14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft has every reason to be happy with how the company is doing, since it has recorded a 36% boost in income for the year 2008. The huge profits recorded by the company should mostly be attributed to their hit title Assassin's Creed which sold, according to them, over 6 million copies since its launch in November 2007.
Ubisoft's full-year sales for its 2007-2008 fiscal year totaled ?928 million, or roughly $1.45 billion, a 36.4% increase over last year's figure of ?680 million / $1.02 billion. Fourth quarter sales were up 10% also, clocking in at ?217 million / $340.5 million.
Following these sales figures, Ubisoft has raised its 2008-2009 operating profit forecast by 1 percent, to at least 12% from 11%, which means that fiscal year sales forecasts remain at around ?1 billion. Ubisoft declared that the profit guidance increase is related to savings on royalties after the publisher acquired Tom Clancy's name for videogames and spin-off products: "Ubisoft's games line-up is particularly strong, with no fewer than seven existing franchises, five new releases and new brands in the casual segment," said CEO Yves Guillemot.
But not only Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed had impressive sales - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, released for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 also sold over 2 million copies since its launch in March. The company also plans to release Haze during their first quarter of the current fiscal year, as well as bestsellers Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for PCs and several casual games for Nintendo platforms.
Of course, since profits are bigger than expected, Ubisoft wants to keep up to the tempo and plans to hire 900 new workers by the end of March next year, opening development studios in Singapore, India, and China, in addition to expanding its already established development studios.