Ubisoft’s love of open-world games is bringing in plenty of cash.
The French publisher today reported a record third quarter for the fiscal year 2014-’15, with sales reaching $921.8 million. That’s up 55.8 percent from the same period in 2013-’14. It’s also above the company’s $831M target for the quarter.
Ubisoft attributes the success to strong sales from software, including the two new Assassin’s Creed games, Unity and Rogue, which sold 10 million total copies. Far Cry 4 also performed strongly with 7 million sold.
Those are established franchises, but a new intellectual property, Watch Dogs, also sold 10 million copies. Although it came out before the third quarter, it continued to sell well through the holiday season. Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed Unity and Rogue, and Far Cry 4 are all action-based open-world games.
“In 2014, Ubisoft offered gamers the most diversified line-up in the industry, with titles such as Assassin’s Creed Unity, Child of Light, Far Cry 4, Just Dance 2015, The Crew, Trials Fusion and Frontier, Valiant Hearts, and Watch Dogs,” Ubisoft chief executive officer Yves Guillemot said in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “This uniquely varied offering was also recognized for its overall quality. As a result we achieved a third-quarter performance that was well above target and we expect to generate a record level of free cash flow for fiscal-year 2014-’15”
Ubisoft is expecting fourth quarter sales to reach $166 million. That is down 25 percent compared to the same period last year, when the publisher released South Park: The Stick of Truth. Ubisoft doesn’t have any similarly anticipated releases scheduled for this period.