Ubisoft public investor report, earnings call expand on financial situation for Rainbow Six series

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Rainbow Six Extraction and Rainbow Six Siege have combined to generate €300 million worth of net bookings, per Ubisoft's annual public 2021-2022 investor report. 

The report defines "net bookings" as "sales excluding the services component and integrating the unconditional amounts related to license contracts recognized independently of the performance obligation realization."

Effectively, it's sales minus services, but with licensing revenue, an ill-defined figure that is subject to lots of fluctuation depending on what's added and subtracted from the metric. With the addition of Extraction, the Rainbow Six family is still one of Ubisoft's pillars, according to the report. The series generated €300 million worth across licensing agreements and raw sales, excluding services. 

Additionally, the report mentions the "very positive reception for Rainbow Six Siege Year 7 roadmap," which debuted during the Six Invitational 2022. During Ubisoft's earnings call, Rainbow Six Mobile was also mentioned as a factor expected to add to the Rainbow Six universe, naturally. 

Ubisoft placed the Rainbow Six series alongside Far Cry and Assassin's Creed, and noted in the report that exceeding 300 million Euros worth of net bookings was "a first in Ubisoft’s history." 

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot also commented on recent reports of a Ubisoft buyout, saying, "We have everything we need to remain independent."

A spokesperson added: "We won't comment on the overall topic but over the last 25 years...we've been able to create massive value." This was in response to a question about the benefits of not going private in a buyout. 

In a response to another question, Ubisoft confirmed that Rainbow Six Mobile was the formerly mentioned project being created in collaboration with Tencent. Mobile games are all the rage these days, and in many ways are the future of games as we know them. As technology increases in quality, increased accessibility to premium-title level quality becomes normal. 

A response to a specific question about Rainbow Six Siege and Rainbow Six Extraction's place in Ubisoft's portfolio elicited more answers. "Rainbow Six grew as a franchise in fiscal 22," with Extraction helping to get there. There were more than five million players on R6 Extraction, according to the spokesperson. 

For Siege, the game has "in the quarter, seen an increase in acquisition of new players in Rainbow Six Siege." 

The exact number of new Siege players was not specified. 

This is the biggest year of content since Siege's launch, according to Guillemot. The combination of new maps and operators in the same season is expected to take Siege back to its roots — all while improving new player onboarding struggles. The onboarding efforts appear to come from the YouTube "Rank Up" series, which features prominent community members explaining basic functions of how the game has evolved that aren't explicitly available knowledge to new players. 

The call paints Siege in a strong place -- maybe not what it once was in terms of mainstream popularity, but as strong as ever in its niche.