More than three weeks after Sony announced plans to stop producing new PlayStation discs starting in January 2028, reactions from across the gaming industry continue to surface, with Ubisoft becoming the latest major publisher to weigh in on the decision. During Ubisoft’s first quarter 2026 earnings call, investors pressed company executives on whether the move could create a demand slowdown, given that players would no longer be able to rely on the used game market for physical copies of titles.
Ubisoft Chief Financial Officer Frédérick Duguet pushed back on the concern, arguing that the shift would not significantly disrupt the industry. He pointed to prior experience on PC, where a similar shift away from physical media helped grow the overall market rather than shrink it, and suggested that moving toward all digital consoles could eventually make hardware more affordable for consumers by reducing manufacturing costs tied to disc drives. Duguet acknowledged there would be both advantages and drawbacks to the transition, but said the company does not expect it to meaningfully disrupt the broader industry.
Elsewhere during the earnings call, Ubisoft highlighted strong early performance for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, which has sold 3.5 million units to date and outperformed the company’s annual sales expectations within its first two weeks on the market. Despite this strong showing, Ubisoft as a whole reported a nine percent year over year decline in net bookings, which the company attributed to a difficult comparison against the same quarter last year, when Assassin’s Creed Shadows had just launched and contributed significantly to results.
When asked about updated guidance for the rest of the fiscal year, Duguet declined to make specific commitments, saying it remained too early to revise projections despite the encouraging start from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. He noted that last year’s second quarter had benefited meaningfully from partnership related revenue that is not similarly present this year, complicating direct comparisons between the two periods. He added that Ubisoft plans to announce additional game titles for the second half of the year, building on the previously confirmed Rayman Legends Retold, and expressed confidence in the company’s upcoming lineup even as he held off on updating full year financial guidance.
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