Ubisoft shares extend decline amid lukewarm response to ‘Star Wars: Outlaws’ by Investing.com

Investing.com — Stocks listed in Paris in Ubisoft (EPA: ) fell on Tuesday, extending the previous session’s declines, fueled by a relatively muted response to the release of the video game maker’s much-anticipated new title “Star Wars: Outlaws.”

Despite generally positive reviews from media critics, the game was given an “generally unfavorable” score by users on the aggregation site Metacritic.

Meanwhile, analysts at JPMorgan said alternative data suggested the release “struggled to meet our sales expectations.”

Data from live-streaming platform Twitch and figures measuring in-game player achievements — both proxies for units sold — show sales trending about 15 percent lower than last year’s most recent installment of the uber-franchise popular “Assassin’s Creed” from Ubisoft. JPMorgan analysts added.

The store ranking on the PlayStation and XBox entertainment systems, an indicator of revenue, is also below that installment, “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage,” they said.

Elsewhere, analysts at UBS warned there was “risk of downside” to their initial sales estimate of 10 million units for “Star Wars: Outlaws.”

“Ubisoft’s previous games in Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, which sold 10 (million-plus) units in their first fiscal year, all received higher user ratings and were installments of well-established franchises,” the analysts noted UBS. “Far Cry” is a well-known series of first-person shooter games from Ubisoft.

The release of “Star Wars: Outlaws” had been forecast by Ubisoft management as a possible source of growth in net bookings in the July-September period. The French group also anticipated that Outlaws, along with its upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows title in November, would help revitalize performance after four years of negative cash flows.