Consumers like open-world games. Ubisoft likes money. It’s a beautiful cycle.
Ubisoft recorded sales of €293 million ($394.06 million) for the first half of the 2013-2014 fiscal year, a period that ended on Sep. 30. That’s up 5 percent over the same period last year.
Ubisoft attributes the growth to strong sales of back-catalog games, including big hits from 2013 like Far Cry 3 and Assassin’s Creed III. An increase of 29 percent for digital sales also helped.
As for the publisher’s outlook, Ubisoft chief executive officer Yves Guillemot is optimistic. “The PS4 and Xbox One will be released in a few days’ time and will be a new driving force for the industry,” Yves said in the financial report. “We are confident in our capacity to rise to the short-term challenges posed by the transition phase thanks to the very high quality of our games, which, combined with the upcoming arrival of the next-generation consoles and the traditional ramp-up of sales during the Christmas season, will trigger positive momentum towards the end of the year.”
Ubisoft is launching one of its biggest releases, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, with the new systems. Black Flag already came out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on Oct. 29, just one day before the first half of the 2013-2014 fiscal year ended.
Yves believes that open-world games like Black Flag and Far Cry 3 are important for his company’s future. “Open world games are becoming ever-more popular with gamers,” he said in the financial report. “These creations give gamers the freedom of expression and immersive experiences that are now central to their expectations. This deep-seated market trend — which Ubisoft has fully embraced — is going to move up another gear when the next-generation consoles arrive.”