Ubisoft touts strong Q3 sales, further delays Haze

By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UKPosted Jan 23, 2008 10:08 am PT

French publisher's quarterly revenue leaps up 44 percent after Assassin's Creed ships 5M units; Free Radical's futuristic PS3 shooter pushed back yet again; new Prince of Persia game coming.

Ubisoft has once again reported a solid sales quarter. Its third fiscal quarter, which ended December 31, 2007, brought in €450 million (approximately $655 million), a 44 percent increase over the same period in 2006.

Sales for the first nine months of its financial year so far total €711 million ($1.04 billion), compared to €483 million ($703 million) for the year before. The company lauded Assassin's Creed, as well as its Imagine series, Petz series, and MyCoach series as having excellent sales. Ubisoft claims Assassin's Creed has now shipped 5 million units worldwide, with the Imagine series hitting 2.5 million.

For its fourth financial quarter, which ends March 2008, Ubisoft's main releases will be Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3), Assassin's Creed (PC and DS), Lost: Via Domus (PC, PS3, 360), and some as-yet-unnamed casual games for Nintendo's platforms.

During its 2008-09 fiscal year, Ubisoft will be launching several new brands, including Tom Clancy's End War, a Shaun White snowboard game, a Tom Clancy air combat game, and an as-yet unnamed game. The company will also be releasing Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (PC, 360), Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (PC, PS3, 360), Far Cry 2 (PC, PS3, 360), and new games in the Prince of Persia and Anno series. Ubisoft's casual catalog will also be expanded, with more titles coming to the Petz, Imagine, and MyCoach franchises. There was no mention of a sequel to Red Steel, Ubisoft Paris' controversial action game.

Unfortunately, the news was not all good: Haze, the PS3-exclusive shooter from Free Radical, has been delayed once again. Originally set for release in early 2007, the game is now down in the schedule to ship sometime in Ubisoft's 2008-09 fiscal year--meaning the game could launch as late as March 31, 2009.

Ubisoft expects sales for its fourth quarter to total around €165 million ($240 million), 16 percent down from the same period in fiscal 2006-07. However, for the full year ending March 31, the company has raised its sales target to €875 million ($1.3 billion), up from a previous estimate made on December 13 for €840 million ($1.2 billion). At the same time, due to the delay of Haze once more, the 2008-09 sales target has been raised to approx €1 billion ($1.5 billion) from €975 million ($1.4 billion).

Ubisoft's fourth quarter results are due on April 24, following the end of trading on the Paris Bourse.

305 Comments

  • 6StringShredder

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 1:44 am PT

    If you kill the couse of the dalay there will be no game at all. patiance young one.... It will be worth it when it comes out.

  • Punkytrd

    Posted May 28, 2008 7:41 pm PT

    i don't like haze that much, far cry 2 is were it's at!

  • shooterman_420

    Posted Apr 2, 2008 12:59 pm PT

    screw Haze what about far cry 2 what the hell is causing the delays i want to kill wat ever is causing it

  • supralover1

    Posted Mar 13, 2008 7:04 am PT

    Awright what's the holdup here? Let's get the game out already, really lookin forward to this one, but if it keeps being delayed may have to lose interest.

  • Wildboy124

    Posted Mar 11, 2008 3:07 am PT

    I'm sensing a bit of Dejavu here with Haze being delayed. Who remembers Prey? That game was supposed to be out about 10 years ago, then it was released but wouldn't get many sales because it was the sheer waiting game for it. It got some respectable reviews, but sales fell everywhere. Ubisoft may want to release the game at least to a max. of August this year if they do not want to suffer (From a sales point of view) another version, which will be called 'The Haze Delay'

  • bobthegoat2001

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 11:37 am PT

    Maybe they're going to try to change the character and the name to something different so they can make it multiplatform like they originally wanted to.

  • wars45

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 1:58 am PT

    209 no way man the game must of been crap so they gon back to do it well way dont they just say it not coming out this y dam it

  • 21121

    Posted Feb 16, 2008 5:23 pm PT

    ah comon. thats 2 years after first date was set? why do they advertise dates that they obviously know they cant meet? i mean ok, a month or 2 is an understandable underestimate, but upto 2 years? comon. dont get peoples hopes up then not deliver.

  • gocanes222

    Posted Feb 13, 2008 1:45 pm PT

    This makes me pretty mad...I have been waiting for Haze since I first joined this website in the Summer of '07. It was supposed to be november so I was pretty excited. Then january. Now freakin May. I'm gonna be playing COD4 and UT3 until then. Forget you corp. america. You screw us over by wanting too much money for youselves. Despite all this i'm still mad excited for this game

  • bballchamp6

    Posted Feb 11, 2008 2:20 pm PT

    im sick of haze
    haze AND MGS4. Delays have done everything possible to ruin my interest in both games. I dont expect to play either of these games any time soon (as if they wont push if back again.) i just dont care. there are plenty of other great games that aren't dumb enough to delay soo long that nobody cares anymore

  • InuHanyou1701

    Posted Feb 8, 2008 1:44 am PT

    You know... It would be one thing if they were pushing back the release date just to make a better game and polish it up a bit. That I wouldn't mind..... as much. But this is getting REALLY annoying. Ship out the blasted game already! Profit mongering... ::Grumbles::

  • dalamar03

    Posted Feb 6, 2008 2:43 pm PT

    "Of course if they didn't push the release date people would be talking smack about releasing a buggy incomplete game."

    It's not being delayed for polish/bugs. It's being delayed so Ubi has something to fall back on for more money. It's a stupid move and it's annoying.

  • medwayman

    Posted Feb 5, 2008 3:29 pm PT

    " Way to screw up and alienate plenty of people that used to want to play it Ubi...smart. "

    Of course if they didn't push the release date people would be talking smack about releasing a buggy incomplete game.

  • user5689

    Posted Feb 3, 2008 5:50 pm PT

    Wow, I love all you people in sheer dismay over Haze being delayed. At least you've only been wating a year or so.

    I've been waiting since 03/04 for a simple *release date* on Dragon Age...

  • dalamar03

    Posted Feb 2, 2008 10:52 am PT

    By the time Haze hits, there's gonna be 600k shooters on the PS3 (like there isn't already -.-) and I'm not gonna have one ounce of interest in buying it. Way to screw up and alienate plenty of people that used to want to play it Ubi...smart.

  • mehrdad1987

    Posted Feb 2, 2008 8:32 am PT

    Still Waiting For Conviction!!

  • veggie530

    Posted Feb 1, 2008 3:45 pm PT

    R6V2 -- can't wait for that one...and SC:C...wish they'd hurry up on it.

  • bestkilla

    Posted Jan 31, 2008 12:30 pm PT

    GOD damn brothers in arms now delyed to myb-day no one knows how long i have benn waiting .

  • mia_bori

    Posted Jan 28, 2008 3:12 pm PT

    wat this game has been delayed again.weve been in this for a year now. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh .i was so hyped on getting my hands on it.DAMN im really hoping now because of ths delay this game will be a years best.

  • 09231991

    Posted Jan 27, 2008 9:12 pm PT

    Out of all those games they announced is coming out, all i care about is Brother's In Arms and Vegas 2, thats it. Vegas 2 is on schedule but damn, BIA is delayed again. damn, damn, damn. The game was scheduled for April 07, then got pushed to Nov 07, and now it could come out anywhere from April 08 to March 09. As I said, damn, damn, damn. Well if there adding a lot of extra unplanned stuff like more story and more MP, then I guess its ok, but damn.

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