Ubisoft estimates Q1 sales up 93% on 2009

Ubisoft's projected sales for its first financial quarter of this year are €160 million, a 93 per cent leap from last year's €89m.

The estimate exceeds Ubisoft's own hopes of raising €145 million. The French publisher prescribed the rise to Splinter Cell: Conviction's 1.9 million sales, Assassin's Creed 2 continuing to shift a healthy number of units, and help from Just Dance and Avatar.

However, some €9 million, the bulk of the increase over the previous projection, steams purely from what the publisher calls a "favourable" exchange rate.

Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer of Ubisoft, said "Our sales performance this quarter reflects the success of several titles and attests to the quality of our game catalog. It’s proof of Ubisoft’s ability to make its mark in an ever demanding video games sector."

While the €83m estimated sales for the second quarter are on a par with 2009's results, Guillemot was optimistic about the rest of the year for Ubisoft, citing that interest in new Assassin's Creed, Driver and Ghost Recon games had pushed up pre-orders 20 per cent from the same time last year. He also expected strong performance from Ubisoft's upcoming casual titles.

"Thanks to the investments made, we will offer a rich line-up of both online games and new titles for the upcoming hardware launches this fiscal year," he said.

However, the new Driver game has been rescheduled from the third to fourth quarter, with Ubisoft citing an overly-competitive Christmas market. Similar statements were made by a number of publishers about key franchises last year, apparently stemming from concern about Call of Duty's dominance.

While the €160m is merely an estimate, final results will be announced at the end of next week.