Ubisoft: Rebuilding the Assassin's Creed Unity engine was 'painful'

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told investors today that his company walked away from the troubling launch of Assassin's Creed Unity with "lessons learned", reports Re/code. 

The game debuted with persistent, widespread technical issues that eventually drove Ubisoft to curtail its DLC plans and offer free games to placate frustrated Unity buyers. During a conference call with investors this week, Guillemot said the issues were due to Ubisoft's decision to "re-do" the Assassin's Creed engine while developing Unity.

"When you do that, it’s painful for the whole group, and everything has to be recalibrated,” Guillemot told investors. “A few things were not perfect when the game was launched, but the engine has been created, and it will help that brand shine in the future."

And while public outcry over Unity's technical issues may have caused a temporary plunge in Ubisoft's stock value last November, it seems to have had no lasting negative impact on the company's fiscal performance over the holidays. 

The company reported €809.7 million ($923.68 million USD) in sales for the financial quarter that ended December 31, 2014. That's nearly 50 percent higher (at constant exchange rates) than the €519.7 million ($592.86 million USD) it reported for the same quarter a year prior, and a portion of it comes from the 10 million units of Assassin's Creed Unity and Assassin's Creed Rogue that Ubisoft shipped to retailers.