Ubisoft optimistic on full year despite slow first quarter

French publisher Ubisoft has posted results for the first quarter which reveal that sales dropped 6 per cent year on year, but the company remains optimistic over its prospects for the full year, predicting 10 per cent revenue growth.

Revenues in the June quarter reached $75.8 million for Ubisoft, a small decline over the $80.1 million figure for the same quarter last year. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow was the biggest seller in the quarter, shipping an additional million units to bring its overall sales to some 2.7 million.

That figure includes sales of the PlayStation 2 version, which launched in June and drove most of the Splinter Cell sales during the quarter. Additional sales are expected in the current quarter as catalogue sales of the PS2 and Xbox versions continue to be strong, and the recently launched GameCube version should also make a contribution.

Another strong seller for the firm was PC first person shooter Far Cry, which launched in April and sold through 730,000 units in total during the quarter. Console versions of the game are set to be published later this year, although developer Crytek is now in a partnership deal with EA and is not expected to continue the Far Cry franchise with Ubisoft.

For the full year, the company - which now ranks among the top five independent publishers in Europe, and is ranked number seven in the USA and number two in the UK - expects to realise revenue growth of 10 per cent.

Key drivers for that growth will largely be sequels to existing franchises, such as Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Prince of Persia II, the next Myst title and the console versions of Far Cry, but World War 2 first person shooter Brothers In Arms is also expected to perform well when it is launched in October and could form the basis of a new franchise for the firm.