he PS4 is beating not only Microsoft’s Xbox One but also the larger install bases of the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
During the three-month period between April and June, the PS4 represented 27 percent of Ubisoft’s software sales, versus 23 percent for PC and just 11 percent for the Xbox One. Notably, Xbox One software sales are down from the 14 percent share of Ubisoft’s previous Q1 results, failing to surpass those of the Xbox 360 and PS3, both of which accounted for 11 percent of sales each. These figures suggest that the Xbox One still trails the PS4’s install base by around two-to-one.
While Ubisoft’s software sales aren’t indicative of the games industry as a whole, Microsoft will no doubt be disappointed to see its latest console still not generating higher sales than its old one. Worse is that those figures come despite Ubisoft’s biggest game of the past six months, Assassin’s Creed Unity, not shipping on last-gen systems.
Interestingly, both the PS4 and Xbox One saw a drop in their sales share from Ubisoft’s previous Q1. A dramatic rise in PC sales seems to have eaten into the console share, rising from 14 percent last year. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s Wii and Wii U account for just three percent of Ubisoft’s software sales, which isn’t all that surprising given the publisher hasn’t actually released a Wii U game for some time.
As for Ubisoft’s overall financial performance, while sales did exceed their target, the €96.6 million (£70 million, $108 million) in total revenue was down 73 percent year-over-year. The publisher largely has last year’s release of Watch Dogs to thank, which helped it generate €360 million (£260 million, $402 million) during the same period last year, with a similarly large title missing from this year’s Q1.
