Ubisoft updates 2010 forecast and line-up

Ubisoft has just released this information regarding the financial targets of the company and some significant changes to their upcoming game release schedule.

Important notes from the release:

• Sales for games on the Wii and DS were lower than expected in 2009 and are expected to be down for the full year by around €160 million (or $239 million CAD), representing a drop of around 50% in world wide sales numbers.
• Riding on the success of Assassin’s Creed 2, Ubisoft will be focusing on future development of high-quality AAA games. This is also partly due to the lower-than-expected sales of games like James Cameron’s Avatar™: The game, several non-casual Wii titles and a general underperformance of back catalog titles.
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction™ and R.U.S.E™, which were previously scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2009-10, and will now be released in 2010-11. Splinter Cell Conviction™ is now expected to hit the stores in April 2010.

Additionally in the release Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer, stated “Despite a number of highly successful titles, such as Assassin’s Creed 2 – which is expected to reach 9 million sell-in units by the end of March 2010 – and Just Dance – our great Wii success during the holiday season – Ubisoft has not met its financial targets. The considerable contraction in the DS market during the year particularly affected Ubisoft, leading to a €160 million, or almost 50%, year-on-year drop in the Company’s casual segment sales. At the same time, like in 2008, the year 2009 saw the release of many more very high-quality games than in the past. Against this backdrop and with a view to further reduce our exposure to the DS, we intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox360 and PS3, the two consoles that are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010. Ubisoft has already demonstrated its capacity for success in the high-end games market thanks to Assassin’s Creed 2, with sales 40% higher than for the first title. The 2010-11 line-up – which is stronger in franchises for Xbox360 and PS3 – reflects our refocusing efforts and should enable us to both win market share and enhance our profitability.”

Now for the juicy part – the 2010-11 line-up:

• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction
• A new game in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series
• Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands
• Driver
• Raving Rabbids 4
• A new episode of Assassin’s Creed (with an online multiplayer mode!)

2010-11 will be focused on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and less on the DS and Wii…  Expect more games and new franchises to be announced throughout the year.