After launching Assassin's Creed Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft dubs the market "more volatile" now amid rise of free-to-play titles and subscriptions: "Many new games are struggling"

In an era that's seeing declining numbers for physical software and an increase in live service games, digital purchases, and subscriptions, it comes as no surprise that studios are worrying about the future of one-time purchase full releases – and Ubisoft is no exception.

Just over this past year or so, Ubisoft oversaw a good few such launches – there was the hotly anticipated Assassin's Creed Shadows, of course, and before that, Star Wars Outlaws in 2024. It wasn't all that much compared to previous years, though, and the company notes as much in a new annual report filed in the United Kingdom. Ubisoft compares games from "the year to 31 March 2025," like Shadows and Outlaws, to the year prior.

As its report reads, that year boasted "Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, The Crew Motorfest, Just Dance 2024, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Skull and Bones." It continues: "Fiscal year 2025 saw the overall UK physical sales market drop by around 35% as sales have continued to shift to more digital and subscription-based delivery." 2026 won't look too much better, Ubisoft predicts.

"Following the FY25 [the "F" meaning fiscal here], FY26 is expected to see a slower rate of decline for physical software sales in the UK market," it writes. Just why has there been a decline, though? "The traditional 'full game' model of selling a single £50-60 game to a consumer as a one-time purchase continues to become less ubiquitous," as Ubisoft puts it, and that's because of alternatives flooding the market.

"With Multi Game Subscription services, long-running Games As A Service titles [in other words, live service titles], Free To Play games, and Cloud Streaming offerings all providing new and attractive ways for consumers to access gaming content," to be precise. "Consumers are playing fewer games," as well, and "playing them for longer" – think recent releases like Helldivers 2, which is still going strong nearly two years on.

"As a result, outside of a few notable exceptions, many new games are struggling to stand out and achieve the sales they may once have had, whilst the market is more volatile and the potential for any specific title less predictable as a result," Ubisoft concludes. As for the Assassin's Creed publisher itself, it "expects revenue to fall in FY26." It's undoubtedly an interesting report to read in full, especially considering Ubisoft's own subscription service.

I do also admittedly wonder what the "few notable exceptions" are, of course – but something tells me that the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 and Game Awards 2025 Game of the Year nominee Clair Obsucr: Expedition 33 certainly qualify.

Assassin's Creed actor only found out his character died in a huge plot twist because he checked Twitter after the game released: "I'm thinking, 'what?'"