Ubisoft Pulls a Last-Second Earnings Curveball, Freezes Trading to Stop the Panic

ubisoft logo

If you have a stake in the gaming titans, or enjoy some of the drama around them, everyone’s on their toes watching Ubisoft right now. The French powerhouse halted in its tracks just hours before dropping its H1 FY25-26 earnings on November 13 by pressing the “later in the coming days” button. To stop the rot, they’ve asked Euronext to suspend trading in their shares and bonds as of November 14. As for the markets? Their goal, is “to curb unnecessary speculation and market volatility.” This is quite a moment.

Ubisoft H1 FY25-26 Earnings

From inside the company, it sounds like a traditional crunch time scramble. And there’s been a leak of an internal email from CFO Frédérick Duguet, who said they’re basically “taking extra time to finalise” the numbers. No interesting details yet, although you can almost feel the eyebrows raising in Montreuil boardrooms.

This is not entirely coming out of nowhere, however, Ubisoft has been in the barrel for months. That €159 million loss they reported in March? Well, that was due to the horrific 20.5% decline in both game sales and subs last fiscal year, even with bangers like Assassin’s Creed Shadows among the best-selling games of 2025. They’ve been cutting jobs as part of a significant restructuring effort, and there’s also this simmering beef between some shareholders.

assasin creed

The rumour mill is in overdrive: Is this the opening move in a full-blooded privatisation or a buyout? People are comparing it to the freewheeling $55 billion EA acquisition odyssey earlier this year. It’s not like Tencent lacks the money or motivation, perhaps they’re looking to make it a full buyout in order to secure those franchises.

Or hey, it might be as dull as discovering a spreadsheet bug right before the show starts and having to refresh with new data. Either way, in a week when everyone’s both beating up on and parsing all the various earnings reports on record, this hold up has left the entire gaming sector whispering.

As for the markets? Shares were already jittery, but the trading halt means no fireworks until the truth drops. Ubisoft’s been a rollercoaster stock lately, which adds to the uncertainty amid industry shake-ups, layoffs, consolidations, you name it.

My gaming journey ignited at age nine with my first console, a gift from my parents. The Xbox 360 era cemented games as my passion, fueled by epics like Halo 3, Call of Duty: World at War, and FIFA. A lifelong follower of streaming since its pre Twitch Amazon roots, I dove into writing in 2021,now my full time career. I spotlight influencers across YouTube, Twitch, and Kick, while tackling broader entertainment and tech stories.