Tormy-

Join Date 02/2006

+58

Ubisoft Reports Financial Results for Fiscal Year

Despite the success of AC II, Ubisoft reports a $73 million loss.

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/109/1090842p1.html

Ezio is in the killing business, and business is gooood. Not so much for Ubisoft, which, despite selling nearly 9 million copies of Assassin's Creed II during its fiscal year, still reported a $73 million operating loss.

Ubisoft announced its fiscal 2010 results today, and though strong sales of Assassin's Creed II and surprise Wii hit Just Dance (3 million in sales) propelled the company to better-than-expected results, $0.00 in profits were recorded.

"The global economic crisis had a pronounced impact on the videogame industry in 2009, which contracted by nearly 10% year-on-year," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement. "Ubisoft's sales were hit particularly hard, falling 18% over the full year despite a stabilization in the second half of the year, when figures came in on a par with the corresponding period of 2008-09."

In total, Ubisoft recorded over $1 billion in sales on the year, and Guillemot said a return to profitability is expected in fiscal 2011. Splinter Cell: Conviction has already sold nearly 2 million copies (according to internal Ubisoft data), Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is out this week, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is due this holiday season, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, which the company said has been bumped from Q3 to Q4 (January-March 2011) is expected to be a sales driver.

In addition, Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez said the company was keeping a close watch on Electronic Arts' efforts to convince gamers to buy new over used, Project $10 and the recently announced Online Pass. DLC will be featured in all of Ubisoft's upcoming titles, Martinez said, and a Project $10-like strategy is highly likely.

"We forecast a return to profitable growth in 2010-11 with positive cash flow generation, driven by a games line-up that is more closely tailored to growth segments and based on strong franchises," said Guillemot. "We also expect to see the first concrete results from our investments in online games and services."

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"The global economic crisis had a pronounced impact on the videogame industry in 2009, which contracted by nearly 10% year-on-year," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement. "Ubisoft's sales were hit particularly hard, falling 18% over the full year despite a stabilization in the second half of the year, when figures came in on a par with the corresponding period of 2008-09."

Here's a hint Mr. Guillemot. The global economic crisis is not the only reason sales are poor for Ubisoft. You're ticking off your current user base with your heavy handed DRM too. But maybe that's a "segment" you don't want to see growth in anyway. As they say "new wine in new wine skins"

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I am shocked that their winning strategy of spamming console shovelware games combined with a few decent but heavily DRM'd games thrown in the mix is not working. And who are they blaming? Used game retailers, who are probably the only reason anyone risks buying a Ubisoft title these days since you can trade it in after to get part of your money back. But hey, you and EA go right ahead and try to kill the system that is keeping your more mediocre titles selling at all.

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If your selling that many millions of games and still reporting losses you might want to look at how the business is being handled. Then again, keep up the good work killing your company dumbasses.

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Quoting DethAdder,

reply 3

If your selling that many millions of games and still reporting losses you might want to look at how the business is being handled.

Yep, yep.

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That's what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass.

-Walter Sobchak

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psychoak

Join Date 07/2007

+225

It's more what happens when you have a bunch of idiot MBA's running a business they don't know anything about, than fucking people in the ass in particular. It's the way all big companies go eventually, the people that build them up kick the bucket or cash out, and the stockholders hire people with educations, instead of people that have been working it and know their own industry.

The piracy paranoia goes right along with the multimillion dollar budgets and cutting edge graphics for games you can't bother playing a second time. When you aren't an active participant in the genre you're producing, grasping things past the surface takes monumental effort. Bloat and selective vision are a particularly good combination for killing a company.

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I'll not buy any product with a crippling DRM strategy included! With that said Ubisoft has lost a customer which sucks because they made Heroes OF Might And Magic V. I still play it every once in a while but if the release A VI I will not be buying it !

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Pbhead

Join Date 12/2008

+77

ubisoft and their drm can suck it.

now... if only valve and thier drm(steam) can suck it was well... I think we would all be happy gamers.

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Except this failure isn't due to the PC DRM nonsense, Ubisoft is mainly a console publisher. Certainly, I doubt the lost PC game sales are helping them much; but if you look at the insane number of terrible Wii and DS (especially the DS) titles they vomit out every month you can see why maybe they might be losing more than they're selling. As psychoak said, their current management team needs to be put in a bag and thrown in a river as they clearly don't have a clue. Tip: More funding for games people actually want to play, less funding for Imagine: Sweet 16 type games. You can get away with EA DRM measures far more easily if people really want to play your games.

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Quoting DethAdder,

reply 3

If your selling that many millions of games and still reporting losses you might want to look at how the business is being handled. Then again, keep up the good work killing your company dumbasses.

Quoted for life!

They sold 9 MILLION copies of ass'n'greed II

3 MILLIONS of some Wii shovelware game

50$ * 9 MILLIONS! I think some bosses are being paid WAY too much!

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