Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ubisoft Q3 Fiscal Year 2026 Sales Webcast and Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our speaker today, Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft's Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. We delivered a solid third quarter performance, with net bookings growing at a double-digit rate year-over-year, exceeding our expectations. This performance reflect the strength of our portfolio and the breadth of our player engagement across our core franchises, supported by recent releases and live content updates that continue to resonate with players. In parallel, we are making progress on the transformation announced last month. The allocation of studios and capabilities across the creative houses and network has now been announced, and key leadership appointments are ongoing, including external hires of experienced, respected industry veterans. This transformation is designed to sharpen focus, accelerate decision-making, and elevate our creative ambition in an increasingly selective market. Vantage Studios has been operating since October, and we are preparing for the rest of this new operating model to start running in early April.
As we move into this execution phase, our financial position and available cash provide the flexibility needed to address this near-term maturity, while we continue to work on extending our debt profile. This allows us to remain focused on delivering the transformation and creating the conditions for our creative houses to fully deliver on the significant pipeline of exceptional, high-quality games we will have within the next three years. Importantly, this transformation is supported by the strongly improved retention and reinforced talent pool, thanks to the return of numerous skilled former Ubisoft employees in our studios over the recent years. Now, I will transfer the call to Frédérick.
Thank you, Yves, and hello, everybody. Over the first nine months of the year, net bookings stood at EUR 1.1 billion, up 18% year-on-year, driven by the strength of our catalog of brands. Assassin's Creed and The Division both delivered nearly double net bookings over the period, while Anno posted a fourfold increase in net bookings and Avatar grew by around 20%. These four brands were also key drivers of the 12% year-on-year growth over Q3. In terms of activity metrics, the group's brands attracted around 130 million unique active users across console and PC in calendar year 2025, highlighting the appeal and strength of our portfolio of franchises. MAUs in Q3 reached 34 million, stable year-on-year, with activity metrics improving throughout the quarter. In December, MAUs were up 3% year-on-year.
Our Q3 net bookings reached EUR 338 million, 11% above guidance. This overperformance was primarily driven by partnerships and the Assassin's Creed franchise. On the new release side, Anno 117: Pax Romana, developed by our Mainz studio, had a solid start with an 84 Metacritic score and net bookings outpacing those of Anno 1800 on a comparable timeframe. The game has been well received by players and critics, supported by its unique take on the iconic Roman setting and new gameplay features, such as the skill tree. Looking ahead, while Anno 1800 continues to be a strong seller, Anno 117: Pax Romana will build on its post-launch roadmap with the first DLC, Prophecies of Ash, scheduled to release in April and introducing a large new island to discover.
On the back catalog side, net bookings reached EUR 297 million, up 11% year-over-year. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has posted a solid performance this quarter, benefiting from the release of the high-quality From the Ashes expansion, developed in our Massive studio that launched alongside the Avatar: Fire and Ash movie. This content, with an 81 Metacritic score, supported growth in player engagement, with session days nearly doubling year-on-year, as well as growth in player acquisition and monetization. Performance was further underpinned by targeted gameplay enhancements, including the highly anticipated introduction of a third-person view, broadening the player experience and positioning the game as a long-term seller. This quarter's competitive first-person shooter market was particularly crowded. In this context, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege performed in line with expectations.
The title saw improving activity and engagement trends in December, with MAUs up year-over-year and the DAUs back on a positive momentum. By early January, the DAUs were more than double where they stood early November, supported by the progress in addressing player feedback related to balancing and cheating. The Assassin's Creed brand overperformed this quarter and saw solid activity metrics, with session days up 7% quarter-over-quarter and 28% year-over-year. Overall, the brand saw double-digit year-over-year growth in active users, underlining the strength and durability of the franchise. The quarter notably saw the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows on Switch 2, enabling the title to broaden its audience, as well as the high-quality Veil of Memory update for Assassin's Creed Mirage. The Division 2 continued to grow meaningfully across active players, engagement, and revenue.
This performance was driven by a strong slate of live events and the launch of a new season in December. Total digital net bookings reached EUR 256 million, stable year-on-year, and represented 76% of our total net bookings. PRI stood at EUR 148 million, up 3% year-on-year, and represented 44% of our total net bookings. Mobile amounted to EUR 25 million, down versus last year. Now, turning to the group's transformation and building on what Yves just mentioned, we have made good progress over the past few weeks. We have provided the breakdown of studios by creative houses and network that is detailed in today's press release. Additionally, as we prepare for this new organization to start operating in April, appointments of creative house key leadership will start in March and include industry veterans with a proven track record.
In line with our ambition to reshape the HQ into a leaner and focused organization, consultations with employee representatives have been initiated regarding the objective to reduce headcount at Ubisoft headquarters in France by 200 positions through a voluntary departure plan. These measures are intended to support a more agile organization and reinforce our ability to deliver sustainable and profitable growth. Let me turn to a few key highlights from the quarter. First, as you know, we completed the transaction with Tencent, securing EUR 1.16 billion cash investment. The proceeds from the transaction have strengthened our balance sheet and provide increased financial flexibility to support the acceleration of our transformation, while being fully available to address upcoming debt maturities. Second, in November, we unveiled Teammates, our first playable player-facing generative AI experience.
Building on the new NPC initiative, the prototype explores new forms of adaptive gameplay with AI-driven, AI-driven characters, capable of understanding and reacting to players in real time. The experience also serves as a test bed for the underlying technology, reinforcing our long-term strategy to enhance interactivity and creative tools for development teams. The announcement received positive media coverage, with Digital Trends describing it as Ubisoft AI experiment that could be gaming's biggest leap in decades. Third, in December, we acquired the rights to March of Giants from Amazon for a nominal amount. Following a successful close alpha, this acquisition enables us to enter in the mobile genre, one of the biggest and most engagement segments of the industry, with a game that is fully aligned with our Game- as -a-S ervice native pillar of our strategy.
The March of Giants team, led by veteran developers of Ubisoft that created Rainbow Six Siege, brings proven expertise in building and operating globally successful, competitive, and live games, strengthening our internal capabilities in this segment. Fourth, in January, we announced the appointment of Valentine Piedelièvre-Eman as Chief Communications Officer. She brings extensive experience across entertainment and technology in the international organization, including, most recently, at Warner Bros. Discovery. Finally, turning to the outlook, we have confirmed today our fiscal 2026 guidance, which we expect net bookings of around EUR 1.5 billion, non-IFRS EBIT of around -EUR 1 billion, free cash flow of between -EUR 400 million and -EUR 500 million, non-IFRS net debt of between EUR 150 million and EUR 250 million.
This translates into an expected consolidated cash and cash equivalent position at end March 2026 of between EUR 1.25 billion and EUR 1.35 billion, that is fully available to service our debt maturities. Our liquidity position provides flexibility to address the near-term maturity using cash on hand, and we are actively exploring several options to extend our debt maturity profile. The lineup for Q4 includes Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence. Rainbow Six Mobile, developed by the Montreal studio that created Rainbow Six Siege, brings the authentic Siege experience to mobile, combining tactical depths with fast-paced action, while integrating gameplay features specifically designed for mobile users. The title that will expand the brand's audience has generated strong early momentum, with more than 18 million pre-registrations to date.
Following a successful soft launch in LatAm, Canada, France, and Poland, Rainbow Six Mobile is scheduled for a worldwide release on February 23, with a strong content roadmap, including recurring challenges, limited time playlists and events, as well as the monthly release of a new season, supporting sustained player engagement. Following a solid Q3, Rainbow Six Siege saw MAUs grow mid-single digit in January. The game will also benefit from the Six Invitational that is taking place in Paris this week, where the franchise will present the Year 11 roadmap, highlighting increased investments in player protection and the delivery of community-driven content to support sustained engagement and growth. The Division Resurgence, developed by Ubisoft Mobile Games in Paris, was confirmed as a faithful mobile adaptation of the long-running and successful Division franchise.
Following the latest series of live tests in Q3, the game is planned to release in Q4 and will be taking part in the franchise tenth anniversary celebrations in March. But we also feature the launch of a new game mode in The Division 2, alongside a reveal of an ambitious roadmap for the coming year. And as always, here are a few fiscal 2026 housekeeping items for modeling purposes. The stock-based compensation is expected at around EUR 32 million, unchanged versus prior guidance. The non-IFRS net financial charge is expected at around EUR 45 million, unchanged versus prior guidance, reflecting the full year effect of last year's additional financing.
The non-IFRS tax rate is not relevant in the context of negative non-IFRS operating income, and the number of diluted shares is expected at around 132 million, reflecting the fact that with an expected negative net income, the dilutive nature of our instrument no longer kicks in. Also unchanged versus prior guidance. We are now ready to take your questions.
To ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To restore your question, please press star one and one again. We will now go to our first question. One moment, please. Our first question today comes from the line of Nicolas Langlet from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good afternoon, everyone. I've got three questions. First, on the licensing deals. So you mentioned part of your overperformance related to the licensing deal. So what would have been the growth in Q3 if you exclude the licensing deals? And if you want to share any details about those deals, that would be appreciated. Secondly, on Assassin's Creed Shadows, can you share the performance of the title life-to- date compared to the previous large-scale Assassin's Creed? And if you can share any feedback regarding the performance on Switch 2, that would be great. And finally, on your cash position, what do you consider as the minimum vital gross cash position to run the business?
Still on that topic, of the EUR 1.3 billion gross cash you expect at the end of the year, how much is part of Vantage Studios, and how much is part of the rest of Ubisoft? And how easy it is for you to use Vantage cash position for the rest of the business if needed? Thank you.
Thank you, Nicolas. So on your first question, the Q3 would have been slightly down without licensing deals. On Assassin's Creed Shadows, so overall, what we share is that the brand is strongly benefiting from Shadows launch, as we nearly doubled net bookings on the overall franchise over the first nine months of the year, and still strongly growing in Q3, with activity metrics up quarter on quarter. So we see that the brand is in good shape, and yes, the Switch 2 contributed to broadening the audience and to the performance in the third quarter. We've been happy to see that Assassin's Creed overperformed expectations in the last quarter.
So that confirmed that we've been clearly improving the game's quality delivery with Shadows this year, and that is paying off. In terms of the minimum cash position, if we look at the usual working capital variations throughout the year, we can consider that a few hundred million EUR is the minimum cash position to run the business. To your question on cash availability, the full, a s I said, the EUR 1.25 billion-EUR 1.35 billion consolidated gross cash is fully available to service debt maturities, and that includes the Vantage Studios liquidity that is also unrestricted through cash pooling to service debt maturity.
Okay, understood. Thank you for that.
To complete the answer, we have already upstreamed nearly EUR 700 million from Vantage Studios, so the rest being fully available through cash pooling.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you.
Thank you. Oh, thank you. We will now go to our next question. The next question comes from the line of Ben Shelley from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, and thanks for taking my questions. My first one is, you still have EUR 100 million of variance in your free cash flow and balance sheet guide for FY 2026. Could you talk about what's driving that? And then could you also talk about, will the revenues that were postponed by the restructuring be delivered in FY 2027? And then my last question is, can you expand a bit further on your opening remarks, where you say you continue to work on extending your debt profile, and can you outline what options you are considering? Thank you.
Yes, sir. Thank you, Ben. So on the first question, yes, the EUR 100 million variation in free cash flow guidance reflects potential variation in working capital, in working capitals, and that can include potential cashing of a partnership. On your second question, you said revenues postponed by restructuring. I'm not sure I understand your question. Can you repeat the second question?
Yeah. Will, will the revenues that were postponed by the restructuring be delivered in FY 2027, given they're not coming in FY 2026?
So as part of what we did recently decided there is one unannounced game that is postponed from fiscal 2026 to fiscal 2027. So, that's that will be seen in fiscal 2027. We, however, canceled again this quarter, so we won't see that happening in fiscal 2027. And in terms of the partnerships, we, as we said, we stopped negotiations on partnerships, and of course, we will have the leadership of the creative houses taking care of these future partnerships. But we have nothing more to announce in terms of timing or reason for the conclusion of these partnership negotiations.
In terms of refinancing, as I said, yes, we have clearly sufficient liquidity with cash on hand to address our near-term maturity, and that gives us the flexibility to assess the most efficient refinancing options, indeed, to push our debt maturity for the medium- to longer-term maturities. But we have nothing more to specify on this at this stage.
Thanks very much, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ben.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. That is star one and one to ask a question. We will now go to our next question. Our next question today comes from the line of Doug Creutz from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Hey, thank you. If I look at your guidance for the year of about a $1 billion loss, that implies also you're gonna lose about $1 billion in the second half. That includes the EUR 650 million from the accelerated depreciation, but if I back that out, that still implies you're gonna lose EUR 350 million on low EUR 700 million revenue. In the first half of the year, you were slightly profitable on high EUR 700 million revenue, which seems like that there's a big acceleration in costs embedded in there, aside from the accelerated depreciation. So could you just walk through what that acceleration in cost run rate is in the second half versus the first half? Thanks.
So in terms of the second half, EBIT, yes, most of the loss came from the accelerated depreciation, as you say. And the rest comes from the fact that we reduced net bookings by EUR 350 million, and that comes with a EUR 330 million gross margin reduction. Apart from that, we've seen that we continue reducing our fixed cost base, as we will be closing the second phase of our cost reduction program of EUR 100 million, a year ahead of timing.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now hand the call back to the room for closing remarks.
So thank you very much for your question, and have a good evening and a good morning for the other part of the Atlantic. Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.