Sales up 19 per cent at Ubisoft

Ubisoft has announced that sales for the financial year ended March 31st, 2011 came in at 1.03bn Euros.

This is a 19 per cent increase from the 871m Euros taken in the previous year. Key sales drivers were the firm’s dance portfolio (including Just Dance), its Kinect and 3DS ranges and the success of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Sales for the fourth quarter (three months ended March 31st, 2011) came in at 178m Euros, which was a 15.2 per cent decrease year-on-year. This sales figure was higher than previous expectations of 159m Euros, thanks to continuing strong sales of the Just Dance games and successful launch of its 3DS games.

However, Ubisoft reported a 52.1m Euro loss for the year overall. The publisher expects sales for the next financial year to reach between 1.04bn Euros and 1.08bn Euros.

Ubisoft saw a sharp upturn in revenue and current operating income in 2010-11 and strengthened its financial position,” said CEO Yves Guillemot.

The casual segment returned to significant levels thanks to our leadership positions in the dance game segment, on Kinect and on 3DS. At the same time, we continued to make progress in the online segment, doubling revenue and above all improving the management of our online communities, our service offering and their monetisation.

Lastly, in the high definition segment, we scored another success with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. This performance was achieved thanks to our continuing creativity and an innovative multiplayer mode which proved highly popular with the large community of players who are increasingly engaged with the franchise. Our objective now is to replicate this success for our other strong franchises.”