Ubisoft shares extend decline amid tepid response to "Star Wars: Outlaws"

Investing.com -- Paris-listed shares in Ubisoft (EPA:UBIP ) fell on Tuesday, extending declines posted in the prior session, fueled by a relatively muted response to the release of the video gamemaker's much-anticipated new title "Star Wars: Outlaws."

Despite generally positive reviews from media critics, the game has been given a score of "Generally Unfavorable" by users on aggregation website Metacritic.

Meanwhile, analysts at JPMorgan said that alternative data suggests that the release has "struggled to meet our sales sales expectations."

Data from live-streaming platform Twitch and figures measuring player achievements in the game -- both proxies for units sold -- point to sales trending around 15% below those of the latest installment last year of Ubisoft's uber-popular "Assassin's Creed" franchise, the JPMorgan analysts added.

Store rankings on PlayStation and XBox entertainment systems, a gauge of revenue, are also below that installment, "Assassin's Creed: Mirage", they said.

Elsewhere, analysts at UBS warned that there is "downside risk" to their initial estimates for 10 million unit sales for "Star Wars: Outlaws."

"Previous Ubisoft games in Assassin's Creed and Far Cry which sold 10 [million plus] units in their first fiscal year all received higher user ratings and were installments of well entrenched franchises," the UBS analysts noted. "Far Cry" is a well-known series of first-person shooter games from Ubisoft.

The launch of "Star Wars: Outlaws" had been forecast by Ubisoft's management as a possible source of increased net bookings during the July-September period. The French group has also been anticipating that Outlaws, along with its upcoming title "Assassin's Creed Shadows" in November, will help to revitalize performance after four years of negative cash flows.

Source: Investing.com