Joystiq

As is normal this time of year, companies have begun shuffling papers in the mad scramble to report their quarterly earnings to shareholders and the world at large. The latest to do so is Ubisoft, which today announced that it has been making money hand-over-fist lately with total second quarter sales of $172.89 million, a hair over a 25 percent increase from the same time last year. Much of this success was laid at the feet of such releases as GRAW 2, as well as Jam Sessions, Blazing Angels 2, and movie tie-in Surf's Up.

Strong sales of back catalog titles also helped to contribute to the company's financial prosperity, while officials note that some 75 percent of Ubi's sales during the first half of the year came from games for the newer crop of consoles, compared to just 40 percent last year. If we had to venture a guess, this might mean that the firm could begin to inch away from the safety net of the PS2 in order to devote more effort toward projects aimed at the so-called next-gen platforms in the coming months and into the new year. Ubi also expects third quarter sales to climb a modest 6 percent to around $449.24 million.

However, all this money seems to have caused the company to rethink its upcoming release schedule, and as such it has chosen to "postpone" the release of four unannounced titles until to sometime next year. Additionally, Gamasutra reports that the earlier announced Wii exclusive Nitrobike from Excitebike 64 devs Left Field has also been pushed out from this holiday's release window into a more nebulous someday.

Still, it's hard to get too broken up about this given that the rest of the delayed projects remain unknown. Ubi still has a good deal of confirmed releases on the horizon, with highlights including the highly anticipated Assassin's Creed and Haze, as well as Beowulf and the sequel to Rayman Raving Rabbids. If Ubisoft has its way, it will be swimming in its money bin by the close of the current fiscal year, with total yearly sales of €825 million ($1.17 billion) anticipated by the firm.

[Via press release]