I just realized another reason why they cancelled the preorders for
Assassin's Creed Shadows. By refunding preorders, they can hide how fucked it is from their Q2 report. This is incredibly important because they're French, which means they operate under IFRS and not GAAP. So while they may make IR statements regarding their quarterly performance like some info about net bookings, they aren't required to give out the full financial statements for those quarterly interim periods. They appear to only release semi-annual financial statements, which means half-year and full-year info. The latest key figures they provide is March 31st, 2024 because that's their year-end and the next statement will likely only come out for their Q2 (ending September 30th), which would be reported as "H1 24-25" on their financial statements as that covers April to September.
According to their March 31st, 2024 key figures, their "Non-IFRS Cash flow from operation" has been in the red for the past several years:
- €55 million for 2021-22
- €227.3 million for 2022-23
They barely pulled it to the black with
€90.8 million for 2023-24 but their H1 23-24 was
€188.7 million. So
XDefiant (which released during their "H1 23-24") did really poorly (which we already knew) while
AC Mirage (released during "H2 23-24") carried the fuck out of the company because it cost nothing to make and was super short while generating a bunch of sales. Meanwhile their massive sales monster,
AC Valhalla, cost a fuckton to make because despite being the best selling game in the series, their 2020-21 "non-IFRS cash flow from operation" was only
€64.6 million while their "IFRS Net income" was only
€105.2 million. No wonder their investors are rioting. This company is carried entirely by Assassin's Creed and if
Shadows bombs, they are fucked beyond belief. They already lost a lot of money from
Outlaws, so this is going to be peak clownshow.
C'est foutu.