Staring down the barrel of a rough 2026, Ubisoft's UK arm says we're less interested in 'one time purchase' games and all about that live service dripfeed

Ubisoft has decreed that fully-priced games you pay for once are no longer sure bets—and by "decreed", I mean stated as much in a sales warning offered by its division here in the UK. It's important to note that the arm in question, Ubisoft Limited, is mainly concerned with "wholesale publishing and distribution of games", rather than development.

As spotted by CityAM, Ubisoft's given a stormy-cloud financial warning that its "physical software sales in the UK market" are going to see a decline next year, and that it expects a dip in revenue. That's because, as the document states, "The traditional 'full game' model of selling a single £50-£60 game to a consumer as a one-time purchase continues to become less ubiquitous."

The warning then goes on to peer into its crystal ball and determines that: "Multi Game Subscription services, long-running Games As A Service titles, Free To Play games and Cloud Streaming offerings all [provide] new and attractive ways for consumers to access gaming content.

"Consumers are playing fewer games, playing them for longer, and as a result, outside of a few notable exceptions, many new games are struggling to stand out and achieve the sales they may once have had, whilst the market is more volatile and the potential for any specific title is less predictable as a result."

Hmm. I'm not entirely sure about this one—Ubisoft has been in deep water, mostly unrelated to consumer tastes, recently. A new creative house, spats between Tencent and founding family The Guillemots, the departure of former Assassin's Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Côté, studio closures and AI snafus: There's trouble in paradise.

That's not to say that spending hasn't gone down everywhere. Times are rough, wallets are thin, and we'll all likely be looking to our existing libraries rather than spending money on new games—hell, just getting the gear for a new PC is hard enough. Hopping on something free-to-play where you might only need to shuck out ten bucks for a battle pass every other month is somewhat more appealing.

But are we really calling the shot that live-service games are a surer bet? We've got Concord and Suicide Squad uncomfortably dead in the rear-view. Sony's rapidly pulling the plug on a bunch of them before they can even get made—and MMOs are getting sent to a nice farm upstate.

Mind, if I were Ubisoft, I'd also wring my hands. The giant's recent single-player games have not exactly flown off the shelves. Assassin's Creed: Shadows did alright, but 'alright' probably doesn't cut it when you're meant to be one of the big boys.

I don't doubt that Ubisoft has the numbers to prove me wrong. At least, when it comes to its own titles—but I also can't help but feel there's a bit of survivorship bias going on here. Live service games seem more durable to our dire economic trashfire because the ones that are currently thriving made it through a great filter.

Then again, I could just be overthinking what is, essentially, a sales warning made to soothe the worries of investors and shareholders. I get the strange feeling that the 39-page "Full accounts made up to 31 March 2025" document is not made for me, the cynic with a bone to pick about battle passes—it's meant to convince someone with more money than I'll ever have that Ubisoft is merely hunkering down for some tough times.

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