First half profits top EUR 200m for Ubisoft
Casual and Rabbids titles selling well, but Tom Clancy's EndWar off to slow start
Ubisoft has revealed that its gross profit for the first half of the year ended September 30 was EUR 201.6 million, up on the EUR 167.6 million for the same period last year.
As announced in October, sales for Ubisoft were up for the six months, to EUR 344.5 million.
Net income was down to EUR 24 million compared to the EUR 30.6 million last year, while operating income rose from EUR 12.5 million to 24.7 million.
"Our strong first-half growth fuelled a sharp rise in profitability. Based on our initial sales figures for the third fiscal quarter and thanks to the diversity of our game line-up, we are confident that we will be able to achieve the targets that we recently raised for full-year 2008-09, despite a highly competitive environment marked by the launch of numerous high-quality games," commented Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft.
"In addition, consoles are continuing to record robust sales levels, which represents a very positive sign for the videogames industry for 2009."
The company noted "intense competition" in the fiscal third quarter, but its Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party and casual games are outperforming expectations despite the amount of product on shelves.
The latest release in the Tom Clancy franchise, EndWar, has suffered a slow start to sales, said the company, while Shaun White Snowboarding has got off to a "solid" performance in the US, but slower sales in Europe.
Ubisoft is also confident of the performance of the latest Prince of Persia game, due for release at the end of next week.