14 DAY TRIAL // Following yesterday's announcement that Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 broke the 2 million sales barrier in less than two weeks since release, Ubisoft shares have jumped in trading in Paris by around 10%. Investors seemed very eager to capitalize on the prospect of higher than expected profits in 2008 and especially the third and fourth quarters.
The company is expected to get some 1,45 billion dollars in revenue at the end of the year, up from previous projections that were well below 1 billion. Shares have hit the biggest value in more than a month at around 58 euros and are expected to again rise in trading during today's session. The trend is very positive for the French games publisher than last year, as it managed to get a 49% increase in its stock value while rival publisher Electronic Arts dipped into a one percent share slump.
Michael Patcher, who is Wedbush Morgan's industry analyst for the videogame market, also expressed a lot of confidence regarding Ubisoft and their financial results, commenting that "we [Wedbush Morgan] think that there is significant room for upside."
Another development coming from Ubisoft should also spell good news for investors. After launching its Dark Messiah of Might and Magic title simultaneously in retail stores and on Steam, Ubisoft has decided to add other titles to the digital distribution service from Valve. The upcoming PC port Assassin's Creed will be on Steam, together with most if not all of the Heroes of Might and Magic games and other classics, like IL-2 Sturmovik or Far Cry.
Jason Holtman, who is Valve's business development director, declared that: "Ubisoft will be delivering the largest library of titles available from any single publisher or developer to Steam. The incredible selection of high quality games from Ubisoft expands the range of genres offered to the millions of PC gamers logging on to Steam every day."
Digital distribution allows lower prices for games and, therefore, a wider appeal and could help Ubisoft post even better than expected financial numbers in the future.