Core games smash Ubisoft sales expectations
Assassin's Creed III sells 12m, Far Cry 3 4.5m; full-year profits could top €100 million
Ubisoft's sales success in the third quarter has broken company expectations, with Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed III boosting sales 23 per cent to €802 million ($1bn / £684m).
That's above the €700-€800 million the company had expected for the quarter, in which Assassin's Creed III sold 12 million physical and digital units - almost 70 per cent more than Assassin's Creed Revelations. Far Cry 3 has sold over 4.5 million units physically and digitally.
The company also saw "very sharp growth" in the online business, with sales up 143 per cent to €55.2 million ($73.9m / £47.1m), with titles like Rayman Jungle Run, Trials Evolution and console and PC DLC.
While back catalogue titles were virtually static, the casual business saw an expected decline. Just Dance 4 sales were down 16 per cent compared to Just Dance 3, with 8 million units sold.
"Fiscal 2012-13 is a real turning point for Ubisoft," said CEO Yves Guillemot. "Our performance fully validates our long-term choices and the large-scale investments we have been undertaking for several years now, with a sharp ramp-up in games for core gamers and notably our strong comeback into the major segment of shooter games.
The company now claims to have a market share in the US and Europe of over 11 per cent.
"We are now reaping the initial benefits of the two deep-seated transformation processes we have undertaken, namely the Lead and Associate structure for our creative studios, and internal development of our online expertise with versatile teams," he added.
"In 2013-14, thanks to an even stronger offer for core gamers and continued robust momentum for free-to-play games and digital distribution, Ubisoft should continue to capitalize on these underlying trends and win new market share in both the retail and online channels. Consequently, in the next fiscal year we expect to see further growth in both sales and current operating income."
The company has revised sales targets for the full-year up, to around €1.2 billion and profits forecasts of between €90 million and €100 million ($133m / £85.3m) - compared to the €37 million it made in the last fiscal year.
Shucks.
I don't want to speculate on what the future belongs to, but how does this article fit into your claim? Ubisoft is investing heavily into FTP, that's for sure, but it's definitely not the market where it's making a lot of money (not yet anyway). "Core games smash Ubisoft sales expectations" - can't see FTP mentioned there.
Regards
Roman
Bruce won't post. He'll just ignore this, as he nearly always does when he comes up against something that he can't find an answer to - instead of accepting and acknowledging it, he just goes all quiet. Though maybe now I've said this he'll prove me wrong;)
The sale of console games is in overall steep decline. But with the right product and enough marketing it is possible to push water uphill. However this gets to be more difficult with each passing month.
Then there is the way that the market has polarised into a relatively small number of smash hits and nothing else. And even many of the smash hit franchises are experiencing declines in their sales from iteration to iteration.
The overall game market is moving from relatively small numbers of sales at a ridiculously high price to vast numbers of sales at a low price. The next generation consoles will either embrace this or die. Certainly the Apple offering for the living room will.
Completely agree, AC3 had too much unnecessary and poor gamedesign desicions, because AC2 had it all right. But I do understand, why sales were much higher - US history based game, heavy marketing campaign.
Even though AC series become annual, and sort of annoying to some, mass market is really interested in it. And it's great, because this way Ubisoft gets a lot of money, and so they're able to create new games, even new titles (which is almost always is good). I didn't liked AC3 because of many annoying gameplay additions, and their Tom Clancy's games are getting worse, but I'm happy for that company anyway.