Ubisoft has released its Q1 FY 2012 results, reporting sales of €103 million for the quarter ending June 30, 2011, which is down 36.3 percent year-over-year.
Back-log and casual drives sales
Sales for the same period in FY 2011 came in at €161 million.
The sales for the quarter were, however, higher than the firm’s guidance of approximately €90 million, which the firm attributed to performance from back-catalog titles, with sales up 84 percent to €68 million. Thanks in particular went to Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, dance titles, the launches of Child of Eden and Michael Jackson The Experience on Kinect, and an online sales increase of 45 percent to €12.5 million.
XBLA titles Outland and Might & Magic Clash of Heroes performed well, with review ratings close to 85 percent.
“Ubisoft turned in a solid performance in the first fiscal quarter thanks to a strong increase in our online and back-catalog sales, fueled notably by continuing solid sales of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood,” said CEO Yves Guillemot. “This initial positive back-catalog trend reflects our prudent sell-in approach as well as the quality of our product portfolio. It also supports our expectation of an improved gross margin.”
“At the latest E3, Ubisoft presented a solid and promising games portfolio. In the High Definition segment, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Driver San-Francisco, Rayman Origins, Raving Rabbids Alive & Kicking and The Adventures of Tintin confirmed their potential.
“In the Casual segment, we once again demonstrated our leadership in dance games with Just Dance 3 and The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Unlike last fiscal year’s releases, these two new titles will both be launched on multiple platforms. In the Online segment, Ghost Recon Online and TrackMania 2/ManiaPlanet were very well received and initial feedback from players of the closed beta of Ghost Recon Online has been very positive.
“In addition, the recent announcement of our acquisition of Owlient – expert in online community games – marks an increased acceleration of Ubisoft’s free-to-play strategy and of our capacity to seize the strong growth opportunities provided by the Online segment.”
Sales for Q2 FY12 are expected to come in at around €99 million, on a par with the second quarter of 2010-11. Full-year 2011-12 targets were confirmed by the company, which expects sales to hit between €1,040 million ($1.48 billion) and €1,080 million ($1.53 billion).
Market share and console breakdown
In the first six months of calendar 2011, Ubisoft was the fourth independent publisher in the United States with 7.1 percent market share and third in Europe with a 7.1 percent share of the market.
During the quarter, 32 percent of sales for the firm came from Europe, 58 percent from North American and the rest of the world attributed 11 percent.
Nintendo DS game sales accounted for 4 percent for the quarter, compared to the 1 percent in 3DS game sales. PC games accounted for 11 percent of sales, PS3 19 percent, PSP 2 percent, Wii 27 percent, and sales of the firms offerings on Xbox 360 contributed the most with 36 percent.
For the quarter, the firm spent 90 percent of funds on development, 3 percent on publishing, and 7 percent on distribution.
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