Ubisoft's Stock Price Hits a 10-Year Low Following Star Wars Outlaws Release

The release of Star Wars Outlaws has led to a significant decline in Ubisoft's stock value, with shares plummeting over 10% in just two days. According to Insider Gaming, the share price of Ubisoft Entertainment SA plummeted to €15.50, marking its lowest point since 2014, with the company's market capitalization currently standing at €1.99 billion. As of the latest update, the share price has further decreased to €15.34 per share, resulting in a market capitalization of €1.97 billion. Star Wars Outlaws has had a lackluster launch, with UK physical sales 55% lower than those of Star Wars: Jedi Survivor last year, based on data from GfK. Although GfK has not yet released digital sales figures, and there are gaps in the physical sales data as highlighted by Chris Dring of GamesIndustry.biz, the overall Metacritic score of 76 for Star Wars Outlaws contrasts with its 'generally unfavorable' user score of 4.9. In response to this, J.P. Morgan has revised its sales forecast downward by two million units, now predicting the sale of 5.5 million copies by March next year, as reported by Insider Gaming. The impact of this on Ubisoft's financial year remains uncertain, especially given the company's strong start, having exceeded Q1 2024 targets with a 12% year-on-year increase in sales to €323.5 million and an 8.3% rise in net bookings to €290 million, driven primarily by the success of XDefiant and pre-orders for Assassin's Creed Shadows.