Ubisoft aims to create a positive cycle between free-to-play and premium games

News business Ubisoft aims to create a positive cycle between free-to-play and premium games

There is not that much in it the financial report

even that during the call to investors what followed that we learned that Ubisoft tries to create a positive cycle between the two economic modelswith the first aiming to steer players towards the second. Frédérick Duget, the group’s financial director, initially pointed out that the games were published in the back catalog, that is, for a while, had “double-digit growth” and it was important to support them. According to him, the upcoming releases of Tom Clancy’s XDefiant and The Division: Heartland will attract new players and entice them to the premium games (The Division 2, Rainbow Six Siege) from the back catalog. Regarding the upcoming free-to-play, he says:

First, we measure the success (of free-to-play) by measuring their impact on the audience through the portfolio (the games). We’ll also look closely at engagement and recurring revenue percentage. We naturally expect free games to have a stand-alone base and add to the performance of the entire brand.

Investors therefore asked if they expected an increase in the number of players on The Division (2) with the release of The Division: Heartland. The CFO answered this question in the affirmative and added:

(…) We expect the business model to become more accessible to more people, which will enable us to accelerate our growth in emerging markets. It will also build bridges between premium games and free games. This should allow us to form a virtuous circle with the players and enjoy different experiences through different game modes and business models.