Ubisoft, maker of the Tom Clancy line of games, didn't meet their primary business objective; they failed to make a profit in the first six months of this year. However, Ubisoft is moving in the right direction.
Ubisoft ate a €35.5 million loss (that fruit doesn't taste any good, we'll tell you) in the first half of the fiscal year on sales of €172.1 million. The bright side is the loss is far less than the €43.7 million last year and the sales are up 13%. Ubisoft also more than doubled their expected Xbox Live sales to €3 million -- up from an expected €1.3 million -- thanks to brisk sales of the Advanced Warfighter map pack. To further help Ubisoft's outlooks, major hitters like Advanced Warfighter 2, Assassin's Creed and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway are launching during the current fiscal year.
It is good to see Ubi's fortunes beginning to turn around; they make a number of quality games that we would not want to lose. Hopefully Ubisoft can turn their fortunes around and make their stock more valuable; EA owns 20% of Ubisoft and if they continue to slide, EA could buy them outright. We're not sure about you guys, but we'd rather not see EA Presents Assassin's Creed on our box.
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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Let's see ...
Have you played Splinter Cell : Double Agent for the PC ? It's nothing but a shitty port with so many bugs, theres no way in hell it was play tested in Shanghai .. nothing but a cut and paste job from the 360. I've loved every SP game until now, this is just downright horrid. I should've checked the forums before buying this game.
Rainbow Six : Lockdown suffered the same fate, and we had to wait MONTHS for a single patch. Which in my opinion, is bullshit.
Even the new Rainbow Six : Vegas has it's fair share of problems on the 360.
Ubisoft is starting to get pretty good at delivering an Alpha or Beta product at retail ... which is bullshit. Obviously the games need more time to be worked on, but they've already spent so much money on them, they need to quickly turn a profit. It's just shitty business practices.
Before you ever buy another Ubisoft game at launch, I highly guarantee that you have a look at the games forum before you by ... that way you know what kind of a product you're buying from them (alpha or beta).
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Their biggest hitters were Splinter Cell for 360, GRAW for 360, and now Rainbow Six for the... yep you guessed it, 360.
Microsoft is the reason why Ubisoft isn't down the river without a paddle.
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From GameFaqs:
Rayman 79%, Red Steel 65.5%,
Splinter Cell:Double Agent 61%, Monster 4X4 World Circuit 51%, GT Pro Series 45.2%, Open Season 39%.
Everyone criticized Rare after the 360 launch for Kameo and PDZ, both in my eyes underrated games. Kameo was short but beautiful, and PDZ's single player sucked but has a very deep multiplayer. While Ubisoft get's let off the hook for a launch with 6 games including; 1 decent title, 2 passable ones, and 3 crappy games. And don't expect Far Cry, and Blazing Angels to be that good. Don't get me wrong I like Ubisoft(can't wait till Assassin's Creed) and I like my Wii. They just don't seem to mix that well.
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I, for one, have enjoyed every single Ubisoft game on the 360 to date. Were they perfect? no. Did they have some bugs? yep. But they were all still amazing games.
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That being said, Ubisoft still puts out some awesome games. GRAW is still one of the best 360 games to date and Rainbow Six Vegas, though I was unimpressed at first, is really growing on me. Raving Rabbids is a ton of fun and Red Steel is underrated (believe me - it takes a lot of patience but it's absolutely worth it if you play through the game for more than a couple of hours and get used to the controls).
I'm still rooting for the Ubi.
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maybe u should go back and get another copy of rainbowsix vegas or something b/c its easily one of the best games this year and im loving it. and as for the problems, did u not hear of the forthcoming patch? oh and it seems u have a 360 obviously so y play double agent on the pc? im also loving it on my 360 :D
u keep bashing these great games w/ descriptions as "horrid" and such, but what are u really talking about? these are some of the best titles in quite a while!
half of the best games i play lately are ubi games! graw, double agent, r6 vegas, etc. if ur not playing these, what else are you playing besides gears of war?
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Yes, I'm glad they're gonna patch R6:V, but that still doesn't help the broken PC versions of SP:DA or R6:LD.
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I'm surprised noone is noticeing though the number 2 biggest pub though, THQ... who's been running on a string of hits lately. Company Of Heroes, Titan Quest, Saint's Row and Destroy All Humans 2.
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http://finance.google.com/finance?q=ubi&hl=en
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Damn. :\
Here's hoping they don't slide any further.
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They must just be blowing money left and right on hugely ambitious projects...oh...wait a sec. They are. I mean, to be fair, their big titles are all big budget action games really, while other companies can easily make sales on licenced games like Cars, or on little spinoff franchises or remakes(SquareEnix, Nintendo, etc). I mean, unless Open Season sells a lot (raise your hand if you saw that movie...ok then). I guess if you are gonna play big, you have a to hit a homerun every time, which might not be possible.
I would really like to see a breakdown of what games, on an individual basis, sales/development and advertising costs, have been profitable for them. I am interested to see EXACTLY where they manage to lose all that money.
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So bitch away my friend, you have every right to.
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