Petz help breed profitz for Ubisoft
Launching a new hit franchise with Assassin’s Creed may be the most visible success that Ubisoft achieved over the last year, but the French publisher spread the love around a little more broadly in its fourth-quarter financial report today.
Assassin’s Creed was just one of a few big wins to which the company attributed its 36 percent full-year sales increase. The publisher also said that existing brands such as Rainbow Six, Rayman, Settlers, and Ghost Recon all turned in strong sales performances. Furthermore, its Games for Everyone range of casual games, which includes the Petz, My Coach, and Imagine series, tripled its sales over the course of the year.
For the 12 months ended March 31, Ubisoft racked up revenues of €928 million ($1.46 billion), up from €680 million ($1.07 billion) for the previous year. The Wii- and DS-centric Games for Everyone line accounted for nearly a full quarter of that haul, bringing in a total of €230 million ($361 million).
As for the most recent quarter, revenues were up a more modest 10 percent to €217 million ($340 million), which was still above Ubisoft’s original guidance. The publisher’s gamble on a Rainbow Six Vegas sequel paid off, with Rainbow Six Vegas 2 coming in second on the March sales charts in both the US and the UK, and more than 2 million copies of the tactical shooter shipped to retailers. Assassin’s Creed also continued sneaking off of shelves, with the stealth action game now having shipped 6 million copies worldwide.
Looking ahead, Ubisoft executives said in a conference call with investors that 2008 appears set to be another record year for the company, in part due to the company’s recent purchase of the Tom Clancy brand. The battle plan calls for continued emphasis on building existing franchises and expanding the casual lineup with games like a new Wii party game. To help the publisher achieve that, it’s ramping up the hiring process, looking to hire an additional 500 employees for new offices in Singapore, China, and India, with an extra 400 being added to the mix in more established studios.
Tags: 2, assassin, tactical
May 20th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Well, also it COULD be the increased demand around the world coupled with the same output from oil fields.Just saying.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Um, no. The vast majority of money involved in almost any market belongs to only a few players. This is even more so in the commodities and derivate markets, where there are far, far fewer players relative to the stock market. The drop in actual individuals involved is probably less than 10% of the stock market, and probably much less than that.Combine that with the Game Theory concept of imperfect information, where game participants purposely withhold information to obtain the greatest benefit, and you have every spike in pricing since before the turn of the century.The entire finance industry lies constantly to their low-to-mid value portfolio clients. For this reason, Elliot Spitzer went after them for years when he was attorney General of New York, and they finally got to him, but only after paying out billions in settlements.My point being that anyone that thinks the “Free Market” is a reality is purely deluded. All markets are being consolidated, thanks to the basic principle of debt behind our monetary system.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:39 am
That is true, but which countries are doing that? Every country but Saudi Arabia is producing oil just as fast as they can. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that any countries are purposely holding back on production in order to boost prices.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Do you mean rules like gravity? Newton’s laws of motion?I think they do.To be fair though, you do not need to hoard if the oil is still in the ground. Dr. Gonzo alluded to this by talking about “futures contracts.” Interestingly, we store it by injecting it back into the ground in geological formations known as salt domes in South East Texas and Louisiana.Anyway, the speculation is on future exploration which does not look like it will be able to keep up.
May 20th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Pretty much everything must change when we reach peak oil. It is a foolish game to try to predict when we’ll get there except to say that we will–eventually. Given that there are already some very very expensive projects to tap oil reserves I think it is safe to say we’re CLOSER to peak oil than we were 50 years ago but to try to hit the exact day is impossible.If oil producing nations would report their extraction and discovery rates accurately then it would be easier to know exactly when it is going to arrive. But there are many political reasons not to accurately report that data.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Not only that. They have been losing Huge amounts of money in this oil runup. Look up stock symbols TSO and VLO.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Congress: We want to put measures in place to stop the small investors from speculating. That should help prices.Sounds like the big speculators have their lobbying teams pulling puppet strings again.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
That’s funny. What you mean is that the oil companies do manipulate production, both at the well and at the refinery, to game the price.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
The flood of cash coming into oil and other commodities is in large part Mutual Fund money. Individuals hear there is lots of money to be made buying oil so the money pours into Oil and Energy funds who have to buy something with it. The added demand pushes prices higher.Eventually the high prices will fade and people will try to pull their money out of the funds which makes the fund managers sell which depresses the price which causes more people to bail and so forth.It is the dot-com bubble all over again. Billions poured into tech stocks and the prices soared. The market softened and everyone started pulling their money which started a massive cycle of selling.Same thing happened in housing.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
If ya wanna know go to the Texas Railroad Commission Website and see for yourself.www.rrc.state.tx.us