Last generation, it was like Ubisoft could do no wrong, developing and publishing an extensive catalog of commercial and critical hits. Do we even need to name-drop? (Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Beyond Good & Evil, Far Cry, Brothers in Arms, Rainbow Six 3, and so on.) As reported yesterday, the company has continued to grow as an industry juggernaut with sales up 14 percent to nearly $1.4 billion in the last fiscal year (ending March 31, 2009), but it's done so by splitting its focus.
Ubisoft has continued to succeed as a business because it has targeted the done been had emerged casual market, dreaming up more Imagine themes and My Coach scenarios, and unleashing more Petz and darned Rabbids games than we care to recount. Perhaps not surprisingly then, 47 percent of Ubisoft's sales were attributed to the DS (29 percent) and Wii (18 percent) platforms during the last fiscal year, up a combined 11 percent from the 2007-08 fiscal year. By comparison, combined sales of Ubisoft's PS3 and Xbox 360 games were down 7 percent -- and so was production. (The full sales breakdown by platform is posted after the break.)
This is not to suggest that Ubisoft has been wrong to cut resources on big budget, dare we label "hardcore" titles. Indeed, a number of those excellent games of yester-generation have aged into tired franchises. In fact, while Ubisoft may be quickly cashing out its street cred around these parts, the company is generating precious revenue, which can be conceivably recycled into quality IP that we (you know, the 'core) want to consume. Who do you think's paying for the Assassin's Creeds and new Princes of Persia? Yeah, that dude up there.
Source - Ubisoft reports full year 2008-09 sales, pg. 5/6 [PDF]
