Ubisoft Entertainment Aktie

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. This past fiscal year was one of decisive actions for Ubisoft. We initiated one of the most ambitious transformations in the company history, building a more focused, agile and disciplined organization that is capable of consistently delivering high-quality experiences to players through a sustained release cadence while supporting value creation over time.

To achieve this strategic resets in financial year '26, we began putting in place a new operating model, rationalized our portfolio of games and executed with discipline on our cost reduction program while significantly deleveraging the group. In financial year '27, we will pursue and complete the execution of this transformation and continue investment ahead of much stronger and sustained content cycle.

This year is therefore expected to represent a low point in our free cash flow trajectory, along with a softer release slate and restructuring costs.

We will continue to grow our live games led by Rainbow Six and its strong road map, deliver Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and launch other targeted premium games based on established Ubisoft brands. This 2-year transformation comes with difficult decisions and a disappointing short-term financial performance, but I firmly believe that together, these actions are better positioning Ubisoft to deliver sustainable free cash flow over time.

The expected outcome beyond financial year '27 will be an important rebound driven by a significantly stronger new release pipeline, the acceleration of our live games and the continued reduction of our fixed cost base with free cash flow turning positive in financial year '28 and reaching a robust level in financial year '29.

Overall, we expect to generate positive cumulative free cash flow through financial year '27 to financial year '29 period. In this context, with a comfortable liquidity position, the review of our financing options is actively progressing with the objective of executing the most efficient financing scheme in due course.

I will now let Frédérick detail our financial performance this year.

Thank you, Yves, and hello, everybody. Overall, full year net bookings for the year stood at EUR 1.525 billion, down 17% year-on-year, primarily reflecting a softer new release schedule. Back catalog was robust this year, broadly stable year-on-year, highlighting once again the strength and attractiveness of the group's portfolio of franchises. The group reached 36 million MAUs and 129 million unique users across console and PC, stable when excluding XDefiant from the base. In Q4, net bookings stood at EUR 415 million, EUR 25 million above guidance, driven by better-than-expected back-catalog performances across the group's major franchises and MAUs were slightly up year-on-year.

Net bookings were down 54% year-on-year, reflecting a higher -- a high comparison base that included the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows and significantly higher partnerships. For its part, back catalog net bookings stood at EUR 243 million this quarter, down mid-single-digit, excluding partnerships. Rainbow Six Siege delivered a solid quarter with activity and engagement trends significantly improving sequentially. Session days remained stable year-on-year while peak DAUs in March increased year-on-year and nearly 3x higher than in early November, reaching the second highest level since March 2020. MAUs were clearly above 10 million in March and up double digits year-on-year, reflecting a meaningful reengagement of the player base and closing the year with an annual audience growing low double digits and above 30 million unique active players.

The Year 11 has been praised by players, showcasing significant community-driven content for the year ahead and reflecting the team's sustained effort to address player feedback over the recent months.

The Division 2 saw net bookings outperform in the quarter, and more than double year-on-year this fiscal year, supported by the 10-year anniversary of the franchise, roadmap updates and continued strong live services execution. The anniversary season and the limited time Realism mode drove meaningful player engagement growth and led to a record quarter in terms of monetization for the game thanks to audience growth as well as structural improvement in terms of retention and conversion. The performance highlights the team's continued focus on evolving the player experience over time.

The Assassin's Creed franchise also posted a strong performance this quarter, outperforming and delivering year-on-year engagement growth, closing the year with an annual audience above 30 million unique active players.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora continued to benefit from momentum generated by the third-person update, the latest expansion and the theatrical release of the Avatar film in the prior quarter, delivering very strong year-on-year net booking growth, both in the quarter and over the fiscal year.

The Crew Motorfest reached record quarterly users on the back of a robust content pipeline, including the NASCAR-themed season and the release of Trackforge, a new UGC feature enabling players to build their own racing circuits.

For Honor saw net bookings grow double-digit this quarter, supported by the launch of Year 10, Cycle of War that led to solid audience and engagement growth. The new seasonal content roadmap, gameplay updates and anniversary celebrations highlighted the franchise's long-term durability and reflected the team's continued live execution nearly 10 years after release.

Total digital net bookings and PRI stood at EUR 390 million and EUR 301 million, respectively, both down year-on-year, reflecting a strong comparison base linked to the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows in March last year and a higher level of partnerships. Mobile stood at EUR 29 million, up mid-single digit year-on-year, excluding partnerships. The quarter saw the release of Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence.

Both games were welcomed by players for their faithful gameplay experiences. And while the game had a slow start, the teams are working towards broadening their respective audiences.

This quarter, Invincible: Guarding the Globe benefited from the release of the new TV series, driving a significant uplift in player activity throughout March and reaching record activity levels in early fiscal '27. Overall, its net bookings were up over 50% this fiscal year.

Stepping back and as mentioned previously, this fiscal year has been marked by a major organizational portfolio and financial reset. These deliberate choices result in short-term painful, but necessary financial outcomes both in fiscal year '26 and fiscal '27 ahead of a significant rebound expected in fiscal '28 and fiscal '29.

Starting with fiscal '26, you will find our non-IFRS P&L on Slide 6 of our presentation. Gross margin was stable year-on-year. R&D this year reflected the EUR 650 million accelerated depreciation we announced in January linked to the transformation-related decisions we took across our portfolio of games. It also reflects incremental depreciation, notably linked to the decision not to discontinue the development of a game based on the new IP that has been announced as delayed in our January communication.

I will provide more details on the R&D topic on the following slide. SG&A was down 13%, mainly reflecting lower variable marketing expenses due to a softer new release slate this year. As a result, non-IFRS EBIT stood at EUR 1.040 billion, broadly in line with our objective of around EUR 1 billion. You can refer to our press release or presentation appendix for the full IFRS to non-IFRS reconciliation.

Turning now to Slide 7. P&L R&D stood at EUR 1.086 billion this year -- EUR 1.086 billion, up significantly year-on-year, reflecting the accelerated depreciation we announced in January linked to the strategic decisions to refocus our portfolio and revise our roadmap in order to ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are fully met.

For its part, total cash R&D was down EUR 151 million or 12% year-on-year, reflecting our continued efforts addressing our fixed cost base and the refocused roadmap. This year's reduction is in capitalized investments that will flow through the P&L over the coming years amounted to EUR 156 million.

Looking at our cash flow statement on Slide 8, free cash flow consumption stood at EUR 443 million, in line with our updated target range of between EUR 400 million and EUR 500 million. The free cash flow consumption reflects the softer release slate, which resulted in lower gross profit generation, while we continue investing ahead of a significantly stronger content pipeline in fiscal year '28 and fiscal year '29.

Turning to the balance sheet. Non-IFRS net debt improved materially to EUR 187 million at end March 2026 compared to -- compared with EUR 885 million a year earlier, reflecting the cash inflows of the investments into Vantage Studios. Cash and cash equivalents remained at a comfortable level of around EUR 1.35 billion.

Let me now turn to an update on the group transformation. Following the comprehensive transformation we announced in January, a reset centered on a new operating model, a refocused portfolio and right-sized organization, Ubisoft is now firmly in the execution phase with tangible progress across all pillars. A key milestone with the creation of Vantage Studios alongside the closing of the EUR 1.16 billion Tencent transaction, strengthening our balance sheet and enhancing our financial flexibility to support the group's transformation.

From an organizational standpoint, the recently appointed co-CEOs of Vantage Studios established a new dedicated leadership team for the Assassin's Creed franchise, bringing clear mandates and creative accountability to our most iconic brands. We also appointed Nicolo Laurent as a strategic adviser, bringing extensive experience building and operating globally successful competitive and live games, further strengthening Vantage Studios capabilities in this strategic segment.

At the same time, we are rolling out our new structure, with key leadership appointments across Creative Houses 3 and 5 and the Creative Network, while finalizing the leadership team for Creative House 2.

Julien Bares appointed as General Manager of Creative Houses 3 and 5 brings more than 25 years of extensive experience in the video game industry in leadership roles across AAA production and live operations, including more than 20 years in China.

In a selective market environment, this new operating model has gone hand-in-hand with stricter portfolio discipline. We have discontinued 7 projects and delayed 6 others, reflecting elevated quality criteria and a refocus on the opportunities with the highest potential.

This discipline is already translating into higher quality standards as reflected in recent releases such as Assassin's Creed Shadows, Anno 117: Pax Romana and the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora expansion, each achieving Metacritic scores above 80.

Finally, we are leveraging AI to enhance the player experience and boost creativity and efficiency across our teams. We are accelerating investment behind Teammates, our first label generative AI experience to enrich player experiences as well as making tangible progress organically on applications to help manage the growing complexity of modern game development pipelines. This includes building more intelligent tools supporting quality control as well as smart NPCs and more active game worlds.

By combining decades of expertise in open worlds and systemic gameplay with the pioneering work of our La Forge R&D teams, we are confident in our ability to remain at the forefront of this transformation and provide our teams with tools to enhance their creativity.

We've also made good progress on our cost reduction program and the rightsizing of the organization, which remains a key priority for us. We have completed the second phase of our cost reduction program one year ahead of the initial schedule and the growth targets, highlighting continued discipline and strong execution.

Total headcount stood at 16,590 at the end of March 2026, down by around 1,200 employees versus last year while maintaining voluntary attrition close to our record low levels, particularly among senior profiles and strengthening the talent base, thanks to the return of 155 former Ubisoft top talents.

Our fixed cost base has been reduced by EUR 118 million versus last year or 8% at current foreign exchange rates, including a favorable EUR 39 million currency impact. Overall, the fiscal '26 fixed cost base stood at around EUR 1.435 billion. We accumulated fixed cost savings since fiscal '23 of nearly EUR 325 million.

Looking ahead, we have a clear path to completing the third and final phase of our cost reduction program, targeting a fixed cost base of EUR 1.25 billion on a run rate basis by March 2028, supported by continued discipline in recruitment and targeted restructuring. We also continue to consider potential asset divestitures.

Now let's have a look at fiscal year '27 and beyond. Our lineup for fiscal '27 is light and reflects our strategic decisions that Yves detailed earlier impacting our release slate. We will launch Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and other targeted premium games as well as continue to grow our live services.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a faithful remake of Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag that was originally released in 2013, is led by Ubisoft Singapore and scheduled for release on July 9, 2026. Rebuilt from the ground up using the latest version of the Anvil engine, the game introduces substantial visual enhancements alongside enriched gameplay systems, including updated combat, stealth, parkour, naval mechanics and narrative content.

The reveal generated strong engagement across the Assassin's Creed community, with players praising the game's modernized presentation and expanded gameplay features while recognizing its faithfulness to the original experience. We are encouraged by the early preorder momentum that has been particularly strong notably in China, ranking among the franchise's best performances over the first three weeks with the collector edition sold out and a very high share of premium SKUs.

The fiscal year will benefit from continued investment across our live services portfolio. Rainbow Six Siege is expected to return to solid net bookings growth thanks to an ambitious, community-driven content roadmap for its Year 11, with the release of numerous highly anticipated features, including Ranked 3.0 and Meta-driven gameplay that brings freshness to the experience.

The Salt Lake City Major last week further underscored the game's competitive appeal, setting a new record for a Major event viewership. The Division 2 will also continue to expand through its Year 8 roadmap, featuring 4 seasonal updates, a new DLC set in New York and additional content for players as well as introduce The Division 2 Survivors, a new game experience.

Lastly, I would like to mention the opening of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era last month in early access on PC, marking the return of the long-running franchise for a modernized strategy RPG experience. The title developed by Unfrozen and published by Hooded Horse generated very positive community engagement and achieved 88% positive user ratings on Steam to date, demonstrating the strength of the Might and Magic brand. This also illustrates our capacity to leverage and monetize the strength of our IP portfolio across multiple genres and audiences, both directly or through partners.

As we marked the 30-year anniversary of the brand, the highly promising early results of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era reflect and reinforce a broader renewed ambition for the franchise and its community. In this context, we expect the following fiscal '27 outlook. Net bookings down by a single-digit percentage, driven by lower partnerships, a high single-digit negative non-IFRS operating margin and free cash flow consumption of no more than EUR 500 million.

The negative non-IFRS EBIT and free cash flow consumption expected this year reflect the ongoing transformation we're currently going through ahead of a strong cash-generative growth cycle. For Q1, we expect net bookings to stand at approximately EUR 250 million, reflecting the fact that we don't have any significant new release this quarter.

Beyond fiscal '27, we expect a much larger and diversified pipeline of content to come over fiscal '28 and fiscal '29, supported by releases across our major brands, including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Ghost Recon supported by the stronger release schedule as well as an acceleration of our live services driven by Rainbow Six Siege, our refocused portfolio and the continued reduction of our fixed cost base, we expect an important rebound with a return to positive free cash flow generation and non-IFRS EBIT in fiscal year '28, robust free cash flow in fiscal year '29 and positive cumulative free cash flow during the fiscal '27 to fiscal '29 period.

To conclude, here are a few fiscal '27 housekeeping items for modeling purposes. The stock-based compensation is expected at around EUR 25 million, a significant decrease versus last year, reflecting the current share price. The non-IFRS net financial charge, excluding foreign exchange impact, is expected at around EUR 38 million.

Assuming full exercise of the 2028 convertible bond put options, the interest savings from the 2025 repayments are absorbed by the convertible bond redemption premium and lower financial income expected for the year. The non-IFRS tax rate is not relevant in the context of breakeven non-IFRS operating income. And the number of diluted shares is expected at around 133 million reflecting the fact that with an expected negative net income, the dilutive nature of our instruments no longer kicks in. I will now hand the call over to Yves for the concluding remarks.

Thank you, Frédérick. What makes me confident in the success of this transformation is the very high quality of the leadership that we are putting in place across the whole organization along with a reinforced and streamlined talent base. Our ambition remains clear, reinforce Ubisoft's position as one of the industry leading creator of high-quality, memorable and engaging entertainment experiences that resonate with players over the long term by combining creative focus, the latest innovative technologies, reinforced talent base and a commitment to enhance quality. We believe we have the assets and brands to return to profitable growth, robust free cash flow generation and a strengthened capital structure. We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from the line of Nick Dempsey from Barclays.

I've got a few. So first of all, on your planned debt refinancing, can you give us a bit more color about the kinds of partners that you might look to work with on this or anything else that can give the market some reassurance that a solution here is imminent? Is it fair to say that you need to come out with a solution in the next couple of months for this to all work?

Second question, in terms of your plan to have positive cumulative free cash flow across FY '27, FY '28 and FY '29 with only positive free cash flow in FY '28, I'm guessing that looks like you need at least EUR 400 million of positive free cash flow in FY '29, which I think would be the highest in your history. Do you plan to have a particularly strong release schedule in that year? Or how often could you get to that kind of level? And last question, can you tell us roughly how much the cash restructuring charges that you're expecting to book in FY '27 now?

Thank you, Nick. So on the refinancing, our process review is actively progressing. We are considering several different options with the objective to optimize our cost of capital. Today, we have sufficient liquidity to address the near-term maturity using cash on hand is needed. And we enjoy comfortable cash and cash equivalent position of above EUR 1.3 billion. So that provides us with the flexibility to evaluate the most efficient financing solution for the medium to longer term. And we will update the market in due time.

In terms of the outlook for free cash flows across fiscal '28 and fiscal '29, yes, we expect positive in fiscal '28 and really robust free cash flow in fiscal '29 on the back of a very strong pipeline of products across the 2 years, the recent portfolio review that we conducted, it gave us an even stronger level of visibility for a very rich pipeline, including our major franchises and notably Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Ghost Recon on top of a very strong roadmap from Rainbow Six Siege among other items. So yes, the perspective is very positive for fiscal '28 and even more so in fiscal year '29.

In terms of the restructuring costs, if you think about the 2-year cost reduction program was nearly around EUR 118 million. You should consider that the restructuring costs to between 50% to 60% of that amount, and we expect the majority of this coming in fiscal '27.

And our next question today comes from the line of Nicolas Langlet from BNP Paribas.

I've got three questions. The first one on the full year '27 net booking guidance. So what's the year-on-year impact coming from the lower licensing and partnership deals? Or the other way, if you exclude those partnership licensing deals, what would be the expected net booking for full year '27? Secondly, on Assassin's Creed Resynced. Curious what your internal expectation relative to other Assassin's Creed titles. You think the total booking performance during the first year to be comparable to [indiscernible] or it could actually approach a full scale [indiscernible]. And finally, on the debt repayments, you mentioned the [ soft ] 70 million convertible bond. Can you remind us if there are other repayment both in full year '27 and full year '28?

So in fiscal '27, yes, the reduction in overall net bookings is driven by our partnerships. So excluding partnerships, you can consider we'll be growing. In terms of Assassin's Creed Resynced, as I said, we are very happy with the preorders momentum that ranks among the best titles in the franchise for the first 3 weeks. Of course, there is still 7 weeks to go. So we'll see how the momentum will continue building up, but we are happy and confident that it will be a really successful Assassin's Creed title because it's faithful to the experience, but it also comes with many improvements to the original experience that players have liked when they've seen the first showcase of the game.

In terms -- now keeping in mind that it's not a full price type of game. Now in terms of debt repayments, so we have in fiscal '27 -- in 2027, we expect a maturity of slightly below EUR 700 million. So that will come after the maturity coming this year in 2026 or slightly below EUR 500 million if the convertible bond put is exercised. And then in fiscal year '29 if the second adoption of the convertible bond is exercised, that would be another EUR 500 million. So calendar year 2029 to be precise.

Okay, okay. And last question. On the Vantage Studio minority interest, are you able to quantify what we should expect in full year '27? And can you confirm that there will be a minority line related to Vantage Studio in full year '27?

Can we confirm there will be what, sorry, Nicolas?

Minority interest line related to Vantage Studio?

Yes. Yes. There will be, of course.

Can you guide on the magnitude of the potential minority interest?

No, we don't guide on this for now.

And our next question today comes from the line of Doug Creutz from TD Cowen.

I was wondering if you could just talk a bit more about your experience with Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence to date, how they're doing relative to your expectations? Do you expect them to be meaningful contributors to revenue in fiscal '27? And how has your experience sort of shaped how you're thinking about your investments in mobile going forward?

Yes. Thank you, Doug. So what we've seen with both launches is that they've been very well received by the players with high community sentiment, praising the quality of the game-play and the faithfulness to the original experience. We can qualify at the start as being slower than expected in both cases. But we see that there are a number of good features that we can bring to those games to progressively grow the audience and performance for fiscal '27, we remain cautious on the forecast for both games until we can see more meaningful growth.

Thank you. This concludes the Q&A session for today. I will now hand back to you for closing remarks.

Thank you very much for your questions, and have a good evening.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ubisoft Q3 Fiscal Year 2026 Sales Webcast and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft's Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. We delivered a solid third quarter performance with net bookings growing at a double-digit rate year-on-year, exceeding our expectations. This performance reflects the strength of our portfolio and the breadth of our player engagement across our core franchises, supported by recent releases and live content updates that continue to resonate with players.

In parallel, we are making progress on the transformation announced last month. The allocation of studios and capabilities across the creative houses and network has now been announced and key leadership appointments are ongoing, including external hires of experienced respected industry veterans. This transformation is designed to sharpen focus, accelerate decision-making and elevate our creative ambition in an increasingly selective market. Vantage Studios has been operating since October, and we are preparing for the rest of this new operating model to start running in early April.

As we move into this execution phase, our financial position and available cash provides the flexibility needed to address this near-term maturity. While we continue to work on extending our debt profile. This allows us to remain focused on delivering the transformation and creating the conditions for our creative houses to fully deliver on the significant pipeline of exceptional high-quality games we will have within the next 3 years. Importantly, this transformation is supported by the strongly improved retention and reinforced talent pool, thanks to the return of numerous skilled former Ubisoft employees in our studios over the recent years.

Now I will transfer the call to Fr�d�rick.

Thank you, Yves, and hello, everybody. Over the first 9 months of the year, net bookings stood at EUR 1.1 billion, up 18% year-on-year, driven by the strength of our catalog of brands. Assassin's Creed and The Division both delivered nearly double net bookings over the period, while Anno posted a fourfold increase in net bookings and Avatar grew by around 20%. These 4 brands were also key drivers of the 12% year-on-year growth over Q3.

In terms of activity metrics, the group's brands attracted around 130 million unique active users across console and PC in calendar year 2025, highlighting the appeal and strength of our portfolio of franchises. MAUs in Q3 reached 34 million, stable year-on-year, with activity metrics improving throughout the quarter. In December, MAUs were up 3% year-on-year. Our Q3 net bookings reached EUR 338 million, 11% above guidance. This overperformance was primarily driven by partnerships and the Assassin's Creed franchise.

On the new release side, Anno 117: Pax Romana developed by our main studio had a solid start with an 84 Metacritic and net bookings outpacing those of Anno 1800 on a comparable time frame. The game has been well received by players and critics supported by its unique take on the iconic Roman setting and new gameplay features such as the skill tree. Looking ahead, while Anno 1800 continues to be a strong seller, Anno 117: Pax Romana will build on its post launch roadmap with the first DLC, Prophecies of ASH scheduled to release in April and introducing a large new island to discover.

On the back-catalog side, net bookings reached EUR 297 million, up 11% year-over-year. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora posted a solid performance this quarter, benefiting from the release of the high quality From the Ashes expansion, developed in our Massive studio that launched alongside the Avatar: Fire and Ash movie. This content with an 81 Metacritic score supported growth in player engagement with session days nearly doubling year-on-year as well as growth in player acquisition and monetization. Performance was further underpinned by targeted gameplay enhancement, including the highly anticipated introduction of a third-person view, broadening the player experience and positioning the game as a long-term seller.

This quarter's competitive first-person shooter market was particularly crowded. In this context, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege performed in line with expectations. The title saw improving activity and engagement trends in December with MAUs up year-on-year and DAUs back on a positive momentum. By early January, DAUs were more than double where they stood early November, supported by the progress in addressing player feedback related to balancing and cheating. The Assassin's Creed brand overperformed this quarter and saw solid activity metrics with session days up 7% quarter-on-quarter and 28% year-on-year.

Overall, the brand saw double-digit year-on-year growth in active users, underlining the strength and durability of the franchise. The quarter notably saw the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows on Switch 2, enabling the title to broaden its audience as well as the high-quality value of memory update for Assassin's Creed Mirage. The Division to continue to grow meaningfully across active players, engagement and revenue. This performance was driven by a strong slate of live events and the launch of a new season in December. Total digital net bookings reached EUR 256 million, stable year-on-year and represented 76% of our total net bookings. PRI stood at EUR 148 million, up 3% year-on-year and represented 44% of our total net bookings. Mobile amounted to EUR 25 million, down versus last year.

Now turning to the group's transformation and bidding on what Yves just mentioned, we have made good progress over the past few weeks. We have provided the breakdown of studios by Creative Houses and Network that is detailed in today's press release. Additionally, as we prepare for this new organization to start operating in April, appointments of Creative Houses key leadership will start in March and include industry veterans with a proven track record. In line with our ambition to reshape the HQ into a leaner and focused organization, consultations with employee representatives has initiated regarding the objective to reduce headcount at Ubisoft headquarters in France by 200 positions through a voluntary departure plan. These measures are intended to support a more agile organization and reinforce our ability to deliver sustainable and profitable growth.

Let me turn to a few key highlights from the quarter. First, as you know, we completed the transaction with Tencent, securing EUR 1.16 billion cash investment. The proceeds from the transaction has strengthened our balance sheet and provide increased financial flexibility to support the acceleration of our transformation while being fully available to address upcoming debt maturities. Second, in November, we unveiled Teammates, our first label player-facing generative AI experience. Building on the Neo NPC initiative, the prototype explores new forms of adaptive gameplay, with AI-driven characters capable of understanding and reacting to players in real time. The experience also serves as a testbed for the underlying technology, reinforcing our long-term strategy to enhance interactivity and creative tools for development teams. The announcement received positive media coverage, with DigitalTrends describing it as "Ubisoft's AI experiments that could be gaming's biggest leap in decades".

Third, in December, we acquired the rights to March of Giants from Amazon for a nominal amount. Following a successful closed alpha, this acquisition enables us to enter in the MOBA genre, one of the biggest and most engagement segments of the industry, with a game that is fully aligned with our Game-as-a-Service native pillar of our strategy. The March of Giants team led by veteran developers of Ubisoft that created Rainbow Six Siege brings proven expertise in building and operating globally successful competitive and live games, strengthening our internal capabilities in this segment.

And fourth, in January, we announced the appointment of Valentine Piedelievre-Eman as Chief Communication Officer. She brings extensive experience across entertainment and technology in the international organization, including most recently at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Finally, turning to the outlook. We have confirmed today our fiscal '26 guidance. We expect net bookings of around EUR 1.5 million, non-IFRS EBIT of around minus EUR 1 billion, free cash flow of between minus EUR 400 million and minus EUR 500 million, non-IFRS net debt of between EUR 150 million and EUR 250 million. This translates into an expected consolidated cash and cash equivalents position at end March 2026 of between EUR 1.25 billion and EUR 1.35 billion that is fully available to service our debt maturities. Our liquidity position provides flexibility to address the near-term maturity using cash on hand, and we are actively exploring several options to extend our debt maturity profile.

The lineup for Q4 includes Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence. Rainbow Six Mobile developed by the Montr�al studio that created Rainbow Six Siege, brings the that Siege experience to mobile, combining tactical depths with fast-paced action while integrating gameplay features specifically designed for mobile users. The title that will expand the brand's audience has generated strong early momentum, with more than 18 million pre-registrations to date. Following a successful soft launch in LatAm, Canada, France and Poland, Rainbow Six Mobile is scheduled for worldwide release on February 23, with a strong content roadmap, including recurring challenges, limited-time playlists and events as well as the monthly release of a new season, supporting sustained player engagement.

Following a solid Q3, Rainbow Six Siege saw MAUs grow mid-single digit in January. The game will also benefit from the Six Invitational that is taking place in Paris this week, where the franchise will present the Year 11 roadmap, highlighting increased investments in player protection and the delivery of community-driven content to support sustained engagement and growth. The Division Resurgence developed by Ubisoft Mobile Games in Paris was confirmed as a faithful mobile adaptation of the long-running and successful Division franchise following the latest series of live test in Q3. The game is planned to release in Q4, and we'll be taking part in the franchise's 10th anniversary celebrations in March, but we also featured the launch of a new game mode in The Division 2 alongside the reveal of an ambitious roadmap for the coming year.

And as always, here are a few fiscal '26 housekeeping items for modeling purposes. The stock-based compensation is expected at around EUR 32 million, unchanged versus prior guidance. The non-IFRS net financial charge is expected at around EUR 45 million, unchanged versus prior guidance, reflecting the full year effect of last year's additional financing. The non-IFRS tax rate is not relevant in the context of negative non-IFRS operating income and the number of diluted shares is expected at around EUR 132 million, reflecting the fact that with an expected negative net income, the dilutive nature of our instrument no longer kicks in, also in change versus prior guidance.

We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question today comes from the line of Nicolas Langlet from BNP Paribas.

I've got 3 questions. First, on the licensing deals. So you mentioned part of the overperformance related to the licensing deal. So what would have been the growth in Q3 if you exclude the licensing deals? And if you want to share any details about those deals, that would be appreciated. Secondly, on Assassin's Creed Shadows, can you share the performance of the Titan life to date compared to the previous large-scale Assassin's Creed? And if you can share any feedback regarding the performance on Switch 2, that would be great.

And finally, on your cash position, what do you consider as the minimum vital gross cash position to run the business? And still on that topic, of the EUR 1.3 billion gross cash you expect at the end of the year, how much is part of Vantage Studio? And how much is part of the rest of Ubisoft? And how easy it is for you to use Vantage cash position for the rest of the business, if needed?

Thank you, Nicolas. So on your first question, the Q3 would have been slightly down without licensing deals. On Assassin's Creed Shadows, so overall, what we shared is that the brand is strongly benefiting from Shadows launch as we nearly doubled net bookings on the overall franchise over the first 9 months of the year and still strongly growing in Q3 with activity metrics up quarter-on-quarter. So we see that the brand is in good shape. And yes, the Switch 2 contributed to broadening the audience and to the performance in the third quarter. We've been happy to see that Assassin's Creed overperformed expectations in the last quarter.

So that confirms that we've been clearly improving the game's quality delivery we shadows this year, and that is paying off. In terms of the minimum cash position, if we look at the usual working capital variations throughout the year, we can consider that a few hundred million euros is the minimum cash position to run the business. And to your question on cash availability, the full -- as I said, the EUR 1.25 billion to EUR 1.35 billion consolidated gross cash is fully available to service debt maturities, and that includes the Vantage Studio liquidity that is also unrestricted through cash pooling to service debt maturity.

And to complete the answer, we have already upstreamed nearly EUR 700 million from Vantage Studio. So the rest being fully available through cash pooling.

We will now go to our next question. And the next question comes from the line of Ben Shelley from UBS.

My first one is you still have EUR 100 million of variance in your free cash flow and balance sheet guide for FY '26. Could you talk about what's driving that? And then could you also talk about will the revenues that were postponed by the restructuring be delivered in FY '27? And then my last question is, can you expand a bit further on your opening remarks where you say you continue to work on extending your debt profile? And can you outline what options you are considering?

Thank you, Ben. So on the first question, yes, the EUR 100 million variation in free cash flow guidance reflects a potential variation in working capital , and that can include potential cash in of a partnership. On your second question, you said revenues postponed by restructuring. I'm not sure I understand your question. Can you repeat the second question?

Yes. Will the revenues that were postponed by the restructuring and be delivered in FY '27, given they're not coming in FY '26?

So as part of what we did recently decided, there is one unannounced game that is postponed from fiscal '26 to fiscal '27. So that will be seen in fiscal '27. We, however, canceled a game this quarter. So we won't see that happening in fiscal '27. And in terms of the partnerships, as we said, we stopped negotiations on partnerships. And of course, we will have the leadership of the Creative Houses taking care of these future partnerships. But we have nothing more to announce in terms of timing or reasons for the conclusion of this partnership negotiations.

On the -- in terms of refinancing, as I said, yes, we have clearly sufficient liquidity with cash on hand to address our near-term maturity and that gives us the flexibility to assess the most efficient refinancing options, indeed, to push our debt maturity for the medium- to longer-term maturities, but we have nothing more to precise at this stage.

[Operator Instructions] And our next question today comes from the line of Doug Creutz from TD Cowen.

If I look at your guidance for the year of about $1 billion (sic) [ EUR 1 billion ] loss, that implies also you're going to lose about $1 billion (sic) [ EUR 1 billion ] in the second half. That includes the EUR 650 million from the accelerated depreciation. But if I back that out, that still implies you're going to lose EUR 350 million on low EUR 700 million revenue. In the first half of the year, you were slightly profitable on high EUR 700 million revenue, which seems like that there's a big acceleration in costs embedded in there aside from the accelerated depreciation. So could you just walk through where that acceleration in cost run rate is in the second half versus the first half?

So in terms of the second half EBIT, yes, most of the loss came from the accelerated depreciation, as you say. And the rest comes from the fact that we reduced net bookings by EUR 350 million, and that comes with a EUR 330 million gross margin reduction. Apart from that, we've seen that we continue reducing our fixed cost base as we will be closing the second phase of our cost reduction program of EUR 100 million a year ahead of timing.

[Operator Instructions] I will now hand the call back to the room for closing remarks.

So thank you very much for your question, and have a good evening and a good morning for the other part of the Atlantic. Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ubisoft Strategic Update Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on such short notice. Today, we are announcing a major organizational, operational and portfolio reset. The fundamental change designed to reclaim our creative leadership, regain agility and restore the conditions for a return to sustainable growth and robust cash generation.

This reset is built around three core pillars: first, a new operating model centered around five specialized creative houses; second, a refocused portfolio with a meaningfully revised three-year road map; and third, an acceleration of our cost reduction initiatives to rightsize the organization and improve structural efficiency.

Let me start with the context. The industry has become persistently selective, especially on the AAA side. And the shooter landscape is increasingly competitive with rising development costs and greater challenges in creating new brands. Nevertheless, when successful, exceptional AAA content has more financial potential than ever.

While the progress on our production processes translated into improved level of quality across our releases in 2025, today's environment requires that we step change how we are organized and operate with the objective of delivering exceptional game quality at more competitive costs.

At the core of this transformation are our creative houses. Integrated business units, combining production and publishing, therefore, unifying the gamer relationship. Each one is built around a clear creative genre and brand focus with full responsibility and financial ownership led by dedicated and expert leadership teams, focusing on the long-term value creation road map. It is a radical move, relying on a more decentralized creative organization with faster decision-making and best-in-class cross-functional core services, supporting and serving each creative house.

This new operating model will further empower the execution of the group strategy centered on open-world adventures and GaaS-native experiences, supported by targeted investments, deeper specialization and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Gen AI.

To put the creative houses in the best condition to success, we decided to refocus our portfolio with a meaningfully revised three-year road map and accelerated our cost reduction initiatives to rightsize the organization. We will discontinue several projects currently in development and provide additional time to certain games in order to ensure enhanced quality and maximize long-term value. We will also selectively close several studios and continue restructuring throughout the group. While these decisions are difficult, they are necessary for us to build a more focused, efficient and sustainable organization over the long term.

Taken together, these measures mark, as you can see, a decisive turning point in Ubisoft's history and reflect our determination to confront challenges to reshape the group. The portfolio refocus will have a significant impact on the group's short-term financial trajectory, particularly in fiscal year '26 and '27. But this reset will strengthen the group and enable us to renew with sustainable growth and robust cash generation. We are entering a new phase, one designed to reclaim creative leadership and build value for players and stakeholders over the long term.

So, I will now hand over the call to Frédérick, who will walk you through today's announcements in more detail.

Thank you, Yves, and hello, everybody. Let me start with the first pillar of this reset, the new operating model. As mentioned by Yves, our new organization will be structured around five creative houses and supported by: first, a creative network bringing together studios providing development resources; second, shared core services; and three, reshaped headquarters focused on strategy, governance, performance management and capital allocation.

This new organization will start operating early April. It is designed to simplify the organization and place creative and financial accountability closer to where value is created, strengthening our ability to innovate and execute with greater discipline, flexibility and speed.

At the heart of this reset is a new and decentralized operating model structured around five creative houses. These integrated business units will feature three major changes. First, they will combine game development and go-to-market functions with a gamer-centric approach and be fully responsible for brand development, content strategy as well as editorial direction. Second, they will be shaped by distinct creative genres led by dedicated high-profile incentivized teams with a unique set of expertise in their respective genres. And third, they will have full financial ownership and account for economic performance.

Overall, they will be driven by clear objectives and guiding principles. Each creative house will be organized around a distinct creative genre and designed to concentrate deep expertise in specific types of player experiences. Each house will host dedicated studios and will be responsible for developing must-play experiences for specific audiences and engaging player communities earlier and constantly throughout the developing process.

The first creative house, Vantage Studios is focused on scaling and extending Ubisoft's largest and established franchises, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six to turn them into annual billionaire brands. The second creative house is dedicated to competitive and cooperative shooter experiences. It includes the, The Division, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell brands. The third creative house is designed to operate a roster of select sharp live experiences. It includes the For Honor, The Crew, Riders Republic, Brawlhalla and Skull & Bones brands. The fourth creative house is dedicated to immersive fantasy world and narrative-driven universes. It includes the Anno, Might & Magic, Rayman, Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil brands. And the fifth creative house is focused on reclaiming our position in casual and family-friendly games. It includes the Just Dance, Idle Miner Tycoon, Ketchapp, Hungry Shark, Invincible: Guarding the Globe, UNO and Hasbro brands.

In addition, there are four new IPs currently in development, including March of Giants. We will communicate on their respective creative home at the later stage. Each creative house will benefit from dedicated leadership that will include high-profile talent coming from the industry. They will be tasked with attracting and developing top-level specialist talent and supported by incentive schemes aligned with creative success, player engagement and long-term value creation.

Finally, fully owning the gamer relationship, each creative house will have end-to-end responsibility for its portfolio, overseeing the full creative and brand scope from development to publishing, including brand marketing and sales go-to-market strategy. They will also be financially accountable both in terms of P&L and cash generation. This will sharpen strategic focus, reinforce execution discipline and ensure that investment decision will be taken closer to where value is created.

To support these creative houses, we are setting up a streamlined organization that preserves our scale benefits while reducing complexity. This new organization will be composed of the creative network that will bring together a powerful set of studios providing best-in-class production capacity and cross-functional creative expertise serving the creative houses.

Operating within a structured project-by-project collaboration framework, the creative network studios can deliver both co-development or end-to-end mandates under the strategic direction of each creative house. It also be supported by three core services that will provide the backbone of our ecosystem and act as an enabler for the creative houses and network. They will focus on delivering scalable technology, production capabilities as well as business services across the group.

First, production services will include production standards and tools, localization, play tests, game analytics, QA and QC. Second, technology and infrastructure will include game engines, online services, Gen AI initiatives and IT infrastructure. And third, business operations and services will include media planning, execution, influencer and direct-to-player capabilities, pricing and distribution management as well as customer support.

Finally, the new organization will be underpinned by a reshaped headquarters, which will set the group's strategic priorities, ensure support for all creative houses and maintain a forward-looking view on industry trends, including technological developments and market innovations. It would notably oversee the group's talent management strategy and performance monitoring, corporate communication strategy, legal services, capital allocation framework and financing, ensuring alignment between long-term strategy, financial performance and value creation.

To support the effective implementation and operation of this new model, the group also intends to return to five days per week on site for all teams, complemented by an annual allowance of working from home days. This evolution is intended to strengthen collaboration, including constant knowledge sharing and the collective dynamics across teams. We strongly believe in-person collaboration is a key enabler of collective efficiency, creative VT and success in a persistently selective AAA market.

Moving on to the second pillar of our reset is a significantly refocused portfolio and a meaningfully revised road map. In the context of a persistently more selective market, but also more rewarding as illustrated by the last quarter and as part of the finalization of the group's new operating model, we have conducted a thorough review of our content pipeline over December and January. This has led to the strategic decision to refocus our portfolio, reallocate resources and comprehensively revise our road map over the next three years. This will support our objective to return to exceptional levels of quality on the Open World Adventure segment and step change the group's position in the gas native Experiences segment, as illustrated by the recently acquired project March of Giants.

The reshape portfolio is designed to best position the creative houses for success, and this has led to two sets of actions. First, we have discontinued six games that do not meet the new enhanced quality expectations under a more selective portfolio approach. These are Prince of Persia, The Sands of Time remake, as well as four unannounced titles, including three new IPs and a mobile title.

Second, we have allocated additional development time to seven games in order to ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are fully met and maximize long-term value creation. This includes the unannounced title initially planned for fiscal '26 that has been delayed to fiscal year '27. Our objective is to ensure that every major project we bring to market has the right conditions, the right quality benchmarks and the right path to long-term value creation.

Finally, the third pillar of our reset is the acceleration of our cost reduction initiatives and the rightsizing of our organization to improve structural efficiency, restoring a much higher level of organizational agility and aligning our cost base with our strategic and creative priorities. This includes focusing resources on core value-creating activities, notably through further restructurings and strict hiring discipline across all functions. We will also continue to consider potential asset divestitures.

As part of our efforts to streamline operations and adapt to evolving market conditions, we have already taken decisive actions in the recent months to adjust our studio footprint. This includes the closure of the Halifax mobile studio announced earlier this month and the Stockholm studio as well as restructurings at Abu Dhabi, RedLynx and Massive.

The current cost reduction program of at least EUR 100 million in fixed cost savings versus fiscal year '25 is now targeted to be fully achieved by March 2026, one year ahead of the initial target. Building on this momentum, we are defining the third and final phase of our cost reduction program by setting a new objective to reduce our fixed cost base by an additional EUR 200 million over the next two years, bringing total fixed cost reductions in fiscal year '23 to around EUR 0.5 billion. This is expected to bring total fixed cost to approximately EUR 1.25 billion on a run rate basis by March 2028 compared to EUR 1.75 billion in fiscal year '23.

To conclude, I'll cover the financial impacts of this decision we've just described. First, the previously communicated fiscal year '27 guidance is no longer an appropriate reference, and we will update it in May 2026 during our fiscal year earnings release. Second, here are the key updated elements of our fiscal year '26 guidance. Net bookings are expected at around EUR 1.5 billion, translating into a minus EUR 330 million gross margin reduction versus the prior guidance, mainly reflecting changes to the current quarter release pipeline following the updated road map and the decision to postpone negotiation on certain partnerships in the context of our new operating model.

Non-IFRS EBIT is expected at around minus EUR 1 billion, mainly reflecting both the impact of the updated fiscal '26 net bookings that I just covered as well as the following transformation-related decisions that led to a one-off accelerated depreciation of around EUR 650 million.

First, the discontinuation of six games; and second, the allocation of additional time to seven titles with updated revenue expectations, reflecting a persistently more selective market. Also, free cash flow is expected at between minus EUR 400 million and minus EUR 500 million, and the non-IFRS net debt is expected at between EUR 150 million and EUR 250 million as of year-end fiscal year '26 with a cash and cash equivalent position of between EUR 1.25 billion and EUR 1.35 billion versus prior guidance of around EUR 1.5 billion. In addition, ahead of our Q3 sales release scheduled on February 12, we are providing an indicative net bookings figure of approximately EUR 330 million for the third quarter. primarily driven by an overperformance linked to partnerships and reflecting a robust back-catalog. The quarter notably saw the releases of Anno 117: Pax Romana and the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora From the Ashes expansion that were appraised by players and critics alike. Further details will be provided on February 12.

I will now hand over the call to Yves for his final remarks.

Thank you, Frédérick. This major reset has meaningful near-term implications, particularly in financial year '26 and financial year '27. And we recognize this will be a significant shift for the market to absorb. However, we firmly believe that this is the right decision to reposition Ubisoft for creative leadership, sustainable growth and robust cash generation with a disciplined strategy and a simplified operating model and a refocused portfolio designed to create exceptional quality games and maximize long-term value creation.

We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question. Your first question comes from the line of Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

I have a couple, if I may. So, the first one is whether your new creative house structure will translate into external financial reporting and guidance or at least Vantage Studio separately and then the other creative houses separately, so we know how they're performing both in terms of revenue and in terms of non-IFRS EBIT.

Secondly, how should we think about fiscal '27 because this major change is now happening towards the end of the current fiscal year '26. So is it fair to assume that things will get worse before they get better? So if you bottom out, it won't be before sometime '27 and maybe then an improvement in '28. Is that how we should think about that? And is this a rightsizing of the revenue base of the company as well? Or do you still plan medium term to retain your current revenue base more or less?

And then the last one, just on the return to free cash flow positive. Should we expect that to be a year plus 2 event? Or will it take longer for you to rightsize your cost base and get back to a cash-generative position?

Yes. Thank you, Alex. So, on your first question, at this stage, we don't expect and we don't plan to make such reporting. What you will have at minimum is that we will report the net income, so with the distinction between group share and minority interest.

In terms of fiscal year '27, beyond the fact that we just mentioned that we are postponing an important game to this year from '26 to '27. We can't say more. What we can say is that, of course, we'll provide the guidance in May. And everything we're doing today is to make sure that we reset the financial trajectory to sustainable growth over the next three years and for the company to be cash generating.

So it's a three-year event.

Your third question is -- can you repeat your third and fourth question, please, sorry.

One moment, please.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

The third question was basically, I think you answered it. The question was around when you plan to return to positive free cash flow. And from what I understood is this is a three-year plan to get back to that trajectory. Is that correct?

So we expect to get back to robust free cash flow over the next three years, but we'll give you more indication on the year-by-year schedule at a later stage.

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Shelley from UBS.

I think I've got three questions. One, how should investors think about your balance sheet over the coming years and cash and liquidity and debt? It would be helpful to have some commentary there.

My second question is, I just want to come back to that free cash flow question and specifically maybe into '27 and '28, how should we think about -- just almost just directionally, how should we think about sort of the free cash flow losses? Should we think about them falling into 2027 and 2028? Should we expect an improvement in free cash flow?

And then my last question is on Rainbow Six. And could you provide any commentary how that franchise has fared amid sort of an uptick in competition and new releases from your peers?

Yes. Thank you, Ben. So, yes, we benefit from a solid cash and cash equivalent position. And in terms of the way we'll proceed is we will proceed as we have been doing so far, which is that we will look at the different refinancing options that we have in front of us and choose the ones that will allow us to extend the maturity profile at the best cost possible. So that's -- we will replicate what we've been doing in the past in that area.

On the second question, I think I have already answered. Everything we're doing, which is to optimize our road map over the next three years and coming back with exceptional content quality, which we know is highly rewarded by the market. We just need to execute extremely well to optimize quality. We have big products coming over the next three years. And all the purpose of what we are doing with resizing of the cost base is to progressively get back to cash generation, and we expect to get back to robust cash flow generation within the next three years.

In terms of Rainbow Six, as we said, last quarter has been very competitive in the shooter segment. The team has done a great work to make sure that we will solve the cheating issue that we had mentioned last quarter. And we came with a strong season in December and the activity has come up as expected. Some players try competition like they usually do at the busy season, and they usually come back by Christmas, and that's what happened again this year. We are preparing for a strong Q4 as usual with the six invitation coming very soon and the unveiling of next year that will be very strong.

And if I could just come back to my question on the balance sheet. When you say you would sort of proceed as you've been doing, would that mean sort of going back to potentially looking again at traditional refinancing options and looking at financial markets? Or would it also mean potentially selling another minority stake as you have done before? Or are all options on the table and it's too soon to say anything?

Yes. We have different refinancing options that we can work in the coming year and 18 months. And we can also, as we mentioned, considering -- we continue considering the divestiture of assets.

[Operator Instructions] We will take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Doug Creutz from TD Cowen.

One of the factors you cited in bringing down your fiscal '26 revenue guide was the decision to postpone negotiations on certain partnerships. Is that just a delay that was around you having to sit down and decide what the new operating model was going to look like? Or does this reflect a more fundamental rethink of your approach to partnerships? And if so, could you talk about how you see that progressing going forward?

Yes. Thank you, Doug. So, yes, we decided to postpone negotiation on some partnerships. Partnerships, B2B partnership, as we said a number of times, is a key important way of doing business today as a complement to B2C. So it's here to stay and across different platforms and with different shapes of form.

What we said with the fact that we are postponing this negotiation is that we are starting a new organization very soon. And of course, the leadership of the creative houses will have the mandate to support the upcoming partnerships together with the group. So that's what they will pursue in our strategy. So, no fundamental shift, no fundamental change in our approach, just onboarding the new management coming with the creative houses.

We will take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

Just a quick follow-up. Just on your upcoming debt maturities. So, I see you have a '27 bond, EUR 600 million. You have an ocean maturing in '28. So, altogether, that's about EUR 1 billion. Do you expect to be in a position to roll this debt? Or do you have any other plans to refinance these maturities?

Yes. So, I think I answered already the question. We will be working -- so with this new operating model, this organization that will drive -- will work for our creative houses to perform very well with high-quality products and strong financial rewards. We will also in parallel work on the refinancing of our debt, and there are different options that are open to us, but it's too early to share them with you.

Thank you. This concludes today's question-and-answer session. I will now hand back for closing remarks.

So, thank you very much for your questions, and have a good evening or a good day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ubisoft H1 Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I would like to start with the reason for the delay in publishing our results. First, we have appointed a new panel of auditors that was approved at the AGM last July. Their position as part of their review of the H1 financial accounts required a restatement of our financial year '25 annual accounts that had been previously approved by our former panel of statutory auditors in May.

In this context, we required additional time to finalize our accounts for our Board of Directors to approve them. Frédérick will walk you through this point in more details later in the call. The closing of our strategic transaction with Tencent, which will see Tencent become a minority shareholder in our new subsidiary, Vantage Studios, is now imminent, as all conditions precedent have been satisfied.

This will mark a pivotal milestone in Ubisoft transformation, significantly strengthening our financial position by bringing in EUR 1.16 billion of cash, enabling the group to deleverage as planned. It will also empower Vantage Studios to accelerate the growth of our 3 flagship IPs under a dedicated leadership team.

In a highly competitive market, Ubisoft delivered net booking above guidance on the back of stronger-than-expected partnerships that underscore the appeal and reach of our brands. Our portfolio showed contrasting dynamics this quarter with softer trends for Rainbow Six Siege, reflecting a phase of evolution for the game in an intense competitive first-person shooter environment, offset by strong performances across the rest of the catalog. The Assassin's Creed franchise exceeded our expectations, confirming its positive momentum and ability to engage players over time.

The Division 2 also continued to perform strongly, benefiting from the momentum of the Battle for Brooklyn expansion, with the game's first semester already exceeding last year's annual bookings.

Additionally, the progress we've made in addressing our fixed cost base brings with it confidence that we can continue to drive structural efficiencies across the organization that together with top line growth, will contribute to ensure a return to strong cash generation in the coming years.

Vantage Studios represents a key element of the transformation of the company toward a new operating model built around creative houses. We will have finalized the design of this new organization by the end of the year. These creative houses will be autonomously efficient, focused and accountable business units, each with its own leadership, creative vision and strategic road map.

This group-wide transformation reflects our ambitions to renew how we create and operate in order to deliver great games for our players and lasting value for our partners and shareholders. The full details of this new operating model will be unveiled in January.

On the innovation side now, we are making great strides in applying GenAI to high-value use cases that bring tangible benefits to our players and teams. It's a big -- it's as big as a revolution for our industry as the shift to 3D, and we have everything to lead on this front. On the player experience side, we are continuing to make progress on groundbreaking player-facing generative AI application, building on our NEO NPC announcement in 2024.

We have already advanced from prototyping to player reality, and we are looking forward to sharing more before the end of the year. On the production side, we now have teams in all our studios and offices embracing this new technology and constantly exploring new use cases in programming, art and overall game quality.

On the transmedia side, we also, after greenlighting the Assassin's Creed live-action TV series in July, I would like to highlight the recent success of the animated Netflix series, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch that premiered on October 14, obtaining an 86 score on Rotten Tomatoes and landing the daily top 10 across more than 12 countries, including 6 consecutive days in the U.S. This strengthens our brand's long-term value ahead of the Splinter Cell's remake currently in development at the Ubisoft Toronto Studios.

Last but not least, I would like to celebrate the successful launch of Anno 117: Pax Romana that expands the city-builder genre. This level of quality, innovation and sales set the standard against which we want to measure our future releases performance in the coming years.

So I will now let Frédérick give you details on half year performance.

Thank you, Yves, and hello, everybody. H1 net bookings stood at EUR 772 million, up 20% year-on-year with 34 million MAUs and 88 million unique users across consoles and PC, slightly down year-on-year when excluding XDefiant from the base.

Turning to our second quarter. Net bookings stood at EUR 491 million, above guidance and up 39% year-on-year. The outperformance was driven by stronger-than-expected partnerships, demonstrating the power and attractiveness of our portfolio as well as a meaningful contribution from live TV and animated series. Excluding partnerships, overall back-catalog performance this quarter was robust and in line with expectations, broadly stable year-on-year, but marked by contrasted dynamics.

The Assassin's Creed franchise posted a strong performance in Q2, with both Assassin's Creed Shadows and the rest of the brand’s catalog overperforming. In the year to date Assassin's Creed has generated 211 million session days, around 35% higher than the last 2 years' average.

Shadows benefited from the launch of the New Game+ mode, which was widely anticipated by the community and introduced greater difficulty and new challenges for players. The Claws of Awaji expansion released on September 16 and contributed to re-engaging players. It was praised as a solid addition to the base game, offering new unique boss fights in a beautiful and dark atmosphere.

Looking ahead, Assassin's Creed Shadows will reach a broader audience with its launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 on December 2. Beyond Shadows, the rest of the AC back-catalog also performed strongly, highlighting the strength of the franchise.

Turning to the current quarter, we launched Valley of Memory on November 18, a free major update for Assassin's Creed Mirage, which brought new content and a fresh chapter in Basim's story set in AlUla. First feedback from the community is very positive, with player activity on Assassin's Creed Mirage doubling following the launch of the update, enabling the game to reach the 10 million player mark.

In a highly competitive first-person shooter market, Rainbow Six Siege continued to attract new players this quarter, with acquisition levels twice as high year-on-year, and sustain activity levels, with unique players stable quarter-on-quarter and up double-digit year-on-year.

Session days and playtime also increased both sequentially and year-on-year. However, as part of the evolution of Siege and its move to free access, a temporary surge in cheating has impacted activity and player spending versus expectations. With additional resources now in place and further hires planned, the team has identified the main issues and is actively addressing them with a robust plan in place.

Having focused most of this year on establishing a new foundation for the game, the team is exploring a new seasonal approach that introduces multiple updates throughout each season, focusing on the core gameplay experience and heavily engaged players.

This shift is designed to offer a steadier stream of fresh experiences with more variety keeping players engaged and supporting long-term franchise growth. The Siege community remains highly engaged and passionate about the game’s success. The development team is equally committed to working closely with players to address recent feedback, with a strong focus on anti-cheat measures and gameplay balance.

As announced at the Munich Major on November 16, starting in Season 4, the team will double the number of anti-cheat updates per week and introduce new prevention solutions. On the balancing front, the team is accelerating efforts in Season 4, with four balancing updates per season planned for Year 1, aligned with the new content cadence. To celebrate Siege’s 10-year anniversary in December, players can look forward to daily rewards and a special in-game event launching mid-December.

Elsewhere in the catalog, I would like to highlight a few notable performances. The Division 2 continued to benefit from the momentum of the Battle for Brooklyn DLC release in May, as well as regular content updates, continuing to attract new players to the game. Along with rising player numbers, player engagement is up, with a record second quarter in terms of Session Days since financial year '21. The game’s performance this semester has already exceeded last year’s annual net bookings.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora posted a strong performance this quarter on the back of the July third person update announcement, that was widely anticipated by the community. The game also regained momentum with the announcement of the From the Ashes expansion that will come along with the movie.

Star Wars Outlaws launched on Nintendo Switch 2 in September to strong critical and player reception. The release expanded the game’s audience and was praised for its exceptional visuals, technical optimization, smooth performance and seamless transition to Nintendo’s new hardware.

Total digital net bookings reached EUR 436 million, up 62% year-on-year and PRI stood at EUR 323 million, up 110% year-on-year. Both of these metrics benefited this quarter from tailwinds linked to partnerships. Within PRI, mobile amounted to EUR 26 million, slightly down year-on-year.

First, you will find our non-IFRS P&L on Slide 7 of our presentation. Gross margin was strongly up year-on-year by more than 3.5 percentage points, which reflects the fact that this semester saw more high-margin partnership than the first semester last year.

R&D was down year-on-year, and we come back -- I will come back to that point in the following slide. SG&A was down 16%, reflecting lower variable marketing expenses due to the absence of major releases this semester, while last year's first half saw the release of Star Wars Outlaws and XDefiant Overall non-IFRS EBIT came back to the positive zone at EUR 27 million this semester, which marks a strong improvement to last year's EUR 250 million loss. Please refer to our press release or presentation appendix for the full IFRS to non-IFRS reconciliation.

Turning now to Slide 8. P&L R&D was down year-on-year and mainly reflects lower depreciation of in-house software-related productions coming from the absence of new AAA releases this semester compared with accelerated depreciation for Star Wars Outlaws and XDefiant last year.

For its part, total cash R&D was down 11% or EUR 70 million and reflects our continued efforts addressing our fixed cost base. Looking at cash flow statement on Slide 9. Free cash flow stood at minus EUR 251 million compared with a negative EUR 126 million the previous year.

This free cash flow consumption mostly reflects the following impacts. On the one hand, a negative EUR 139 million cash flow from operations, reflecting the fact that we had no new releases this semester, which was half the outflow of last year, again, illustrating a strong improvement versus the year before.

And on the other hand, a negative EUR 102 million change in working capital requirements, notably driven by trade payables decrease comparing with a significant higher gain in receivables last year, which mainly reflects cash in from Q4 fiscal year '24 partnerships. Non-IFRS net debt stood at EUR 1.15 billion, slightly up versus last year, and cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 668 million, down EUR 265 million versus last year, mostly driven by the reimbursement of around EUR 245 million in debt. The -- sorry, the EUR 1.16 billion cash injection from the Tencent transaction will deleverage the group and strengthen its balance sheet.

I would now like to provide an update on the continuous progress we have been making on the group's transformation. First, all conditions precedent of the transaction with Tencent have been satisfied, enabling the sale of a minority stake in our new subsidiary, Vantage Studios to Tencent to close in the coming days.

This marks a major milestone in our transformation journey. The proceeds of this transaction will deleverage the group on a consolidated non-IFRS net debt basis while providing enhanced financial flexibility to support our strategic transformation. A new leadership team is being formed around Vantage Studios, including heads of franchises to drive creative excellence and operational agility across each brand on their path to building annual billion euro brand ecosystems.

Second, we will have finalized by the end of the year, the design of our new operating model built around creative houses, independent business units with the objective of driving stronger creative vision, greater focus, efficiency, autonomy and accountability. We will unveil the full details of this model in January.

Overall, we benefit from a strengthened balance sheet. Our non-IFRS net debt position stood at EUR 1.15 billion at end September with a cash and cash equivalent position of EUR 668 million. The EUR 1.16 billion proceeds from the Tencent transaction will enable us to deleverage the group and notably proceed with the early repayment of the term loan and Schuldschein loans, which have an outstanding principal amount of approximately EUR 286 million.

Of note, EUR 210 million were due next month. Additionally, we will cancel the undrawn revolving credit facility and initiate discussions with our banking partners with the objective of putting in place a new facility designed to support our strategic ambitions, in line with the broader transformation currently underway. Overall, we plan to rely on a very comfortable cash and cash equivalent position at end of March 2026 of around EUR 1.5 billion.

Third, we continue to make progress on our new cost reduction program, which targets at least EUR 100 million in fixed cost savings by fiscal year '27 versus fiscal year '24 -- versus fiscal year '25, sorry. Thanks to continued discipline in hiring and targeted restructuring efforts. The group's global head count stood at 1,797 at the end of September, representing a decrease of around 1,500 employees over the past 12 months and about 700 since the end of March.

Since the end of the semester, a targeted voluntary leave program and a proposed restructuring were introduced at our Nordic studios. Overall, the H1 fiscal year '26 fixed cost base stood at around EUR 701 million, a decrease of EUR 69 million or 9% year-on-year, including a favorable EUR 19 million foreign exchange impact. Out of the EUR 69 million reduction, approximately EUR 55 million came from lower capitalized investments.

Before I turn to the outlook, I would like to cover an IFRS update. As Yves mentioned, we had to delay publishing our results. Towards the end of the review process of our H1 financial accounts, our new panel of auditors reviewed the analysis that had led to the fiscal '25 accounts being validated by our former panel of auditors in May. This related specifically to the IFRS 15 revenue recognition of one meaningful partnership in fiscal '25.

The new panel of statutory auditors considered that utilization-based payment schedules must now be recognized under IFRS 15 as revenues over utilization even if the commitments are firm. This ultimately led to the restatement of our fiscal '25 account as per IAS 8. We then had to assess the impact of this restatement as well as the implication of this new position on the second partnership booked in Q2 along the same initial principles.

The combined effect of what I've just described results in the company not complying with its leverage covenant ratio under certain existing financing agreements at September 30, 2025. However, this is being addressed by the aforementioned actions relating to the concern debt instruments. The restatement of the prior year financial accounts are detailed in the appendix of our press release, and the IFRS accounting restatement has no impact on the group's non-IFRS indicators given the firm nature of these amounts and has no impact on the operating cash flow profile of the group.

Beyond this technical restatement, I want to make one thing clear. Our approach to B2B partnerships as a critical complement to our B2C business has always been and will continue to be centered around maximizing the value of our catalog, which we measure in terms of cash flow generation over time.

Turning to the full year outlook. The stronger-than-expected benefit from partnership increases our visibility for the fiscal year in a context where, on the one hand, there remains a number of new releases to come by the end of the fiscal year. And on the other hand, Rainbow Six Siege faces an increased competitive FPS environment.

In this context, we reaffirm our full year objective with net bookings to be stable year-on-year, non-IFRS operating income to be around breakeven and negative free cash flow, reflecting the group's transformation. Following the closing of the Tencent transaction, we expect to maintain a consolidated non-IFRS net debt position of around 0.

Looking at Q3, we expect net bookings of approximately EUR 305 million, which will represent a slight increase year-on-year. Q3 will notably see the releases of Anno 117: Pax Romana as well as the Avatar Frontiers of Pandora from the Ashes expansion. Anno 117: Pax Romana launched on November 13, and marked a bold new chapter for the Anno franchise, building on the series strong momentum and releasing simultaneously for the first time on PC and console, it showcases impressive scale, striking visual fidelity and a deep economic simulation.

The title has already received strong industry recognition, including winning Best PC Game at Gamescom and has now launched to strong critical reception with an 85 Metacritic score, the best score ever in the franchise, which translates into solid consumer spending growth after 1 week compared to the successful Anno 1800. IGN awarded it 9 out of 10 calling it "a gorgeous antique city-builder that is worthy of a standing ovation".

For the first time in the series, players can choose their starting province is defined by distinct cultural identities and unique gameplay mechanics that emphasize player choice. This innovation expands the game's depth and replayability, laying the foundation for sustained player engagement and rich post-launch experience.

The Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - From The Ashes expansion is set to launch on December 19. Timed to coincide with the theatrical release of Avatar: Fire and Ash. This bold expansion sees players embark on the journeys of So’lek, a battle-hardened Na’vi warrior who seeks revenge against the ruthless Ash clan. The expansion introduces new visceral gameplay set in a ravaged Kinglor Forest and unveils a new subregion known as The Ravines.

Ahead of that, a highly anticipated free update introducing a third person mode will arrive on December 5 and will feature long requested by the community. Together, this content should further strengthen engagement and extend the game's momentum into the holiday season.

And for its part, Q4 will see the release of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, Rainbow Six Mobile, The Division Resurgence as well as an unannounced title.

Beyond fiscal '26, we expect to return to positive non-IFRS operating income and free cash flow generation in fiscal '27 and to see significant content coming from our largest brands in fiscal '27 and fiscal year '28.

Finally, as always, here are a few fiscal '26 housekeeping items for modeling purposes. The stock-based compensation is expected at around EUR 32 million, down versus prior guidance and reflecting the lower share price. The non-IFRS net financial charge, excluding foreign exchange, is expected at around EUR 45 million, unchanged versus prior guidance and reflecting a year-on-year increase, primarily attributable to a lower interest income.

The non-IFRS tax rate is not relevant in the context of breakeven non-IFRS operating income and the number of diluted shares is expected at around EUR 132 million, reflecting the fact that with an expected negative net income, the dilutive nature of our instruments no longer kicks in. We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question today comes from the line of Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

The first one would be pertaining to the breach of covenants. So although this is quite temporary, I'd still like to know if there are any of your other debt instruments that don't have these covenants, but have a standard cross-default clause that could be enforced. Is that a risk over the coming days or not?

It's just a hypothetical, but just to clear that for me. And the second question is, given your below expectations third quarter, it seems to me that the implied fourth quarter is extremely strong, down only 15% year-on-year. But last year, you had the Assassin's Creed Shadows release, which has delayed and that's propped up the fourth quarter quite substantially. So can you help us understand how are you going to achieve this super strong fourth quarter?

Yes. Thank you, Aleks. Yes, so that's on your first question, so we are addressing the topic by settling the repayment of our covenant-based debt, Schuldschein and term loan, and we are canceling the RCF before building a new credit backup line facility by repaying EUR 286 million in principal amount, keeping in mind that we were anyway preparing to repay EUR 210 million that were due in December and EUR 50 million in September.

So overall, the net acceleration is estimated to be around EUR 25 million if we look at the impact on the medium-term cash trajectory for the company. So that has nearly no impact. We don't expect any impact on the overall debt structure.

And keeping in mind that we will benefit from a very comfortable EUR 1.5 billion cash and cash equivalent position at the end of March. In terms of Q4, yes, as you mentioned, it would be significantly lower than the Q4 that we posted over the last 2 years. Keeping in mind that Shadows only impacted Q4 last year for 10 days. So this quarter will benefit from slate of new releases, including the remakes of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Rainbow Six Mobile, The Division Resurgence and unannounced title.

We have a meaningful contribution of partnerships, B2B partnerships, but to a lower extent than last year. We expect a strong Rainbow Six Siege that will go through the Six Invitational and starting into the next year. We will have the follow-on sales impact from Anno 117 and the Avatar expansion. So all this will contribute to the key building blocks of Q4.

[Operator Instructions] And your next question comes from the line of Nick Dempsey from Barclays.

So my first question is, have the auditors looked at all of the partnership deals that you have done going back several years, so we can be comfortable that what we are seeing here is the final restatement impact, we won't get more, for example, at the full year '26 results.

Second question, if I look at the restatement for FY '25 and the restatement for the last 12 months period, it seems quite a big difference. I understood something, but can you perhaps explain the difference between those 2 restatements, given that I thought it related to particularly one partnership deal? And then the third question, in terms of any partnership deals landing in Q4, do you have good visibility on when they land and whether they will land?

Yes. So on the first question, so there is no risk on the prior year financial accounts. It's, by the way, interesting to have in mind that when you look at the many partnerships that we've been signing over the last 7 years, if you look at all the partnerships between fiscal year '19 and fiscal year '25, all of them have converted into cash.

So that traces back to the quality of the earnings and the very strong cash conversion coming from these various partnerships. In terms of -- so on your following questions, I understand that you're talking about the fiscal '25 restatement. So it refers to a meaningful partnership. And if you look at the first half fiscal '26, you see the difference between IFRS revenues and non-IFRS net bookings, and you'll see that also it's driven by the second partnership that I mentioned earlier.

And in terms of Q4, so as we said, we've had an increased visibility on this B2B partnerships performance. And so yes, we have a meaningful contribution that is expected in Q4, but to a lower extent than last year.

But you have full visibility on that landing in that time frame or you don't? That was my question.

Yes, we have a good pipeline of partnerships that we are working on.

There are currently no further questions. I will hand the call back to you.

So thank you very much for your questions, and have a good day or a good evening. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. The first quarter delivered mixed results with net bookings below our expectations. This reflects a lower-than-expected performance for Rainbow Six Siege, a partnership that is now expected to materialize in Q2 and, to a lesser extent, an unfavorable foreign exchange impact.

On the positive side, Assassin’'s Creed Shadows delivered on its expectations with no more than 5 million unique players since its launch. And Rainbow Six Siege received highly positive player feedback, thanks to its renewed gameplay and enhanced features that drove significant player engagement growth. However, while we rolled out a fundamental business model evolution for the long-term future of Rainbow Six Siege, player spending this quarter was significantly impacted by temporary disruptions due to technical pricing issues.

Despite this one-off setback, the growth potential of the game is strong with solid traction on activity and in-game spending. We also continued to make meaningful progress on Ubisoft's transformation by outlining a new operating mode built around business units called Creative Houses. These units will reflect our diverse types of gaming experiences and will allow for extended quality, focus, autonomy and accountability.

Over time, each of these Creative Houses will boost creative vision and business performance. The new subsidiary announced earlier this year and overseeing our flagship brands, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six is the first of the Creative Houses. The announcement of its leadership team marks an important milestone as we move towards a more agile and focused organization while ensuring necessary long-term stability and creative vision. I will now hand over the call, sorry to Frédérick. Thank you.

Thank you, Yves, and hello, everybody. Q1 net bookings stood at EUR 280 million below expectations, as Yves just mentioned. Since the beginning of the fiscal year and excluding XDefiant that had a significant contribution last year, MAUs, unique active players and session days were broadly stable year-on-year. The back-catalog net bookings stood at EUR 260 million this quarter, up 4% year-on-year and up 6% excluding partnerships.

Assassin’'s Creed Shadows performed in line with expectations and recently crossed the 5 million player mark. Ongoing additions continue to enhance the player experience, most notably the recent Parkour update, which introduced new interactions for both Naoe and Yasuke and was well received by players.

Ahead of the Holiday season, the mid-term potential of the game will be supported by the Claws of Awaji expansion, coming in Q2, that will introduce more than 10 hours of new content along with a new weapon, skills and abilities, significantly expanding and enriching the game experience. Overall, the Assassin's Creed franchise is in great shape and has sold through more than 200 million units to date.

The Rainbow Six Siege X update was launched on June 10, alongside Year 10 Season 2, introducing a significant evolution to its business model. Major upgrades to core systems, including gameplay improvements, a permanent new 6v6 game mode called Dual Front and enhanced player protection features. The launch of the update received strong community feedback with players praising the visual upgrades, modernized maps with new environmental destruction and the improved onboarding mechanics.

As Yves just mentioned, while resolved in June, the game -- players spending this quarter saw a significant impact from a pricing exploit with prepaid currency cards that temporarily inflated some virtual currency wallets. However, the momentum since launch is encouraging with acquisition levels trending around 5x above the same period last year. Session days were up 25% year-on-year in June since launch and 65% compared to the 3-prior weeks' baseline.

Overall, June delivered the third-strongest MAU performance in the game history, trailing only the 2 peak months during the COVID period in spring 2020. Session days have continued to grow 20% in July to date. Despite this one-off pricing setback, in-game spending has also shown positive traction with the Valkyrie Paragon becoming the highest-performing bundle launch in terms of currency spend.

These developments reflect growing sustained interest in the game and indicate that the evolving content and engagement strategies are resonating very well with players. The Siege X program is ambitious and the evolution of its business model requires some fine-tuning over time.

The game engine update enables much stronger quality and velocity of content releases as exemplified by the success of the Paragon bundle, enabling us to raise the level of quality of our items and narrow the gap with the best-in-class in the industry as well as doubling the cadence of limited time events per season. This sets the foundation for the years to come and the long-term growth trajectory of the title is very promising.

The Division 2 for its part, enjoyed a remarkable performance this quarter, displaying a strong start to the fiscal year with the launch of Year 7, the Battle for Brooklyn DLC release, a new season and its inclusion in the Game Pass that drove significant growth in acquisition and engagement, reaching the highest activity performance since May 2020.

Elsewhere in the catalog, Star Wars Outlaws released its second DLC, A Pirate’'s Fortune, in mid-May. The update received positive reviews, with players praising the return of legendary pirate Hondo Ohnaka, the storyline and new gameplay elements. The game is also set to reach a broader audience with its upcoming release on the Switch 2 console on September 4.

Total digital net bookings reached EUR 250 million, down 3% year-on-year and represented 89% of our total net bookings. PRI stood at EUR 152 million, down 4% year-on-year and represented 54% of our total net bookings. Mobile amounted to EUR 28 million, stable versus last year.

This quarter, we also made progress on the group transformation. The ongoing work to reshape our operating model led by an internal transformation committee has laid the foundations for -- of our new organization around agile business units called Creative Houses. Each of them will have its dedicated leadership team, objectives and road map. This change aims to drive quality, focus, autonomy and accountability while fostering closer connections with players and driving disciplined capital allocation.

The new organization will be announced by the end of the calendar year. The first of these Creative Houses will be the new subsidiary, and it will be led by Christophe Derennes and Charlie Guillemot as co-CEOs. With complementary backgrounds, they bring strong industry expertise, a modern understanding of gamers' motivations, deep knowledge of the Ubisoft ecosystem, a relentless focus on quality delivery and a bold creative vision.

Together, they will play a pivotal role in accelerating the growth of the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six franchises and building evergreen multi-platform game ecosystems. The closing of the transaction with Tencent, subject to regulatory approvals, is progressing well and continues to be expected by the end of 2025.

Turning to the outlook today. We confirm our fiscal year '26 guidance. We continue to expect stable net bookings year-on-year, approximately breakeven non-IFRS operating income and negative free cash flows. Following the closing of the Tencent transaction, we expect to maintain a consolidated non-IFRS net debt position of around 0. Additionally, the fiscal year '26 housekeeping items for modeling purposes I provided during the full year earnings call mid-May are unchanged.

The lineup for the rest of fiscal '26 includes Anno 117: Pax Romana, Prince of Persia, The Sands of Time remake, Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence. A couple of other titles will be announced at a later stage. Anno 117: Pax Romana will be released on November 13, enabling the Anno series to enter Roman Empire for the first time. It is the most ambitious title in the series featuring a simultaneous release on both console and PC.

Players will have the ability to choose their starting provinces, recruit military units for the return of land combat and with the new feature romanization, choose which way to upgrade their population tiers, Roman or Celtic. The game will deliver a rich player experience across unprecedented levels of scale and detail.

Beyond fiscal year '26, we continue to expect to return to positive non-IFRS operating income and free cash flow generation in fiscal year '27 and to see significant content coming from our largest brands in fiscal '27 and fiscal year '28.

To conclude, we expect Q2 net bookings of around EUR 450 million. Expected growth versus Q1 is driven by strategic B2B partnerships, including new ones, growing Rainbow Six Siege X contribution and material TV series milestones-based revenues. We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question today comes from the line of Brian Pitz from BMO Capital Markets.

Maybe some additional color on the softness from Rainbow Six that was driven by pricing issues with prepaid currency cards. Can you walk us through exactly what happened and how much of that impact was really in the quarter? Can you quantify it a little more? Is it possible that any of the bookings could end up slipping into 2Q? Or should we just be viewing this as a miss that won't be filled later in the year? And then I just have a quick follow-up.

Yes, Brian. Thank you for your question. So yes, what happened is that, as you know, we moved with a meaningful business model change. And as we were launching X, it came with a high peak of player activity. So the player spending was temporary but impacted by a pricing issue with prepaid cards that led to an artificial but meaningful inflation of some currency -- virtual currency wallet for some players. And that had an impact on the June numbers, while all the KPIs are actually going very well.

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

Now I want to reiterate that, as I mentioned, all the KPIs are strong and has been sustained in July with very strong player acquisition, returning players as well, and that led to activity growth plus 65% over the last 3 weeks of June versus the prior 3 weeks baseline, and that translated into a sustained activity growth of 25% versus last year in June and sustained at 20% in July with putting aside the pricing issue with the strong monetization trends and notably coming from the bestseller Valkyrie Paragon bundle. So we see that the game is on a strong base to grow solidly this fiscal year and beyond.

And then maybe just regarding the soft launch on the long-awaited Rainbow Six Mobile in certain regions. Any insights on time line as well as some of the other new mobile opportunities you spoke about, but you didn't really disclose specifically on the last call?

Yes. So we expanded indeed the soft launch in Latin America beyond the existing countries. So that allows us to really test the KPIs with a much bigger scale. And the game is still planned to come this fiscal year following the learnings we'll get from that soft launch period. And as for other mobile opportunities, we'll be coming also with The Division Resurgence this year.

Your next question comes from the line of Nick Dempsey from Barclays.

So first of all, I was just wondering, could it be that some of the good trends on session days and other KPIs for Rainbow Six Siege is just because some players have found this way to boost their virtual currency wallets and therefore, that could have boosted how much they played the game? Or is there really no correlation between suddenly finding yourself in possession of more currency and how much you play the game?

Second question is, in terms of your guidance, I think you now need to deliver about EUR 1.1 billion in second half '26. So we've got Anno 117. We've got Prince of Persia remake. We've got the mobile games, which will get started in that period. How -- can you give us any sense of how big in the sort of spectrum of your games, the 2 unannounced games are to try and help us build confidence on that EUR 1.1 billion?

Thank you, Nick. So no, there is -- we've seen no correlation whatsoever between this pricing issue and the activity. The activity has really been driven by a very strong appreciation of the new game mode we've been bringing and the numerous gameplay improvements that we brought to the maps of the 5v5 plus a major visual upgrade and also strong audio improvement and other systems. So that has been the key driver for the activity growth.

In terms of the second question, so yes, we'll have Rainbow Six Siege that will have a solid growth in the second half, so that will contribute to that number. And beyond the announced releases, we will have a couple of other titles to announce, but we -- what we can just say at this stage is that it's going to be a paid content of strong quality. And we also have a game that will be launched on the Switch 2.

Your next question comes from the line of Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

I just have a couple. First one, on the wallet glitch, could you quantify what the impact was on revenue? Do you have any insights into that? And then the second one is on the timing of the releases. When you say that the mobile -- so Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence Mobile, is that coming in the fourth quarter of fiscal '26? Or could it come earlier? And same for Pax Romana and Prince of Persia remake.

Yes. So on the first quarter, the majority of the gap in the performance came from Rainbow Six Siege, a significant large part of that coming from the wallet issue. That's all we can say on this. And on the second question, we are not coming with date other than for Pax Romana that will come on November 13. And we'll give you more information in due date from the very date for the other games to release.

[Operator Instructions] And your next question comes from the line of Mike Hickey from The Benchmark Company.

Just the first one on the Assassin'’s Creed Shadows, 5 million units year-to-date. How does that compare with other Assassin'’s Creed launches from that franchises? And then second question would be just on your pipeline through fiscal year '26, 2 unannounced games are almost into August here. So we're in the second half of your fiscal. Just curious your confidence that you can deliver the games here in your pipeline through fiscal '26 as opposed to having to potentially delay them into '27.

Yes. On the Assassin’'s Creed Shadows, it has a very good start, and we have lots of things that are going to come soon. We have an expansion that is coming in before the end of the quarter. And we have also some new versions that will come on other machines. So we have a good visibility on what it can achieve. And what I can say is that it's going -- it's really going well. Now we can't say exactly where it will be, but we have -- what we see is that it reacts very well to price drops that we just did a few days ago. And so we have a good perspective for the game.

As for the -- your second question on the pipeline for fiscal '26, yes, so we want, of course, to come to players first before make any further announcements. But yes, we are confident they will come in the second half.

Just a quick follow-up on Shadows. Have you announced that for the Switch 2? Or is that a game that is just too extensive to be portable to the Switch 2...

So we just announced that Star Wars Outlaws will come on Switch 2, but we haven't said which other games will come on the console for that coming year. So more to say in the coming months.

That was our final question for today. I will now hand back for closing remarks.

Thank you very much for your time today, and have a good evening or a good day. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'm delighted to welcome you to this year's combined general meeting. Please note that this AGM is open to the public and will be broadcast live. You can also find a replay on the company website. This meeting is an opportunity to review the past year, looking back on our achievements as well as the challenges that we have faced. I look forward to reviewing our strategy and the ongoing transformation. I will also share with you our objectives for the coming years.

With that in mind, we will now proceed to appoint the officers of this AGM, which I will chair in my capacity as Chairman of the Board of Directors. I suggest that be appointed as scrutineers assuming that they agree the 2 shareholders present with the largest number of votes. Guillemot Brothers Limited, represented by Christian Guillemot and Claude Guillemot in his own name.

If the scrutineers agree, I also propose that [ Kathy Bulyk,] Ubisoft's Administrative Director; and Secretary of the Board of Directors be appointed as Secretary of the meeting. Now that we have appointed the officers of this meeting, the meeting is now open. Also present, we have the members of the Board of Directors as well as , Axelle Lemaire and Andr Loesekrug-Pietri, whose appointments are subject to your vote. Gwenael Chedaleux from KPMG, and Julien Maulave from Forvis Mazars, our statutory auditors are also here with us. We also have with us [ Jerome Lange, ] our Judicial Officer; as well as Frederick Duguet, our group CFO.

The preparatory documents for the AGM have been made available to shareholders within the required time frame and in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements. All documents required by law are also available at the meeting venue in electronic or paper format as applicable.

The AGM is called upon to deliberate on the agenda published in the BALO newsletter on June 25, 2025. Please note that no shareholder has exercised their right to add items to the agenda or draft resolutions. I hereby inform you that the provisional quorum at the opening of the meeting has already been reached as the count just carried out shows that the total number of shareholders present or represented or having voted by mail is 1,856, representing a total of 79,346,880 shares out of the 132,598,642 shares with voting rights, or 59.84%.

With more than 1/4 of the shares with voting rights present, the AGM can therefore validly deliberate. The final quorum will be announced shortly.

With regard to the agenda for our meeting, we will first present the group's results, our strategy and our objectives for fiscal 2026 and beyond. We will also present the resolutions submitted for your vote and a summary of the statutory auditor's reports. We will then proceed to the Q&A session and confirm the final quorum before opening the vote on the resolutions. Thank you.

Now let's introduce our group's results. I'd like to start with a review of the video game market, and look back at the highlights of the past year, and also, we will present our main strategic development priorities. And then Frederick will present the key highlights of our recent financial performance as well as our objectives.

The video game market is currently in a transition phase. Our industry has, for a number of years, been facing contrasting dynamics, but it does provide interesting prospects for the coming years. This market is the largest in the entertainment industry, and it was worth $183 billion in 2024, a level that has remained stable over the past 3 years, but a level that is up from the pre-COVID era. In recent years, this market has been particularly selective, and this is due to various factors, including an influx of content resulting from a period of overinvestment.

Also, spending and playing time are increasingly shifting towards live games in very large franchises. And also, we're dealing with a macroeconomic environment that is fraught with uncertainty, inflation and consumer caution. So this combination of factors has led to mixed results. Mobile, which now accounts for more than 50% of the market with a strong presence in emerging markets is now a key growth driver for major brands. After a post-COVID adjustment phase and after inflation returning to normal, the market is expected to return to a growth trajectory with a 4% increase in 2025 over the previous year. And this growth is expected to be driven mainly by the console segment.

In the medium term, annual growth is expected to remain around 3% with the market expected to exceed $200 billion in 2027. And this is driven by a buoyant console segment whose average annual growth rate is expected to be around 6% as well as by the rise of emerging markets. Now those forecasts do not capture the potential positive impacts from upcoming breakthrough technologies such as generative AI, cloud technology and user-generated content or UGC.

By 2030, population trends are expected to drive the global market to over 4 billion players versus 3.4 billion in 2024.

Let's now zoom in on the console and PC segment outside China, which currently accounts for most of our market. This segment declined by 2% in 2024 and has remained stable over the past 3 years. As part of our financial covenant, there are 3 different types of revenue. We have our core games category. That's our core business. And we have additional revenue, which includes DLC downloadable content and monetization in games and lastly, our subscriptions. Regarding our core business, the core games category, well, that has dropped by 11% this year to $28 billion, its lowest level since 2020, while subscriptions and additional revenue now account for over 55% of this market.

Over the next 3 years, Core gaming revenues and additional revenues are expected to grow by 5% and 4.5%, respectively, above the market growth rate. And this growth should be driven in particular by the release of the switch to Nintendo console, which is doing extremely well. And of course, the release of GTA 6, the sixth edition of the Grand Theft Auto as well as the surge in live games. We are, therefore, well positioned to capitalize on this growth, thanks to our strategic refocus on our 2 key pillars.

The pandemic has attracted a significant amount of capital to the video game industry. As you can see in the chart on the left, between 2020 and 2022, there was unprecedented interest in the video game industry with a massive influx of investment from investment funds peaking at over $12 billion in 2021, and that's 4x the 2019 level. And this period of overinvestment has led to a glut of projects and intense pressure on talent. We have seen an actual war on recruitment with high churn across the sector. And since then, the industry has undergone an unprecedented wave of restructuring, as you can see on the chart on the right, culminating in 14,800 gross layoffs worldwide in 2024. That's the highest level ever seen, and the pace remains very strong in 2025.

So what's our analysis? The market is in the process of cleaning up. Investment is falling sharply to focus on a smaller number of projects, and we're also seeing greater wage moderation. Here's another interesting point. We're now seeing historically high staff retention and a return of senior talents to Ubisoft. And this creates a more sustainable environment for the future, even though the race to improve quality will remain a major focus.

Let's now move on to the highlights of the past year and our key strategic development priorities. This year, we have faced many challenges with contrasting dynamics within our game portfolio. We're operating in a highly competitive industry. And against this backdrop, we generated EUR 1.85 billion in net bookings in near breakeven non-IFRS operating result, and we managed to generate positive free cash flow for the year, amounting to EUR 128 million. And this reflects the discipline applied across the group.

Also, we have delivered our cost reduction program ahead of schedule. We are determined to go further with additional savings of at least EUR 100 million over the next 2 years. And the goal is to generate structural efficiency gains and strengthen the various functions within our organization. Obviously, we also seek to shore up the foundations of our group.

Regarding consoles and PCs, business indicators remain broadly stable year-on-year with solid levels of time spent playing as well as days of play. For the fiscal year, we delivered a robust performance with 134 million unique active players and 36 million average monthly active users. Franchises such as Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six, well, those 2 franchises each attracted around 30 million unique active players for the fourth consecutive year, while Far Cry attracted over 20 million players over the same period. We have other brands, and those other brands continue to generate strong engagement with over 100 million unique active players in total for the fiscal year. So one of the highlights of the year has been the launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows. Let's watch the launch trailer.

[Presentation]

[Interpreted] Assassin's Creed Shadows was released last March and has since established itself as the second best launch in the franchise's history. Just behind Valhalla, it also broke a historic digital sales record on the PlayStation store for Ubisoft. Shadows has been very well received by players, and this illustrates both the strength and resilience of the Assassin's Creed brand. It also showcases our ability to deliver ambitious experiences.

Shadows is also the first game developed on the new version of our Anvil engine, which lays the foundation for fast improvements in graphics, immersion and gameplay. And this has been true for a number of years now. Digital Foundry, in particular, congratulate Ubisoft for the excellent graphics and gameplay saying it was the most beautiful episode of the franchise to date and undoubtedly one of the most visually impressive game in 2025.

Now when it comes to recent launches as fiscal '25, '26 begins, just a month ago, we launched Siege X, a major evolution in our flagship Rainbow Six Siege game, which lays the foundation for strong growth in the years to come. Here's the launch trailer.

[Presentation]

[Interpreted] So here we are 10 years after the initial launch and Siege X introduces a deeply renewed experience, a new game mode that we have called Dual Front, a completely modern 5v5 maps, improved visuals, a soundscape that has been completely overhauled, enriched tactical gameplay mechanics and a new optimized integration path for new players. Siege X also holds a new business model with free access to dual front, unranked modes and certain core features. The competitive modes ranked and Siege Cup which offered by esports are actually offered via paid version of the game. So this approach aims to significantly expand our player base while also strengthening our commitment to the e-game community.

Last of all, the game is based on an improved version of the Anvil engine that will allow us to produce more content, both in terms of the gameplay faster with high level of quality. So all of these drivers are essential for future success in live service e-gaming segments.

I would now like to come back to our strategy, which is built upon 2 key priorities: Regain leadership in the open world adventure games and make strong headway in native service games. Open world adventure games are defined by experiences designed to immerse players in an adventure through an immersive world and captivating story. It's a dynamic market worth EUR 25 billion, and it is expected to grow in coming years. It is built upon new technology characterized by high barriers to entry.

In this market, Ubisoft can rely on key franchises such as Assassins' Creed, Far Cry Division, Ghost Recon. Assassin's Creed, which I just mentioned, is fully in line with this vertical breakdown. And it's a segment we're going to continue to deliver in terms of immersive experiences to attract more players to our world, to our games, reaching new audiences. And this is going to be achieved predominantly through multiplayer and mobile gaming platforms.

Our second objective is to expand our presence in what we call native service games. It is a segment characterized by experiences that are designed to engage players over the long term through engaging gameplay that rewards progression, social interactions and frequent content updates. It's a growing market with EUR 120 billion. It has the largest total addressable market in terms of number of players and also in terms of revenue. This is a segment where we have successfully installed Rainbow Six Siege, which we just mentioned, that has since become one of the largest games in the industry, which is actually part of the top 15 in terms of MAU for both console and PC with the aim to reach the top 6 and then top 5.

So in addition to the flagship game that I just mentioned, our objective is to also make strong progress in the growing market, generally speaking, by continuing to enhance our current experiences that we offer and capitalizing on upcoming launches such as the division and Ghost Recon. But we also have racing games such as The Crew and Anno. It is a dual-pillar strategy that offers prospects for recurring revenue and profitable growth, but it is also an opportunity for us to leverage the power of our franchise games. We're also benefiting from ongoing selective investments in proprietary technology, so that we can develop a competitive edge in the long term, predominantly through our own game engines such as Anvil and Snowdrop, which we've already mentioned that are recognized as being the best in the world for the respective fields.

We are also continuing to transform our organization with a clear goal in mind, transform our portfolio with more evergreen offers. So here we're talking about long-term brands and games that continue to recruit new players and these are games that we're going to continue to keep for many years to come. To do this, we're currently working on overhauling our operating model to better meet player expectations, deliver superior quality of play and ensure disciplined capital allocation.

We'll announce our new target organization by the end of the year. A major step in this transformation was reached with the recent announcements of creating a new subsidiary supported by Tencent as one of our strategic partners, focused on accelerating growth of 3 of our most iconic franchises. The subsidiary will play a pivotal role in building evergreen brand ecosystems to generate annual revenue over EUR 1 billion. This will include improving the quality of single-player native experiences, expanding the live service offering with more multiplayer features and more frequent content updates, significantly improving content creation by leveraging Ubisoft's proprietary technology and developing business in markets that are still little exploited by Ubisoft, such as mobile and Asia, particularly in China.

I would now like to go into further detail about our strategic transaction with Tencent. It is a transaction which is part of our overall strategic view that started last year through which we have examined various transformative strategic and capital options so that we can extract the best possible value of our assets and ensure that value for our stakeholders. Following a formal competitive process after careful consideration of expressions of interest from various parties, the Board of Directors determined that the transaction offered the best value for Ubisoft's assets and unanimously approved the proposed transaction. Executive officers not having participated in deliberations nor the vote.

Last March, we announced the creation of a subsidiary that would be dedicated to the development and distribution of games from our 3 iconic franchises. And these are Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. The announce went hand-in-hand by Tencent's intention to make a minority investment of EUR 1.16 billion in the subsidiary, thereby representing an economic interest of around 25%. The transaction shows up our strategic value of the brands, valuing the new entity at approximately EUR 4 billion, plus at least EUR 1 billion for paid licenses granted by Ubisoft to the subsidiary. So this is an operation when we look at the overall value, this is an operation of around EUR 5 billion, which is significant value for group stakeholders.

Ubisoft will have strategic and operational control of the entity. It will also integrate and incorporate an industry-leading partner to underpin development. At the same time, the transaction allows Ubisoft to significantly strengthen the group's balance sheet by fully deleveraging. The transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of the calendar year. The first condition was met with issuance of an independent expert opinion on the transaction, saying that the transaction was fair from a financial point of view for Ubisoft shareholders.

I would now like to hand over to Frederick who will first take a look back on our year's finances.

[Interpreted] Yves, thank you very much. Hello to everyone here. I will now go over the full year '25 financial results and talk about our cost of financial discipline program. I will also talk about forecast for the current financial year and talk about key drivers for our ongoing growth. Despite a difficult context, annual net bookings amounted to EUR 1.85 billion, down 20% year-on-year. Excluding partnerships, net bookings are only down by a few percentage points. Gross margin remained high at 89%.

Research and development expenditure was stable on a year-over-year basis. This is, on one hand, due to a decrease in depreciation related to capitalized R&D. This is in connection with more limited number of AAA releases over the year, combined with the fact that Assassin's Creed Shadows were launched at the very end of the year. On the other hand, increase of uncapitalized R&D linked in particular to spending on our live games, XDefiant, whose development was finally stopped last December. Non-IFRS SG&A expenses were down 9%, reflecting lower structural costs, driven by an ongoing cost reduction program. And this is also due to lower level of marketing expenses.

In terms of parent company accounts, we recorded a current result of EUR 132 million compared to a current result of EUR 547 million previous year. This is mainly due to a decrease in revenue invoiced to distribution subsidiaries, which is in line with decline in the group's consolidated revenue. Exceptional losses of minus EUR 6.5 million. Now we can compare that to exceptional result of EUR 47 million last year, explained by regulatory depreciation of R&D investments. And this is compared to a recovery made the previous year.

If we now look at our cash flow statement. Free cash flow amounted to EUR 128 million above target and compared to minus EUR 509 million last -- or the previous year. This change mainly reflects a number of items. First, strong improvement in cash flows, around EUR 560 million from operating activities -- sorry, related to operating activities, which amounted to EUR 169 million. This is driven in particular by a favorable change in working capital requirements. And we also had a vast majority of trade receivables at the end of March 2024 that were received.

On the other hand, net investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets were down by EUR 75 million. Previous year's level, including acquisition of Activision Blizzard's cloud streaming rights. Non-IFRS net debt improved by EUR 100 million year-on-year to EUR 885 million at the end of March. We have a strong balance sheet, available cash at a comfortable level of around EUR 1 billion end of March 2025 and equity amounting to EUR 1.8 billion.

I would now like to quickly give you an update on the cost reduction plan that we initiated or that we have made progress on over the past year. Initial program was targeting EUR 200 million in fixed cost base by 2025, '26 financial year compared to '22, '23 financial year, we are slightly above target and ahead of schedule. Thanks to maintaining strong discipline on recruitment and target restructuring, group's total headcount stood at 17,782 employees end of March 2025. So that's a decrease of around 1,230 employees over the year and nearly 3,000 since September 2022, all the while bringing our churn rate to lowest levels in history, and this is especially the case for our more senior positions.

The fixed cost base for '24/'25 financial year amounted to EUR 1.55 billion, down EUR 205 million and minus 12% compared to '22/'23 financial year. This includes a favorable currency effect compared to '23/'24, the fixed cost base decreased by EUR 55 million with almost no currency impact. Building on this momentum, we plan to reduce our fixed cost base by at least EUR 100 million over the next 2 years, and this will be done, thanks to increased selectivity in allocating money for investments, continuing target restructuring, reflecting a simpler and more efficient streamlined organization and much stricter control of our recruitment practices.

Looking at the current fiscal year, we expect stable sales year-on-year, non-IFRS operating income close to breakeven with negative free cash flow. Following the closing of the transaction with Tencent, we expect to maintain consolidated non-IFRS net debt position around 0. '25-'26 financial year should benefit from a solid back catalog driven in particular by Assassins Creed Shadows and the launch of Rainbow Six Siege X, which should lead to a strong increase in franchises net bookings on consoles and PCs. Recurring partnerships as well as the lineup, which will include Anno 117: Pax Romana, remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence.

Other titles will be announced at a later date. And I would actually like to now play the latest trailer for Anno 117: Pax Romana, which will be released at November 13.

[Presentation]

[Interpreted] Beyond the current fiscal year, group expects to return to positive non-IFRS operating income and free cash flow generation in fiscal year '26, '27. We also expect significant content from its core franchises for fiscal year '26, '27 and '27, '28.

I would now like to give the floor back to Yves Guillemot to conclude our presentation.

[Interpreted] Frederick, thank you very much. In short, to conclude our presentation, I would like to just recall some main points that are worth remembering. As you have clearly understood, the video game market, although growing this year, has very mixed dynamics, especially for our core market, our core game category, which has been down sharply by 11% after post-COVID period marked by overinvestment in the industry with generating content, strong competition for talent. The market is now in a phase where it's getting back to normal. That means there is a significant drop in investment and at the same time, moderation of more moderate wage increases. There's also a reduction in the number of projects under development.

Our core market, consoles and PC is also expected to be one of the key drivers for the industry's coming growth over the coming years. So we are well positioned, thanks to our strategic refocus on our 2 key pillars. So we're building upon the group's historical strength and growth opportunities, particularly in China.

In addition, as we discussed in our market analysis, mobile games continue to be an attractive development area for large franchise games. Given that context, we're continuing to transform the group towards more evergreen offers, as we mentioned. So we will announce by the end of the year, a new organization, one which is better adapted to player expectations and one which will allow us to further improve the quality of our games. We will create a -- the creation of our new subsidiary, coupled with Tencent investment will allow us to accelerate the development of our 3 key franchises, while at the same time, significantly strengthening our balance sheet.

And last of all, we are intensifying efforts to reduce costs, a new 2-year target that reflects greater selectivity of investment and better and more efficient organizations. As you can see, we are doing everything we can to put our group on a profitable, sustainable growth trajectory. I have full faith in our ability to build a stronger, more resilient company in a core market that should return to growth. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, brings our presentation to an end.

According to custom, I would now suggest dispensing with the reading of the reports from the Board and text of resolutions. Before continuing, I would also like to thank Ms. Laurence Hubert-Moy and Ms. Corinne Fernandez-Handelsman whose terms of office expire at the end of the meeting. I would like to thank them both for their keen involvement in the work done by the Board of Directors and also for their fine involvement in the various committees on which they sat because they occupy those positions with much vigor and keen interest.

And before Frederick goes into some resolutions, I would like Ms. Axelle Lemaire and Mr. Andr Loesekrug-Pietri to please come and introduce themselves to the audience. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, Mr. Chairman, I am delighted to be with you this afternoon. I am also honored by the trust placed in me by the members of Ubisoft's Board of Directors in proposing my appointment as an independent director. Ubisoft is a leading company in the video game industry. It's one of the few that combines creative excellence, technological innovation and global reach, a company that is driven by talented and committed teams across the world and some of whom I have had the chance to meet, particularly in Montreal.

I am well aware of the excitement that surrounds every new game release. And I'm aware of how a successful game represents behind the choices of its creators and producers, the magic that stems from combining innovation, rigor and creativity. At a time when collective imagination shapes our world, Ubisoft has an ambitious vision for the future of recreational and interactive entertainment. The sector, the industry faces demanding challenges, ensuring ethical and responsible development, protecting its audiences, especially younger ones, adapting to different cultural and social contexts, anticipating regulatory changes and responding to the ever more complex expectations of multiple stakeholders.

I would be honored to contribute to the strategic discussions of Ubisoft's Board of Directors. In that regard, allow me to briefly present my professional background. I was born and raised in Canada. I studied first at Sciences Po, and then I specialized in international economic law in Paris and London. And throughout my career, whether as a legal adviser or as an executive in the private sector, I've had the opportunity to work on the major transformations shaping our societies, particularly those related to technology and innovation.

As a member of the French Parliament and later as the Minister of State for Digital Affairs and Innovation, I led several key policies. Digital transformation of public services, national AI strategy, digital inclusion, cybersecurity, personal data protection and support for the French tech ecosystem. I also closely followed the issues facing the video game sector whose cultural and economic significance have always acknowledged whether for our country or the rest of the world.

Afterwards, I joined Roland Berger, an international strategy consulting firm, where I supported many businesses in their innovation, digital transformation and sustainability initiatives. Since 2023, I have served as Executive Director in charge of CSR and sustainable development at Sopra Steria, a major publicly listed European company and leading digital services provider. I oversee areas such as climate strategy, diversity and equal opportunity, digital accessibility as well as the group's societal and inclusive commitments. This journey has enabled me to develop strong analytical and interpretive skills, which I hope will be valuable to Ubisoft's Board, especially in a context where the video game industry is rapidly evolving with the rise of generative AI, new player behaviors and shifting and complex geopolitical balances.

Whether it's about anticipating major trends, interpreting regulatory demands or enhancing Ubisoft's reputation and appeal, I look forward to actively contributing to the Board's work with the independent and open mindset that defines me while paying constant attention to the company to the company's best interest as well as the best interest of its shareholders. So it is both with humility and enthusiasm that I stand ready to work alongside you to support the balanced and sustainable development of Ubisoft, ensuring that its creative and economic ambitions rest on solid and responsible foundations. Thank you for your kind attention.

Thank you, Axelle. Now I'd like to introduce Andre.

[Interpreted] Hello, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, Mr. Chairman, for me, too, it's a great pleasure to be with you today. Well, speaking after a minister is always a tough act to follow, but I'd like to sincerely thank the members of the Board for proposing my nomination as an Independent Director of Ubisoft. Ubisoft is a French, European and global champion. It is a major technological and creative company whose productions, talents and ambitions echo across the world. It operates in a dynamic, demanding and constantly evolving industry where speed, innovation, technological mastery are key. So I'd like to talk about me for a minute.

I know my name is difficult to pronounce. I'm both French and German. And throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to explore these issues from multiple perspectives, industrial, entrepreneurial, financial and scientific. I was born in Berlin. I was trained in Europe and in the U.S. I started my career at Airbus, another European champion on technical projects such as the A380, the double decker plane. And for about 15 years, I co-founded and managed various investment structures, including private equity, venture capital funds, supporting tech companies with strong potential for growth internationally. So I did this in France, Europe, Africa and Asia.

I spent close to 10 years in China. In 2017, I did a 360 shift. I joined the French government as a special adviser to the Minister of the Armed Forces. We focused on things that weren't talked about at the time, strategic sovereignty and also European defense. So my experience was extremely valuable. So what am I doing today? I chair JEDI. JEDI stands for Joint European Disruptive Initiative. I like the name. It's an organization that works for the public interest, together with other captains of industry and research and technology organizations.

We founded this JEDI initiative to act as a catalyst for disruptive innovation in Europe. We have about 7,000 state-of-the-art researchers, deep tech entrepreneurs and industrial leaders from 30 countries. We work to support pioneering projects in digital technologies, space, quantum technologies, energy and life sciences. So all of these experiences have allowed me to gain a deep understanding of disruptive innovations, their strategic implications and how to integrate them into sustainable growth trajectories.

And also, this gives me the hands-on experience I need. I believe that in this world, big bets matter. So I understand the importance of scale and key challenges such as AI and also man-machine interfaces. So in this sector, my experience matters. And this is the experience I wish to bring to Ubisoft's Board of Directors. As an independent Board member, I am deeply committed to a quality strategic dialogue between directors and executive teams.

I also fully appreciate the importance of being independent -- of having an independent and constructive perspective that focuses on long-term challenges as well as value creation and total shareholder return. So we operate in a very dynamic market with fierce competition. We've said that time and again. And I believe that Ubisoft has remarkable strength. It has strong brands. It has talented teams, a capacity for continuous innovation that's well recognized as well as a well-established global presence. It has studios across the world.

And also, we operate in a world of growing gamification in a lot of sectors. This means huge potential for growth. So I would be honored and happy to contribute to the growth of this beautiful company in these faster and faster times where we're seeing profound transformation in the video game industry. So thank you for your attention, and thank you for your trust.

Thank you, Andre. I will now give the floor to Frederick. Thank you.

[Interpreted] The ordinary resolutions concern approval of the company financial statements, the consolidated financial statements and the special report of the statutory auditors on related party agreements, the appointment as independent directors of Axelle Lemaire and Andr Loesekrug-Pietri, the renewal of the term of office of Claude France as Independent Director and of Michel and Christian Guillemot as directors. Also the appointment of Ernst & Young Audit as statutory auditor to replace KPMG S.A. These resolutions also concern the so-called Ex Post and Ex Ante votes relating to the remuneration of the company's corporate officers.

With regard to the ex-post resolutions, the information is provided in Section 4.2.2 of the URD, which includes details of the objectives and the level of achievement of the performance conditions as well as the scales applied regarding Yves Guillemot annual variable compensation. The 5 executive corporate officers did not receive any long-term variable compensation for FY 2025.

Regarding the resolutions referred to as Ex Ante, the information is provided in Section 4.2.1 of the URD, which sets out the remuneration policy applicable to the directors, the Chairman and CEO and the COOs and for information purposes, its application for the -- for FY 2026.

Finally, also under ordinary resolutions, we propose that you authorize the company to continue its share buyback program. This resolution being linked to the authorization given to the Board to proceed with share cancellations, which is submitted to you as an extraordinary resolution. Regarding extraordinary resolutions, the Board of Directors is submitting a number of so-called financial resolutions designed to give the Board the power to carry out capital increases quickly and flexibly should market opportunities arise.

Resolutions 24 and 25 in accordance with the opportunity provided by the attractiveness legislation, delegate authority to the Board of Directors to set the price to which a maximum discount of 10% may be applied. It is understood that the price referred to above refers to the share price and/or an average share price established on a date as close as possible to the date of the determination.

The Board also proposes resolutions relating to employee share ownership aimed at offering Ubisoft employees competitive packages by allocating a portion of their remuneration in shares or allowing them to participate in increases in the company's share capital. So we are submitting to your vote 3 resolutions, allowing employees to participate in capital increases with a maximum discount of 15% up to a maximum of 2% of the capital.

We are also proposing that you vote on 2 resolutions offering the possibility of implementing bonus share plans on the one hand, for employees, including members of the Executive Committee and where applicable, executive officers of subsidiaries up to 5% of the share capital and for executive officers of the company up to 0.3% of the share capital to be deducted from the 5%. These percentages cover the needs for 3 financial years and are intended to promote optimal use of the budget in a highly competitive environment.

The allocations are subject to a vesting period of at least 3 years for employees and members of the Executive Committee and at least 4 years for executive corporate officers. They will be systematically and fully accompanied by performance conditions assessed by -- assessed for members of the Executive Committee and executive corporate officers over a minimum period of 3 years or financial years. It should be noted that the performance conditions for members of the Executive Committee will be 80% aligned with the performance conditions or indicators applied to executive officers as defined in the executive officer compensation policy.

Finally, it is proposed that you amend the bylaws to allow the Board to proceed when necessary by written consultation. We are aware that the wording of the resolutions is somewhat complex because of the legal language. And therefore, we are available to answer any questions you may have. Over to you, Yves.

Thank you, Frederick. Now let's hear from the statutory auditors. They will now read a summary of their reports.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, thank you. On behalf of the college of statutory auditors, I'm pleased to present to you the reports we have prepared for your attention, which relate to our audit opinion on the annual financial statements of Ubisoft Entertainment as well as our opinion on the consolidated financial statements of the Ubisoft Group. My colleague will then present the report relating to related party agreements. These reports have been made available to you by the company and are included in the 2025 URD, which you have received.

We will now provide a summarized reading of these reports, which relate to resolutions 1 through 4 submitted for your approval. Regarding our report on the annual financial statements, you can find them on Page 310 of the URD. We issue an unqualified opinion on the financial statements submitted for your approval at this AGM. In the basis for opinion section, we present the key audit matters, which, in our professional judgment, were the most significant for the audit.

Regarding the annual financial statements, we're dealing with the evaluation of internally developed commercial software. We've analyzed impairment testing procedures, whether in terms of internal control or verifying consistency of sales forecast with a 5-year business plan. We have also verified that appendices provide appropriate disclosures, and you can find this in Note 19.

Also, the evaluation of equity investments for which we have analyzed impairment testing procedures to ensure that the value in use was not overestimated. We have also verified disclosures in the annexes, you'll find this in Note 17 and 23. In addition, we also confirm that our report includes all other legally required information, particularly regarding auditor independence, specific verifications, the information provided in the management report, the corporate governance report as well as the other legal disclosures.

With regard to our report on consolidated financial statements, which you can find on Page 277 of the URD, we issued a qualified opinion on the consolidated financial statements. The key audit matters outlined in our report include on paragraph justification appreciation, we show the key audit matters, which are outlined in our report.

Regarding the consolidated financial statements, we're dealing with the evaluation of internally developed commercial software. We have analyzed the impairment tests and testing procedures. Whether in terms of internal control procedures, verification of consistency of forecast with the 5-year business plan. And also, we have verified that appropriate disclosures were provided in the appendices.

Also evaluation of goodwill and trademarks. We have assessed the modalities for depreciation tests to assess recoverable asset values. We have also verified that the appendices provide appropriate disclosures. You'll find this in Notes 20 and 22.

Lastly, evaluation of revenue recognition for games with service components as well as license agreements. We have analyzed the various contracts and verified their accounting treatment. We have also made sure that the appendices provide appropriate information in Notes 4 and 6. Now you'll find the details in our report on the consolidated financial statements. Also, we confirm that the report also includes all the legally required information regarding specific verifications. There are no comments regarding the management report from the Board of Directors.

Also all of the information pertaining to legal and regulatory obligations and also management and auditor responsibilities, not forgetting the Audit Committee's report. Also, we confirm the company's compliance with the ESEF or European Single Electronic Format for presenting consolidated financial statements implemented by the company.

And that concludes our reports on the annual and consolidated accounts. Thank you for your attention.

I'd like to hand over to my colleague regarding the related party agreements.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Julien. I promise, I'll be shorter. Now regarding Resolution 4, submitted to the AGM for a vote, we issued a report on related party agreements and commitments. You'll find it on Page 316 of the URD. I'd like to remind you that our role is to outline the features, terms and reasons of interest for the company regarding the related party agreements without opining on their usefulness or merits. It is up to you to assess their relevance before approval. In this report, we inform you that no new related party agreements or commitments were reported for the past financial year. And regarding our work, we have not identified any other framework that should be submitted to your approval.

So our report includes an agreement that was already submitted to your approval. I'm referring to the framework agreement signed between Ubisoft Entertainment, Guillemot Brothers Limited, Tencent and other parties. This agreement dates back to September 6, 2022. Based on the fact that the various conditions have remained unchanged throughout the fiscal year, I will spare you an exhaustive read because the conditions haven't changed one bit since then.

I'd like to remind you also that a number of other reports have been issued pertaining to the draft resolutions under the extraordinary part of this AGM, particularly when it comes to capital, and these reports have been available to the company. We have no material comments to make regarding to the information submitted to your approval. Thank you so much.

[Interpreted] I would like to thank our statutory auditors, Gwenael Chedaleux and of course, Julien Maulave. They will now have to leave us, but we have worked with them quite well over the past few years. So thank you very much for your work. We are now going to move on to debate and discussion. This is an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have in. And if you do have a question, please introduce yourself first. The floor is yours, ladies and gentlemen.

[Interpreted] I am an individual shareholder. I have a number of questions for you. And a comment, if I may. First, for Assassin s' Creed Shadows. Can you give us the overall budget for production? Star Wars Outlaws 2 years ago? It was said to have cost a few hundred million euros in production. And there's a lot of talk and a lot of excitement about production costs. So can you please just give us a final figure for that and current sales as they stand. So that's my first question.

Second, Star Wars Outlaws. What have you learned from the failure in terms of sales? Have you learned anything from -- in terms of pricing, in terms of marketing and what about consoles because console gamers tend to be around 40 years old. So is there maybe an age issue. What about the upcoming lineup? Last year, you said that there was going to be EUR 1 billion, but with Star Wars Outlaws, and Assassins' Creed Shadows. I imagine that the game portfolio in production has probably a lot less now. So could you shed a bit of light on what upcoming gains you have and how the portfolio is going to evolve?

One question on finances. UbiSoft has roughly EUR 1 billion to pay back in convertible debt. So -- this is for 2027, 2028 coming through. We saw an impact from -- in terms of profit warnings, and there was a bit of a drop and then there was an uptick following Assassin s Creed Shadows. This is probably helped by the new subsidiary traded with Tencent. What are you going to do to try and bring equity back to the company? And about Tencent, when will the operational side of the subsidiary come through? And what sort of money is going to be allocated to the new subsidiary? And how is it all going to help pay back the overall debt?

Now one comment for the URD. I have been a shareholder for a number of views and gamer for many more than that. And it is -- for the past 2 years, it's no longer really available for us to consult. Now I understand certain reasons that you've given, but really, it would be much better if we could have just a few paper copies available for us to read through here.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much for your questions. To answer the first one, we don't disclose production costs. Now it did cost over EUR 100 million. We will say that, but we don't give any final cost. We also invested heavily in the engine. For Star Wars Outlaws, we didn't reach our sales targets. The game suffered from a number of items.

First, it suffered from the fact that it was released at a time when the brand, the brand that it belonged to was in a bit of choppy waters. And the game had a few items that still needed to be polished and they were polished and debugged in the early weeks after release, but it did affect sales volumes. We did heavily improve the game by troubleshooting and debugging, as I said, in those early weeks. When it will be released on upcoming consoles such as the Switch 2, it will have a new version of the game. So improvements on the game have not finished, and we will continue improving it for future releases.

As for the upcoming portfolio, we have already given some insight into some projects that are in the pipeline. Frederick, will give you as much information as possible. But generally, we don't give all information this early in the game. We prefer giving you more information just before release date to make sure that we do have a good handle on how we market those games.

As for debt and investment questions, I'll hand over to Frederick for that.

[Interpreted] You're right. For the upcoming game lineup, we have some major productions for our leading franchises, which will come through in our '27, '28 fiscal year. Now again, we can't give away too much information today, but we are taking the time to make sure that those games will be released with the top level quality that we're looking for because the market is becoming more and more selective, and it is more and more important for these sorts of franchises to really be released with the sort of innovation and game experience that people are looking for.

You asked a question about Assassin's Creed Shadow sales to date. We can't disclose them. They will come through in the 22nd of July first quarter, first half figures. Again, 8th of May was just a few weeks after release in terms of game players and overall sales was the second game in the history of the franchise. So it started really well.

As for our debt scheduling, we've got about EUR 1.9 billion in debt for the [ 5 ] first years and end of March, we should have enough cash available for just under EUR 1 billion and increased equity from Tencent is going to be about EUR 1 billion as well, EUR 1.2 billion to be more specific.

With that, we should be able to refinance debt or either pay back debt again with maturity sitting between 2 and 3 years. So that gives us some level of visibility. And in terms of capitalization or recapitalization, we've got EUR 1.2 billion coming from the subsidiary. And we've also got solid equity. So there's no real issue with our equity levels.

Sorry, there's a question not on microphone. For our consolidated accounts, we're looking at EUR 1.8 billion. As for -- as to your question about allocation of Tencent capital, we have said that we will be able to get back to a net debt level non-IFRS of nearly 0. So we've had some increased financial pressure over the past years, and that will be offset by that. Some of that money will go back to pay debt, as I've said. And some of the money will go into assets. So it will be to fund the entities that we're creating. So Far Cry, Athens Creed.

We want to see them get back to revenue levels around EUR 500 million and EUR 1 billion on an annual basis. And we want those brands to be more and more evergreen and with more recurring income. And some of the money because again, some of the money will be taken back to the parent company, but it will be used selectively for either future developments, other major brand names. So we've got Ghost Recon is just one example. For our first-person shooter type games. And then we also want to boost our live games.

So you've got The Crew, Anno, For Honor, just to name a few ones again. And we are going to continue working selectively on those new brands, new brands built upon new tech to really tap into a few key segments. As you know, we've got some iconic brand names in our catalog that we can either activate or reactivate with little investment. This goes to the remake Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which is going to be released very soon or even Splinter Cell later on in the game. Sorry, another question of Mike.

Sorry, and about the UID.

Yes, you're right, we have tried to go as digital as much as possible with as little documents being printed as possible, and we've taken your comment on board. So we wanted to try and go as digital as much as possible without printing too much. And so we will take a comment on board in light of that.

[Interpreted] Good afternoon, [indiscernible]. I have been an individual shareholder for the past 20 years. I am very unhappy with the catastrophic share price with minus 40% over 10 years. I'm very disappointed with everything that we have been seeing of late. So I've got real concerns. I don't recognize Ubisoft that I once knew in the past. About most recent events, how is it that the Head of the Group or the Head of HR saw nothing. I mean we operate in these buildings and everything is known, everyone knows what's going on. So how is it they did nothing. They didn't stop it because it doesn't help the group with its levels of creativity. So how is it that nothing was seen and nothing was done.

Now how can we tackle increasing prices, the fact that we have gamers who are becoming more and more demanding. It seems like a never-ending race. When a game fails, it seems like this is going to -- it could bring the company down.

And third question about competition. There's a game that a lot of people have been talking about Valorant. A lot of people have said good things about it. And I'd just like to know what you think of it? Is there anything good that Ubisoft could learn from that? Really, what's your opinion on this game? Because it seems like all gamers love it. So if they love it, that means that it's probably going to be a drop in sales for Ubisoft. So what is your take?

[Interpreted] Thank you for your questions. Now again, there were -- the company was not found liable for any of the claims that were taken against the company for misconduct. So yes, we are extremely sorry for what occurred. And we have put in place -- we put in place the second we heard of what was happening, additional systems and additional mechanisms to ensure that information could be reported more effectively for any sort of -- for such cases. And we are keeping a very close eye on this to make sure that it will not happen again.

To answer your question about the games, yes, games cost a lot to make. There is a lot more risk out there because it is a more competitive market. There has been a lot of investment in the market since COVID, as we mentioned. Over 2 years, there was an almost fourfold increase in development investments, a lot of new studios, a lot of games were released. That put a lot of pressure on everyone in the industry, in particularly for those with evergreen games. So evergreen games, these are games that constantly turn revenue every year, like Rainbow Six. That's a perfect example. The company has invested heavily in its ability to develop these sorts of games, but it's not easy.

Some of the games work, some don't, some sell well, some don't. But it is an investment that we have to do to ensure that we will have a couple of those games well rooted in the gaming environment so that we can continue to get revenue from them. So we've been working on that. It has been quite an interesting time for the company. And I hear that you're not happy with the share price, and the Board is not happy with the share price either. So we're doing our utmost to see the share price increase as soon as possible.

Now for the other questions, I'll hand over to Frederick.

[Interpreted] Just talking about Valorant. You're right. It's a very good game. What we are doing is we are looking at all the different operators on the market for multiplayer games, for first-person shooter games. If you look at Rainbow Six and other games of that same ilk, it's exactly what we're trying to do. So Valorant is a top 5 game. Rainbow Six is a top 15 game. What we want to do with this game is have it in the top 10 and then in the top 5 eventually. So for that, our teams have been working on completely overhauling our creation system so that we can have more content more regularly released with a better suited gaming mode.

We've also looked at our business model. So there's now free access to get more players into the game and something that we could learn from Valorant is that we have worked on enhancing the overall offering for our games. So there's a lot that can be done, considerable growth potential, especially for Rainbow Six Siege. That's what I can say for that. Valorant is a game that we're looking at in particular, because it's been highly successful, not just in the Americas and Europe, but also in China, where it has recently been launched.

Rainbow Six has been given the green light for release in China. So our aim is to continue improving on that. To improve on what we already have within the game to really bolster the brand across multiple geographies. And it's quite an interesting benchmark for us because it's a solid performer.

[Interpreted] Mr. [indiscernible], Individual shareholder. I do have a question for you about the share price and overall capitalization. We're looking at EUR 9.52 capitalization at EUR 1.26 billion. You said that the subsidiary with Tencent is going to be about EUR 1.16 billion with a EUR 4 billion market cap plus an extra EUR 1 billion. So how can you explain that massive mismatch between those figures?

And one other point, apparently, there's going to be an independent expert, Finexsi, who is going to evaluate that new entity? And will that information be sent out to all shareholders? And then in terms of items that could be a major issue, we've got competition in Europe. Do you think that there are going to be certain barriers put in your way?

And for the second resolution, for our current levels, we're looking -- you said that there is going to be negative EUR 248 million going up to over EUR 400 million. So with Tencent, given that they're going to have 25% -- of 25% stake, how is the EUR 93 million in profit going to be split between them and Ubisoft as we -- as it currently stands?

And I do have another question about short selling. We see a lot of short selling. Is it specific to Ubisoft? Is it something in the French stock market? And how are you going to account for that because it seems quite huge.

[Interpreted] I think we're looking at 4.93%, so the overall market cap is EUR 4 billion for the entirety of that new entity. And when we look at the value of the license that is going to be paid out on sales, we're looking at around EUR 5 billion market cap. And when we look at the current share price of Ubisoft, there's a great expectation for the company to get back into solid profit and solid cash flow. So these are things that we are working on, and Mr. Guillemot spoke about that in the strategy presentation. We're going to leverage our key brands, which are already well positioned and have seen some solid awards. So this should help drive future growth. And also the live games. This is also going to help us with recurring revenue streams and therefore, boost cash.

In addition, we also have our cost reduction in the first phase, second phase, EUR 100 million, so that by next year, we should be back in growth, not just for our top line, but also for our bottom line. So they are the key items that are being accounted for in that market cap that we presented. We are going to continue to fully consolidate the entity that is being created. So it will all be reported in our consolidated accounts. And part of the profits for a minority stakeholder will be given to the minority shareholders, and that will be in the URD for next year.

Now in order for the transaction to go through, we need approval by a number of authorities, and that is currently underway. We are in the process of providing information and data as required by those authorities.

We expect the transaction to come through by the end of the year. It's a minority investor, a passive noncontrolling minority investor, and that's something that must be factored in by the competition authorities. Regarding your question about Finexsi, the Board of Directors has ordered that report. And so the independent expert confirmed in May that the value extracted by this transaction is fair vis-a-vis shareholders. The report has been given to the Board and will not be made public. I hope that answers all of your questions. Say again?

Short selling yes. That's the ballpark figure. That's the order of magnitude, and that has remained pretty stable over the past year. So no -- nothing to write home about on this particular point.

[Interpreted] Hello, Mr. Guillemot. [indiscernible], I'm a recent shareholder, but I'm a long-standing user of Ubisoft wares. I have a couple of questions. First of all, regarding Assassin's Creed Shadows. There's been a lot of controversy regarding that game. How do you respond?

Ubisoft has been accused and criticized for this wokest trend. I mean this is happening in 16th century medieval Japan and the main character is an African Samurai. That's a bold choice by Ubisoft. And in the story, he falls in love. That's one of the possibilities of the game. He can -- he gets to fall in love with a transgender character. So woke or no walk. How do you explain Ubisoft's deteriorated reputation, which may actually challenge the foundations of your organization?

So is that a show of openness on your part? Or are you going to backtrack or backpedal on that political of leftist political agenda? Does that -- is there room for the entertainment world for this kind of stance?

Secondly, what about accusations that video games of being accused and there's this petition with thousands signatories. How do you make sure that games remain playable and accessible even after server support is discontinued. This petition was initiated in 2024 after Ubisoft announced the end of server support for The Crew. A game bought in 2010. And now in 2024, the servers have shutdown and the game can be played anymore. So do you support that petition? At the end of the day, when players buy an Ubisoft -- when they buy an Ubisoft game, do they own it? Or is there a chance that they might no longer be able to play the game years later?

Thank you for those questions. Let me start with Assassin's Creed Shadows. There's one thing you need to consider. When you get to play the game, you understand that the game -- that the game is full of characters and the characters actually blend in with the game. Obviously, with regard to this particular game, what was our goal? We wanted to showcase characters with heroic journeys. Everybody wants to play a hero's journey. You shift your circumstances and you become something more, and it's a very powerful expectation from games. So this is a hero quest. And it doesn't just apply to Ubisoft or Mega series or this is an actual character. This is someone who really existed. And showcasing that character has been extremely successful. And that is why we decided to tell that story. We wanted to tell a different story.

Regarding the petition, we operate in a market. And whenever we release a game, we provide a lot of support for that game. We also provide a lot of services to make sure that the game is accessible and remains playable 24/7. So we provide information regarding the game and how long the game can be played. And players and buyers are forewarned that eventually the game may be discontinued.

Now what happened with this game? There was a EUR 1 fee proposed to all buyers of the game for just EUR 1, they got to buy the next version, EUR 1. It's not a whole lot of money to be able to continue playing a game. And we also announced that the game would be available offline in future so that players could continue to play it. So this is an issue that we've been dealing with. But this kind of issue is not specific to Ubisoft.

All video game publishers are faced with that issue. You provide a service, but nothing is written in stone and at some point, this service may be discontinued. Nothing is eternal. And we are doing our best to make sure that things go well for all players and buyers because obviously, support for old games cannot last forever. But that's an issue that we're working on. That's something that the industry at large is working on to minimize impact on players. But clearly, that's something you need to factor in.

The lifespan of a piece of software, whenever there's a service component, eventually, services may be discontinued because the software may become obsolete over time. A lot of tools become obsolete 10 or 15 years down the line. They're no longer available, and that is why we released a new version. And so we have version 2 and then version 3. But clearly, this is a far-reaching issue, and we're working on it.

My name is [ Jean-Yves. ] I'm an individual shareholder. I'm also an employee. I have a question. Considering the high production cost of AAA games, which require significant sales in order to ensure profitability, wouldn't it be strategically important? And is that on the course for the company to explore developing AA games with smaller production budgets, shorter production cycles. This would help diversify our portfolio, and this would also mitigate financial risks.

[Interpreted] Thank you for your question. Yes. We're looking at 2 different kinds of projects. There are games such as Anno, for example, it's a smaller budget than blockbusters. Riders Republic, same thing. And there are other gains such as Rayman. All those games have smaller budgets. This means higher profitability levels. In other words, we can achieve those profitability targets faster based on the level of sales.

And as we said before, more and more, we're looking at games that can be played and replayed. So we'll test the game play on the market and the iterations will depend on the KPIs for those various games. So there'll be -- the initial investment will be rather limited, and this means we get to develop more different kinds of games, and this will help diversify our portfolio indeed.

Thank you so much for your questions. Now we will now confirm the final quorum. The number of ordinary shares outstanding with voting rights comes to 132,598,642 shares. Based on the attendance sheet, there are 1,891 shareholders present represented or having voted by mail representing a total of 79,358,261 shares with voting rights, and that's 59.85% of shares. The quorum required for the AGM to validly deliberate both in its ordinary and extraordinary parts is therefore reached.

We're going to start voting on the resolutions. You're familiar with the voting device. It was given to you as you came in. So we will vote on each of the resolutions. And we will display on the screen a summary of those resolutions. And then Frederick will read out the results. I'm going to ask the scrutineers to join us on stage for verifications. And in a minute, we will start the vote?

[Presentation]

This was the global finals for Rainbow Six, and the winners have shown how good they are. On the screen, you will find the instructions for using the voting device, press 1 to vote in favor of the resolution, press 2 if you're against; press 3 to abstain. Resolution 1, approval of the annual financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025. Please vote.

[Voting]

Resolution carried.

Resolution 2, allocation of the net income for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025. Please vote.

[Voting]

Resolution carried.

Resolution 3, approval of the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025.

[Voting]

Resolution carried.

Resolution 4, approval of related party agreements and commitments as part of the special report from the statutory auditors. Please vote.

[Voting]

Resolution carried.

Resolution 5, approval of the report on remuneration for corporate officers. Please vote.

[Voting]

Resolution carried.

Resolution 6, approval of remuneration benefits paid or granted during the fiscal year to Yves Guillemot, Chairman and CEO, please vote.

[Voting]

Resolution carried.

Next resolution, approval of remuneration and benefit to Claude Guillemot, Deputy CEO. Please, vote.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

We've got Resolution 8, approval of compensation for 2025 for Mr. Michel Guillemot. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution is passed.

Resolution 9, on compensation for Mr. Gerard Guillemot. Voting is open.

[Voting]

The resolution is passed.

Resolution compensation for Mr. Christian Guillemot. Please vote.

[Voting]

Resolution passed.

Resolution 11, this is approval for the compensation policy applicable to Chairman and CEO. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution is passed.

Resolution 12, this is compensation policy for deputy CEOs. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution is passed.

Resolution 13, compensation policy for directors. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 14, appointment of Axelle Lemaire as Independent Director for 2 years. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

The resolution has passed.

Resolution 15, appointment of Andr Loesekrug-Pietri as Independent Director also for 2 years.

Question in the room? Why is it only 2 years?

This is just standard practice. This is a way of giving new Board directors the time to prove they're worth on the Board, and then it will be renewed after 2 years. So the voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution is passed.

Resolution 16, the renewal of Claude France's appointment as independent director for 4 years. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 17, the renewal of Michel Guillemot's appointment as Director for a 4-year term of office. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 18, renewal of Christian Guillemot as Director for 4 years. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 19, this is the appointment of a principal statutory auditor to replace principal statutory auditor to replace KPMG S.A. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution is being adopted.

Resolution 20, to grant authorization to the Board of Directors to continue its share buyback program. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

We now move into extraordinary items. Resolution 21, authorization is to be granted to the Board of Directors to reduce share capital by canceling their own shares held by the company. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Moving on to Resolution 22. Delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to increase share capital through capitalization of reserves, profits, premiums or other amounts limited to EUR 10 million.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 23. Delegation of power to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital with preferential subscription rights. Voting is now open -- limited to EUR 5 million.

[Voting]

The resolution has passed.

Resolution 24, delegation of power to Board of Directors to increase the share capital by issuing shares with a limit of EUR 1 million through a public offering, not under first paragraph of Article L.411-2 of the financial monetary code in France. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 25, delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to increase share capital without -- with the waiver of preferential subscription rights by public offering. The vote is now open, limited to EUR 1 million.

[Voting]

The resolution has passed.

Item 26, delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to issue shares in order to remunerate contributions in kind granted to the company, with waiver of preferential subscription rights for shareholders limited 10%.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Item 27, delegation of power to the Board of Directors to increase its share capital by issuing shares for the saving -- Group savings package of 2% capital. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 28, delegation of power to the Board of Directors to increase share capital for employees and executives limit of 2% of capital without preferential subscription rights. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 29, delegation of power to the Board of Directors to increase share capital result for categories of beneficiaries under an employee share ownership offering, limited to a total of 2% of overall capital, again, without preferential subscription rights. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 30, authorization to Board of Directors for 38 months to grant free ordinary shares to employees. This includes company executives, not for directors. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 31, authorization for the Board of Directors for 38 months to grant free shares. This is for executive corporate officers, limited to 0.3% of overall capital. Voting is now open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 32. Amendment of Article 10.2 of our bylaws -- this is for the written consultation of directors under the French Attractivit law. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Resolution 33, powers for formalities. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Resolution has passed.

Thank you very much for your votes. I would like to thank everyone who is here today for your support, your employees for being so passionate committed employees and all shareholders for being so loyal. Your ongoing support is essential for our ongoing success. And this brings our session to a close. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]