Ubisoft: The Division 2 missed sales goals on consoles due to crowded market

Ubisoft’s The Division 2 matched sales of its predecessor on PC, but Ubisoft says the game failed to gain the same level of traction on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Company CFO Frederick Dugue discussed the game’s launch in a recent investor call, noting that an unexpectedly crowded market held the console version back but that the company is hopeful coming content will boost its future performance.

“Despite its strong release, The Division 2 ended up short of our ambitious expectations on consoles,” said Dugue. “We believe this is due for a large part to a more competitive market than expected.”

The same isn’t true for PC, however. Dugue says The Division 2 performed well on the platform despite skipping Steam in favor of Ubisoft’s own Uplay platform and the Epic Games Store. Specific numbers weren’t mentioned in the call, but Dugue notes that PC sales were “in line with the first game’s massive launch.”

The Division 2 also saw 10 times more sales on Uplay than its predecessor. Uplay as a whole grew by 150 percent year-over-year, thanks in part to “sharp acceleration” caused by the release of The Division 2.

In both cases, Dugue was quiet about what exactly The Division 2’s sales targets were, but did note that the company is optimistic about the game’s future and expects it to gain traction as new content is released. Despite hiccups on console, he also notes that The Division 2 as a whole has seen “record levels of digital distribution, player engagement, and season pass engagement for a Ubisoft triple-A game.”