UBI UBISoft Entertainment

UBISOFT REPORTS FULL-YEAR 2022-23 EARNINGS FIGURES

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Pivotal year as Ubisoft reinforced focus on biggest opportunities

FY24 line-up to reflect key strategic priorities, aiming at expanding global reach of Ubisoft’s biggest brands while reinforcing recurring model through long-lasting Live games

Ubisoft’s iterative design process making visible progress on free-to-play

• Assassin’s Creed®: Record active users for the franchise in a year. Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla now has 44% more players life-to-date than Assassin’s Creed® Origins and 19% more than Assassin’s Creed® Odyssey on a comparable basis, with materially higher revenue per player, leading to life-to-date net bookings up respectively +82% and +61%.
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Siege: Confirmation of the strong engagement turnaround, with playtime in Q4 strongly up +30% vs. last year. Full year PRI up 13%.
• Tom Clancy’s The Division® 2: Session days up 28% YoY in Q4 leading to 36% net bookings growth over 12 months.
• Free-to-play initiatives:
  • XDefiant: Closed beta reached over 1 million players with strong viewership and positive community feedback
  • Upcoming test phases for Rainbow Six® Mobile, The Division® Resurgence and The Division® Heartland

2023-24 line-up to reflect key strategic pillars: New releases across big brands and long-lasting Live games with Assassin's Creed® Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora™, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Mobile, Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence, another large game as well as Skull and Bones™, The Crew® Motorfest and XDefiant. Ubisoft Forward will take place on June 12th.

2023-24 TARGETS CONFIRMED

Paris, May 16, 2023 – Today, Ubisoft released its earnings figures for FY2022-23.

Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said “FY2022-23 was in line with our revised financial targets. While this past year was challenging for the industry and for Ubisoft, it was pivotal for the Company as we reinforced our strategic focus on our biggest opportunities, initiated a meaningful cost reduction plan and provided additional development time for our strong pipeline of content. As part of our progressive reallocation of resources, we notably plan to increase the number of talents working on the Assassin’s Creed brand by 40% over the coming years. Our teams are making headway across the board as we look to bring exciting gaming experiences, both premium and free-to-play, to players on all platforms in FY2023-24 and beyond. Development of this year’s line-up is progressing well with big brands like Assassin’s Creed, Avatar, Rainbow Six and The Division, as well as on long lasting Live Service titles like Skull and Bones, The Crew Motorfest and XDefiant. More information will be shared at our upcoming Forward event.

Ubisoft’s unique development model relies on a robust iterative design process which proved successful to enter the Open World and Live Services markets, and that we have been applying to free-to-play. While mastering free-to-play is hard, and it is very important to remain prudent, recent developments are encouraging. This indicates that we are on the right path to bring our brands to significantly larger audiences. The XDefiant closed beta reached over 1 million players with strong viewership, community feedback and retention. Similarly, we expect Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence to illustrate our progress and we are happy to see that the gameplay reveal of The Division Heartland has received positive community reception. In line with our commitment, we are making visible iterative progress on which we can build the next steps toward ultimately delivering a breakthrough in this major market.”

Frédérick Duguet, Chief Financial Officer, commented “Our iterative, talent-intensive, organic-driven approach is a multi-year endeavor. We are now entering a new phase of our development, starting in 2023-24 with a significant line-up of big brands and long-lasting Live services. We continue to work on our cost reduction plan of at least 200 million euros over the next 2 years. With tight control on recruitments as well as initial targeted restructurings, our total number of employees worldwide dropped below 20,000.”

Yves Guillemot concluded: “The industry’s prospects are promising, and Ubisoft has a great opportunity to transform its brands into truly global phenomena and build an increasingly recurring business. We have implemented meaningful evolutions throughout our organization over the past 3 years and will continue to adapt to the fast-moving environment. Ubisoft’s future will be built with the help of its talented teams, its beloved IPs and dependable technologies as well as a strong balance sheet.”

Game HighlightsThe Assassin’s Creed franchise reached a record level of active users for a given fiscal year. In terms of acquisition, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla now has 44% more players than Assassin’s Creed Origins and 19% more than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey life-to-date on a comparable timeframe, with materially higher revenue per player leading to life-to-date net bookings up respectively +82% vs. and +61%. In September, we presented a powerful roadmap for the brand, including the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Assassin’s Creed codename Red, Assassin’s Creed codename Hexe, Assassin’s Creed codename Jade and Assassin’s Creed codename Invictus as well as the Infinity platform.

Rainbow Six Siege benefited from positive momentum this year in a highly competitive landscape, reflecting the team’s remarkable work to deliver cross-platform, quality content, onboarding features and anti-toxicity measures. We saw a confirmation of the strong engagement turnaround, with Q4 playtime strongly up +30% vs. last year. March, along with the release of the Year 8 battle pass, equaled a record month in terms of DARPU. As a consequence, full-year PRI is up 13% year-on-year. As we look to bring the franchise to a much larger audience, Rainbow Six Mobile will start its 6-week closed beta on June 6th.

The Division 2 saw strong engagement in Q4, with session days up 28%, leading to full-year net bookings growth of 36% year-on-year. In April, our teams showcased the future of the franchise during the Division Day. The Division 2 team announced their Year 5 roadmap with the first season to launch in early June, which will notably include a new game mode, Descent. The Division Heartland team showcased the first gameplay footage, receiving a positive community reception, and announced that there would be a closed beta later this year. Finally, The Division Resurgence, the upcoming mobile game, announced a new testing phase for this summer.

Update on capital allocation and the cost-cutting programAs part of our increased strategic focus on our biggest growth opportunities and progressive reallocation of resources, Ubisoft will notably increase the number of talents working on the Assassin’s Creed franchise by 40% over the coming years to fuel its ambitious expansion.

As announced in January, Ubisoft is also adapting its organization with an expected net reduction of its non-variable cost base by at least €200m over the next 2 years. This will be achieved through targeted restructurings, tight control of recruitments and divesting some non-core assets. Ubisoft will continue to look at hiring highly talented people for its biggest brands and live services.

Following tight control on recruitments as well as initial targeted restructurings, including the closure of 5 European business offices, the total number of employees worldwide dropped below 20,0001 versus more than 20,700 at end of September 2022. Structure costs have started to decrease, with H2 2022-23 down 2% year-on-year versus an increase of 18% in H1 2022-23. R&D investment growth was limited to 5% in H2 2022-23 versus H1 growth of +17%.

Additionally, Ubisoft’s Customer Relation Center team is evolving its organization, impacting offices in Cary, North Carolina in the US and Newcastle in the UK.

Reinforcing the Global Creative OfficeThe Group appointed Katie Scott as Vice President of Editorial within the Global Creative Office. Katie brings more than a decade of experience in video game production, having contributed to more than a dozen titles, including Gears 5 and FIFA games. As per the Company’s commitment, the past three years have been marked by the external appointment of three high-profile talents as VP of Editorial, bringing additional experience and diversity to the Editorial team.

Generative AIAs the world adopts Generative AI at a record pace, GDC 2023 demonstrated its immense potential to profoundly transform creative industries. Ubisoft is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation, with a strong game technology expertise, over 20 years of proprietary data and assets, and a rich portfolio. Internally, early adoption is fast, with creators and developers of all levels experimenting with the technology and taking advantage of the booming Generative AI landscape. With them, Ubisoft is shaping a responsible framework with talent management and fair use at heart. In parallel, teams are leveraging years-long R&D efforts in AI and Machine Learning applications, especially through La Forge, to identify the best use cases and harness the power of this technology to have a positive impact on creativity, workflows, and players’ experience.  

Note The Group presents indicators which are not prepared strictly in accordance with IFRS as it considers that they are the best reflection of its operating and financial performance. The definitions of the non-IFRS indicators as well as a reconciliation table between the IFRS consolidated income statement and the non-IFRS consolidated income statement are provided in an appendix to this press release.

Income statement and key financial data

(1) Based on the consolidated cash flow statement for comparison with other industry players (not audited by the Statutory Auditors).

Sales and net bookings

IFRS 15 sales for the fourth quarter of 2022-23 came to €310.7 million, down 56.1% (or 56.7% at constant exchange rates2) on the €708.0 million generated in fourth-quarter 2021-22. IFRS 15 sales for full-year 2022-23 totaled €1,814.3 million, down 14.6% (or 17.4% at constant exchange rates) versus the 2021-22 figure of €2,125.2 million.

Fourth-quarter 2022-23 net bookings totaled €313.2 million, down 52.8% (or 53.5% at constant exchange rates) on the €664.2 million recorded for fourth-quarter 2021-22. Net bookings for full-year 2022-23 amounted to €1,739.5 million, down 18.3% (or 21.0% at constant exchange rates) on the €2,128.5 million figure for 2021-22.

Main income statement items3

Non-IFRS operating loss came in at €(500.2) million, versus an income of €407.6 million in 2021-22.Non-IFRS attributable net loss amounted to €(400.0) million, representing non-IFRS diluted earnings per share (EPS) of €(3.30), compared with non-IFRS attributable net income of €269.0 million and non-IFRS diluted earnings per share of €2.11 for 2021-22.IFRS attributable net loss totaled €(494.2) million, representing IFRS diluted EPS of €(4.08) (compared with IFRS attributable net income of €79.1 million and IFRS diluted earnings per share of €0.65 for 2021-22).

Main cash flow statement4 items

Non-IFRS cash flows from operating activities represented a net cash outflow of €354.2 million in 2022-23 (versus a net cash outflow of €191.6 million in 2021-22). It reflects a negative €227.3 million in non-IFRS cash flow from operations (versus a negative €55.0 million in 2021-22) and a €126.9 million increase in non-IFRS working capital requirement (compared with a €136.6 million increase in 2021-22). At March 31, 2023, Cash and cash equivalents stood at €1,465 million, up versus last year.

Main balance sheet items and liquidity

At March 31, 2023, the Group’s equity was €1,479 million and its non-IFRS net debt was €662 million versus non-IFRS net debt of €283 million at end of March 31, 2022. IFRS net debt totaled €971 million at March 31, 2023, of which €309 million related to the IFRS16 accounting restatement.

Outlook

First-quarter 2023-24

Net bookings for the first quarter of 2023-24 are expected to come in at around €240 million.

Full-year 2023-24

The Company confirms its financial targets. It expects strong top line growth and non-IFRS operating income at approximately €400 million.

Annual General Meeting

Ubisoft's annual general meeting (AGM) will take place on September 27, 2023. The Company will propose customary resolutions to its shareholders including on the evolution of the Board’s composition. To prepare for this AGM, Ubisoft’s Board will rely on the process undertaken by, and recommendation of, the Board's Nominations, Compensation and Governance Committee, which ensures that Ubisoft's corporate governance is aligned with applicable best practices and in line with the Company’s strategy. This ongoing process reflects the importance the Board attaches to having the best skills, experience and expertise available at all times to steer and oversee Ubisoft in a fast-changing industry.

Conference call

Ubisoft will hold a conference call today, Tuesday May 16, 2023, at 6:15 p.m. Paris time/12:15 p.m. New York time. The conference call can be accessed live and via replay by clicking on the following link:

https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/dwx54x2d

Contacts

DisclaimerThis press release may contain estimated financial data, information on future projects and transactions and future financial results/performance. Such forward-looking data are provided for information purposes only. They are subject to market risks and uncertainties and may vary significantly compared with the actual results that will be published. The estimated financial data have been approved by the Board of Directors, and have not been audited by the Statutory Auditors. (Additional information is provided in the most recent Ubisoft Registration Document filed on June 14, 2022 with the French Financial Markets Authority (l’Autorité des Marchés Financiers)).

About UbisoftUbisoft is a creator of worlds, committed to enriching players’ lives with original and memorable entertainment experiences. Ubisoft’s global teams create and develop a deep and diverse portfolio of games, featuring brands such as Assassin’s Creed®, Brawlhalla®, For Honor®, Far Cry®, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon®, Just Dance®, Rabbids®, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six®, The Crew® and Tom Clancy’s The Division®. Through Ubisoft Connect, players can enjoy an ecosystem of services to enhance their gaming experience, get rewards and connect with friends across platforms. With Ubisoft+, the subscription service, they can access a growing catalog of more than 100 Ubisoft games and DLC. For the 2022–23 fiscal year, Ubisoft generated net bookings of €1,739 million. To learn more, please visit: www.ubisoftgroup.com.

© 2023 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are registered trademarks in the US and/or other countries.

APPENDICES

Definition of non-IFRS financial indicators

Alternative performance Indicators, not presented in the financial statements, are:

Net bookings corresponds to the sales excluding the services component and integrating the unconditional amounts related to license or distribution contracts recognized independently of the performance obligation realization.

Player Recurring Investment (PRI) corresponds to sales of digital items, DLC, season passes, subscriptions and advertising.

Non-IFRS operating income calculated based on net bookings corresponds to operating income less the following items:

• Stock-based compensation expense arising on free share plans, group savings plans and/or stock options.
• Depreciation of acquired intangible assets with indefinite useful lives.
• Non-operating income and expenses resulting from restructuring operations within the Group.

Non-IFRS operating margin corresponds to non-IFRS operating income expressed as a percentage of net bookings. This ratio is an indicator of the Group’s financial performance.

Non-IFRS net income corresponds to net income less the following items:

• The above-described deductions used to calculate non-IFRS operating income.
• Income and expenses arising on revaluations, carried out after the measurement period, of the potential variable consideration granted in relation to business combinations.
• OCEANE bonds’ interest expense recognized in accordance with IFRS9.
• The tax impacts on these adjustments.

Non-IFRS attributable net income corresponds to non-IFRS net income attributable to owners of the parent.

Non-IFRS diluted EPS corresponds to non-IFRS attributable net income divided by the weighted average number of shares after exercise of the rights attached to dilutive instruments.

The adjusted cash flow statement includes:

• Non-IFRS cash flow from operations which comprises:
  • The costs of internally developed software and external developments (presented under cash flows from investing activities in the IFRS cash flow statement) as these costs are an integral part of the Group's operations.
  • The restatement of impacts (after tax) related to the application of IFRS 15.
  • The restatement of commitments related to leases due to the application of IFRS 16.
  • Current and deferred taxes.
• Non-IFRS change in working capital requirement which includes movements in deferred taxes and restates the impacts (after tax) related to the application of IFRS 15, thus cancelling out the income or expenses presented in non-IFRS cash flow from operations.
• Non-IFRS cash flows from operating activities which includes:
  • the costs of internal and external licenses development (presented under cash flows from investing activities in the IFRS cash flow statement and included in non-IFRS cash flow from operations in the adjusted cash flow statement);
  • the restatement of lease commitments relating to the application of IFRS 16 presented under IFRS in cash flow from financing activities.
• Non-IFRS cash flows from investing activities which excludes the costs of internal and external licenses development that are presented under non-IFRS cash flow from operations.

Free cash flow corresponds to cash flows from non-IFRS operating activities after cash inflows/outflows arising on the disposal/acquisition of other intangible assets and property, plant and equipment.

Free cash flow before working capital requirement corresponds to cash flow from operations after cash inflows/outflows arising on (i) the disposal/acquisition of other intangible assets and property, plant and equipment and (ii) commitments related to leases recognized on the application of IFRS 16.

Cash flow from non-IFRS financing activities, which excludes lease commitments relating to the application of IFRS16 presented in non-IFRS cash flow.

IFRS net cash/(debt) position corresponds to cash and cash equivalents less financial liabilities excluding derivatives.

Non-IFRS net cash/(debt) position corresponds to the net cash/(debt) position as adjusted for commitments related to leases (IFRS 16).

Breakdown of net bookings by geographic region

Breakdown of net bookings by platform

*Ancillaries, etc.

Title release schedule1st quarter (April – June 2023)

Extracts from the Consolidated Financial Statements at

March 31, 2023

The audit procedures have been carried out and the audit report is in preparation.

Consolidated income statement (IFRS, extract from the accounts which have undergone an audit by the Statutory Auditors).

Reconciliation of IFRS Net income and non-IFRS Net income

Consolidated balance sheet (IFRS, extract from the accounts which have undergone an audit by Statutory Auditors)

Consolidated cash flow statement (IFRS, extract from the accounts which have undergone an audit by Statutory Auditors)

RECONCILIATION OF NET CASH POSITION

Consolidated cash flow statement for comparison with other industry players (non-audited)

RECONCILIATION OF NET CASH POSITION

1 As of May 16th, 20232 Sales at constant exchange rates are calculated by applying to the data for the period under review the average exchange rates used for the same period of the previous fiscal year3 See the presentation published on Ubisoft’s website for further information on movements in the income and cash flow statement. 4 Based on the consolidated cash flow statement for comparison with other industry players (non-audited)

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