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Game Developer Ubisoft Slides amid Muted Reception for 'Star Wars Outlaws'

A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Game Developer Ubisoft Slides amid Muted Reception for 'Star Wars Outlaws'

A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Shares in French video game maker Ubisoft fell on Tuesday for a second consecutive day following a sluggish performance of its two recent releases, including the long-awaited "Star Wars Outlaws".

The shares, which closed 5.1% lower on Monday, were down 2.4% by 1114 GMT, trading at their lowest levels since 2015 and adding to their over 30% drop since the start of the year.

The decline was driven by a muted reception of Star Wars Outlaws, released on Friday, which follows lower than expected interest for the company's free-to-play game Xdefiant, said Midcap Partners analyst Charles-Louis Planade, Reuters reported.

The Outlaws premiere was one of the two big major game releases Ubisoft had slated for this year, with Assasin's Creed Shadows scheduled for release on Nov. 15.

After four years of negative cash flows amid game cancellations and delays, the family-owned company has been betting on these releases to support its financial recovery.

Chief Financial Officer Frederick Duguet said in July that Ubisoft expected the launch of Outlaws to boost net bookings in the July-September quarter.

Despite an overall positive reception by critics, Star Wars Outlaws had a "generally unfavorable" users' score of 4.9 out of 10 on review aggregation website Metacritic as of Tuesday.

"Star Wars Outlaws has struggled to meet our sales expectations despite positive critical reviews," J.P.Morgan analyst Daniel Kerven said in a note.

The game's development budget was at least 30% higher than that of Assasin's Creed Mirage, released last year, while data from video game live-streaming platform Twitch suggested it was underperforming AC Mirage by about 15%, Kerven added.

Kerven also lowered his sales expectations for Outlaws by 2 million units, to 5.5 million units in the year through March 2025.

Planade added that after a strong initial interest for Xdefiant, a first-person shooter game launched in May, there has been a sharp decline in Twitch viewership, and the game would likely have a minimal impact on Ubisoft's results over the next few quarters.

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Trump Offers Support to Musk's Car Company in a Surprising Post as Tesla Stock Plunges

Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
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Trump Offers Support to Musk's Car Company in a Surprising Post as Tesla Stock Plunges

Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo

President Donald Trump took to social media Thursday morning to support Elon Musk's car company, a startling development given their bitter public feud.

”I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, Reuters reported.

The post wasn't enough to help Tesla's stock, which fell sharply after the company reported another quarter of lackluster financial results and Musk warned of some potentially “rough quarters” into next year. At midday, the stock was down around 9%.

Late Wednesday, Tesla said revenue fell 12% and profit dropped 16% in the April-June quarter. Many prospective buyers have been turned off by Musk’s foray into right-wing politics, and the competition has ramped up in key markets such as Europe and China.

Investors have been unnerved by Musk's social media spat with the president because Trump has threatened to retaliate by ending government contracts and breaks for Musk's various businesses, including Tesla.

But Trump struck a starkly different tone Thursday morning.

“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the US Government. This is not so!" Trump wrote. “The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us.”

After Trump's massive budget bill passed earlier this month, Tesla faces the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit and stands to make much less money from selling regulatory credits to other automakers. Trump’s tariffs on countries including China and Mexico will also cost Tesla hundreds of millions of dollars, the company said on its earnings call.

Musk has blasted the budget bill on his own social media platform X for adding to US debt at a time when it is already too large. The Tesla CEO has called the budget pushed by the president a “disgusting abomination” and has threatened to form a new political party.

On Wednesday's call, Musk said the electric vehicle maker will face “a few rough quarters” as it moves into a future focused less on selling cars and more on offering people rides in self-driving cars. He also talked up the company's business making humanoid robotics. But he acknowledged those businesses are a ways off from contributing to Tesla’s bottom line.

Tesla began a rollout in June of its paid robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, and hopes to introduce the driverless cabs in several other cities soon. Musk told analysts that the service will be available to probably “half of the population of the US by the end of the year — that’s at least our goal, subject to regulatory approvals.”

“We’re in this weird transition period where we’ll lose a lot of incentives in the US,” Musk said, adding that Tesla “probably could have a few rough quarters” ahead. He added, though, “Once you get to autonomy at scale in the second half of next year, certainly by the end of next year, I would be surprised if Tesla’s economics are not very compelling.”