Ubisoft Posts Declining Profits

Ubisoft, the France-based publisher, announced that it obtained profits of 95.78 million dollars for the fiscal year that ended on March 31. The good news is that profit was registered but the bad news is that there's a drop of 37% in its value. Sales actually went up for the same period by about 14%, reaching 1.47 billion dollars.

The biggest increase for Ubisoft was in the performance of its casual games business, as their contribution to sales rose from 25.4 to 31.9%.

Ubisoft stated that “Casual games generate lower gross margins, require less R&D expenditure and have higher marketing costs. The distribution business has low gross margins but requires no R&D expenditure and only limited marketing costs.” One of the problems that the company is facing is the constant price pressure on its Nintendo DS releases.

The publisher is saying that it expects to see sales of about 1,52 billion dollars for 2009, with profits also seeing a slight increase. Chief Executive Officer Yves Guillemot has stated that his company has also had the misfortune to compare its results with some of the best it has seen, those for the fiscal year that ended on March 31 2008, in which it released titles like Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Assassin's Creed.

For 2009, Ubisoft is planning on launching some pretty interesting games. A new Shaun White title, called World Stage, is set to arrive sometime in the fall, building up on the success of the original game that was out in November 2008. Assassin's Creed 2, which will take place in Venice, has also been confirmed as coming in time for Christmas. And the company is also set to release the first standalone title featuring the Rabbids, in which they aim to build a tower to the Moon.