Ubisoft reports 20 per cent rise in Q3 sales

French publisher Ubisoft has announced its consolidated sales figures for the quarter ended December 31st, revealing a 20 per cent rise over the previous year and leaving the company on track to meet its full year targets.

Sales for the third quarter totalled â'¬227.7 million, as compared with last year's Q3 sales of â'¬190.5 million - a respectable rise, although perhaps less than Ubisoft might have hoped for given the quality of its pre-Christmas line up.

For the nine months leading up to the end of 2003, the company reported sales of â'¬356.5 million, a healthy rise of some 30 per cent over the â'¬274 million figure reported in the previous year.

This puts Ubisoft on track to meet its full year sales target of â'¬490 million at the end of March, with an operating income figure of â'¬15 million expected for the full year. This figure will be lifted by the arrival of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow on Xbox, PC and GBA in time for the end of the company's fiscal year.

Interestingly, Europe and North America now account for exactly the same amount of revenues in Ubi's figures - with both territories contributing 48 per cent to the nine-month revenue figure, while an additional 4 per cent came from other territories.