Ubisoft reports Q1 net bookings miss due to Rainbow Six Siege X pricing exploit

Ubisoft management explains that a prepaid card exploit is one of the reasons for its recent Q1 earnings miss.

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Ubisoft's latest Q1'FY26 results missed internal estimates, with net bookings down year-over-year despite the triumphant product launch of Rainbow Six Siege X. While the new Siege X is off to a great start, with KPIs like MAUs and player acquisition up across the board, Ubisoft says the reason for the net bookings miss is due to fraudulent charges.

"While resolved in June, player spending this quarter saw a significant impact from a pricing exploit with prepaid currency cards that temporarily inflated virtual currency wallets," Ubisoft said in a press release. Essentially, Siege X was so popular that it attracted digital fraudsters.

"Overall, first quarter net bookings reached €282m, below the guidance, reflecting a lower-than-expected performance for Rainbow Six Siege..."

The company reported 281.6 million euros in net bookings for Q1'26, down nearly -3% year-over-year.

Ubisoft CFO Frederic Douget explains what exactly happened with this exploit while also doubling-down on Siege X's success in other key performance indicators:

"What happened is that, we moved with a meaningful business model change and as we were launching X, it came with a high rate of player activity. The player spending was temporarily impacted by a pricing issue with prepaid cards that led to an artificial but meaningful inflation of some virtual currency wallets for some players. That had an impact on the June numbers, while all the KPIs are actually doing very well.

"The issue was addressed and fixed. We will see a residual impact from the second quarter, to a lesser extent, and as for the Q1, it had a meaningful impact on the performance.

"I want to reiterate that, as I mentioned, all of the KPIs are strong and have been sustained in July with very strong player acquisition and returning players as well. That led to activity growth +65% in the last few weeks of June versus the prior 3 weeks baseline. That translated in sustained activity growth of 25% versus last year in June, and sustained at 20% in July.

"We see that the game is on a strong base to grow solidly this fiscal year and beyond."