Ubisoft posts Q4 revenues

Ubisoft has released its financial results for its fourth quarter (ended March 31, 2006), and the news is mixed for the French publisher. On the one hand, it increased its market share in the US, UK, and France by an average of 1 percent. On the other hand, its overall sales dropped by more than a third from the same quarter the year before, from 219 million euros ($277 million) to 144 million euros ($182 million).

Ubisoft attributed the gains in market share to the performance of its first three Xbox 360 games: Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII. Ghost Recon in particular sold more than 1.6 million copies for the publisher, with roughly half of them being the Xbox 360 version of the game.

In a statement accompanying the results, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stressed the importance of the publisher's establishing a foothold on the Xbox 360. "The tremendous success of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter confirms our ability to be at the forefront on new consoles," Guillemot said. "It should support Ubisoft's financial performance during the coming fiscal year, as we expect the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PS3, and Nintendo Revolution installed base to ramp up rapidly."

For the full year, Ubisoft posted a 3 percent increase in revenues, from 532 million euros ($672 million) to 547 million euros ($691 million).