More than three weeks after the announcement, Sony‘s decision to stop producing new PlayStation discs from January 2028 still reverberates throughout the industry as various developers and publishers react to it.
Yesterday, it was Ubisoft‘s turn. During the French publisher’s Q1 2026 earnings call, investors asked if Ubisoft execs were concerned it could create a “demand headwind” as people could not rely on the used market anymore. However, Frédérick Duguet, Chief Financial Officer at Ubisoft, claimed that there won’t be much of a difference, at least from their point of view:
What we saw on the PC is that it helped to grow the market. There’s also some pressure for the future on the cost of machines, being able to be only digital will help to have a more accessible machine, I would say. As you said, there are plus and minus, but we think it will not disturb too much the industry.
Elsewhere in the earnings call, Ubisoft boasted that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced sold 3.5 million units to date and managed to beat annual expectations in its first two weeks on the market. However, the publisher as a whole registered a -9% year-over-year decline in net bookings due to a tough comparison against last year’s quarter, which featured the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. When prompted, Duguet refused to comment on Ubisoft’s full-year guidance:
As I said, we’re very happy with the start. As for the second quarter guidance, I think it fairly reflects the early success of these first two weeks. Yes, in terms of comparison with last year’s second quarter, last year we had a meaningful impact of partnerships while we have a limited one this quarter. That’s a big part of the explanation in comparing with the last year’s Q2. I don’t know what are the assumptions that were used in the consensus. For the full fiscal year, as I said, while it’s really a great start, it’s still early. As we said, we will be announcing additional games to be launched in the second half on top of the “Rayman Legends Retold” already announced. We expect also a strong competitive lineup. It’s a bit early to update the guidance.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief.
In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech’s gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews.
Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications.
His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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