Ubisoft: Unity’s Bugs Affected Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s Sales

In Ubisoft’s latest earnings report, the publisher revealed new numbers about Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s launch. Specific sales numbers were not given, but the company said first-week sales were down compared to last year’s entry in the franchise, Assassin’s Creed Unity. Second week sales saw some improvement, however.

During an earnings call, CFO Alain Martinez said that Syndicate’s first week performance was impacted “by what had happened with Assassin’s Creed Unity,” in reference to vast array of technical issues the game suffered at launch last year. While Syndicate’s first week wasn’t as successful as last year, the game has had a much smoother launch, technically speaking, which may explain the uptick in sales for the second week.

CEO Yves Guillemot said that reviews for this year’s entry were generally favorable, and that word of mouth is helping the game. He added that players have spent more time in Syndicate this year than they had in Unity this time last year. He noted that Syndicate’s sales trend similarly to Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, which sold more than 10 million copies over a year after release.

In the same earnings report, Ubisoft also announced an overall net loss for the first half of the 2015-2016 fiscal year. While the company says this is primarily due to a low number of major releases in the first half, games like Far Cry Primal and The Division, if they are not delayed, will carry a major burden to make sure the company bounces back.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is now available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and will launch later this month on PC.

“Assassin's Creed Syndicate's First-Week Sales Impacted By Unity's Bugs” by GameSpot.