an ambitious marketing plan and material support from Nintendo. On top of this and other upcoming releases and content updates, a key contributor to this semester will be our mobile licensing partnership.”
