Ubisoft sales rise as ACIII shatters records

Assassin’s Creed publisher Ubisoft saw its sales rise to over €800m last quarter, beating the previous Christmas season.

Sales for the three months ended December 31st, 2012 generated €802m – up 23 per cent when compared to the €652m for the same period in 2011. Ubisoft has originally targeted €740m to €800m for the quarter.

Major sales drivers included Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 3. The latest Assassin’s title shifted 12m across both retail and digital, almost 70 per cent more than Revelations sold the year before – breaking records for the popular historical action series.

Meanwhile the critically acclaimed Far Cry 3 shifted over 4.5m copies, again encompassing both boxed and download units.

Total sales for the first nine months of Ubisoft’s fiscal year, which began in April 2012, amounted to €1.08bn – up year-on-year by 20 per cent from €900m.

Other success included growth from Ubi’s online business. Sales rocketed by an impressive 143 per cent to €55.2m, thanks to both digitally distributed titles and DLC revenue. The latter increased four-fold during the first nine months of the financial year.

Growth in the core gamer and online markets offset an expected decline in Ubisoft’s Casual business, although the publisher reports "a solid performance" for Just Dance 4 when compared with the overall Wii and Kinect markets. The game sold 8m, 16 per cent less than Just Dance 3 in the comparative period.

Ubisoft is further raising its expectations for the full fiscal year. Sales are now anticipated to reach €1.24bn to €1.26bn – up from previous forecasts of €1.2m.

Fourth quarter sales (first quarter of the calendar year) are expected to be between €159m and €179m.

This story was originally published on our sister-site, MCV.