It's time for another installment of "Sales Go Up, Profit Goes Down," the completely perplexing economic phenomenon that's been taking the gaming industry by storm as of late. Today's contestant is Ubisoft, who in April reported a 14 percent annual sales increase over the past fiscal year, from €928.3 million to €1.06 billion, yet recently revealed it had experienced a 37 percent (or €31 million) decrease in net profit during FY 2008.

This might sound bad, but Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during a recent investor conference call he was pleased his company could, "offer superior quality games, while maintaining a high level of profitability." Oh, let's not forget the company's projected €1.1 billion sales target for the next fiscal year. With the amount of stuff the developer is working on, figures that huge wouldn't surprise us.

The signs are so clear that Apple wants a bigger slice of the gaming pie, you probably don't need us offering our own cockamamie theories (iPhun!). But maybe Yves Guillemot will be enough to convince you. During an earnings call yesterday, the Ubisoft boss said "There's also a new entrant in the business. [That entrant is] Apple, with the iPhone. And we don't think they will stop there."

Reading the rest of the context on Kotaku, it certainly sounds like Guillemot is thinking that Apple's working on new hardware. So, we've gotta ask: Do you have room in your heart for another box?

During yesterday's financial results conference call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot mentioned that his company had already begun preparing for the next set of consoles. Does this mean that Ubisoft has been shown the plans of the hardware developers? Probably not! It's preparing with money.

"We need to get ready for the future generation of consoles," Guillemot told investors. "In the next few years, there will be new home and handheld consoles, and if you don't invest... you will not be able to cope with both [the existing and new generation consoles]."

We can only imagine how difficult it must be for Ubisoft to predict how the next generation will look. Right now, judging by the current generation, the company doesn't know what kind of media games will be stored on, whether there will be any media, or even how many screens its handheld games will occupy. It doesn't know how many years into the PS3's "ten-year plan" Sony will introduce the PS4, and there's basically no predicting what Nintendo's next device will look like, nor whether it will be more appropriate to put Tom Clancy sequels or Petz sequels on it.

Developer Michel Ancel allegedly told All-Gamers.fr that Beyond Good & Evil 2 would "be bigger, more immersive and include more investigations," directly challenging Cliffy B Young Clifford for the "Greatest Self-Promoter" award. In a video interview conducted last week, Ancel (again, allegedly -- all this stuff's in French!) talked about the current development process for BG&E2 (still in pre-production), the return of the first game's characters ("lots" will be returning), and the problems his development team had with the first game (PS2 "didn't live up to their expectations").

Confirming what we've heard before about the sequel, Ancel also apparently notes that the gameplay will be different this time around, as the team's looking for ways to distinguish it from the original. Though he didn't go into more detail (at least, as far as we know) regarding controls, we can't help but worry after what Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said last year. Interestingly, during the interview, the developer remained cagey regarding the possibility of a Wii version, though he apparently didn't deny the possibility of a port in the future.

French-speaking Joystiq readers should feel free to confirm or deny Mr. Ancel's interview statements in the comment section below.

[Via Gamezine.co.uk. Thanks, Mr. V!]

In one of the least surprising stories you're likely to read today, publishers seem to agree that their lives would be a lot better if Sony could knock a couple hundred bones off the price of the PS3. That's the word from Bloomberg today, who nabbed quotes from the likes of EA Sports' Peter Moore, who admitted, "Sony obviously still has a ways to go with their pricing," and Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot, who added, "Anytime a console manufacturer reduces the price, software publishers benefit."

We'd love to make a snide comment here about EA and Ubisoft having nothing to lose from a PS3 price cut, but SCEA marketing boss Peter Dille beat us to it, commenting, "Everybody in the development community would love for the PS3 to be free, so they could just sell razor blades."

We can empathize with both sides, but it does seem to us that Sony needs to do something big to get back in the game. What do you think?

[Via CVG]

While prudent citizens consider the impending ramifications of global warming, an economic downturn and waning natural resources, Joystiq's eye remains fixed on the most important facet of the future: the video games. Well, that and the hope that medical science will grant us that second eye implant so people can stop calling us "cyclops" behind our backs. Yes, backs. The editorial "we" has left us hideously deformed.

Thankfully, Ubisoft's vision of the future isn't mired in pathetic body image issues. After discussing his company's third quarter financial results in a conference call yesterday, Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot expressed a belief that the next generation of consoles would "probably" arrive by 2011 or 2012 (and Crytek seems to agree). According to GI.biz, Guillemot noted, "We have to be ready for that, we are already hiring people and buying some technology and looking at some brands as well."

Guillemot reportedly expressed interest in mergers and acquisitions as well, saying, "We want to take advantage of a company that could bring more technology to us, or new brands." Okay, we think we've got this checklist for the future: More technology; new brands. And eye implants.

Ubisoft has stopped short of saying HEY GUYS RED STEEL 2 IS TOTALLY COMING, but we can be reasonably certain it's on the way.

Previously, the game's producer has talked openly about the sequel to Ubisoft's Wii launch slash-a-thon, and now it seems Ubi CEO Yves Guillemots has really given the game away, with a careless slip of Gallic tongue.

Speaking at a conference call earlier today, Guillemots announced that "We have lots of products coming for the Wii next [fiscal] year. We have Red Steel --," before halting himself mid-sentence and apologizing. Whoops! Call us wild rumor-mongers if you like, but it's safe to assume that the next word out of Guillemot's mouth would have been "2."

Ubisoft looks to be making good on Yves Guillemot's interest in joining the rhythm game genre. Following comments made by Ubi's chief exec last September regarding a pair of mysterious music-based games in the works, the company has posted a job opening seeking someone to "help guide the creation of an exciting new cross-platform music based game."

Nothing else is known at this time, so feel free to speculate. Whatever the studio has up its sleeves, however, we sincerely hope there are peripherals involved. After all, what else are we to fill our living rooms with if not more fake plastic instruments?

[Via superannuation]

During an interview with GameDaily, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that the Wii would be getting more consideration in the future of the Tom Clancy series of games and "will appear at one point" on the Wii. The issue so far? Well, Ubisoft put time in on "engines that were created for the next-generation consoles" and had to "re-engineer a certain number of engines to be sure we could use the quality of the machine."

Guillemot went on to say the company's attempt to create "good enough products [on Wii] or products better than Nintendo's" just "takes time." That's the reason why we haven't seen much love on the Wii, but he assures us that we will "see more and more in the future." Sounds good to us, so can we get noticed when you finally start talking about Splinter Cell again?

Unless he was cryptically teasing the appearance of a special-edition Wii branded with the author's face, we think Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot recently suggested that the company's Tom Clancy franchise would be gracing the Wii in the future. "Tom Clancy will appear at one point," Guillemot told GameDaily in an interview. "We need to make sure they [look good]."

An integral part of making them look good, of course, lies in Ubisoft's engine technology, which first needs to be adapted for Nintendo's odd-one-out hardware. "We have engines that were created for the next-generation consoles," explained the Ubi boss. "We had to re-engineer a certain number of engines to be sure we could use the quality of the machine. Even without the [high-end] graphics, the experience can still be very interesting."

And there you have it. Tom Clancy's Very Interesting Experience Without The Graphics confirmed for release in, uh, "the future."

And he's not just saying that to make up for years of financial inequity and utterly perverse release schedules. "First, our money - the pound or the euro - is very strong and because of that the turnover from those countries is heavier than they used to be," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot tells GamesIndustry.biz. "So for Ubisoft turnover Europe is actually more important than the US now, and by more than 5 per cent. It's become a very strong market for us."

Guillemot suspects that's largely to blame on all the exercise Europeans have been getting with new accessories and more accessible games, the likes of which even include politically charged real-time strategy scuffle Tom Clancy's EndWar. "A game like EndWar, for example, which you can control by voice - it's totally changing the industry because it gives you the opportunity to command what's happening, and to have a quick answer to the orders you give."

While Ubi and Yu-rop laugh all the way to the bank, remind yourself that EndWar totally changes the industry on October 14th on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Did the long-awaited dream suddenly become an inescapable nightmare? Speaking to Next Generation, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot describes the recently announced Beyond Good & Evil sequel as a game done "for the new generation that's come into videogames." That's not you or me, folks, that's the person over there doing yoga on a Wii balance board. Yves notes that the game will be made "more accessible," a supposed improvement from a title that was "probably a little too difficult for the general gamers at that time."

Says Guillemot: "We had a different audience at that time. We had more core gamers than casual gamers than we have today." Let's not be dense about this -- Beyond Good & Evil was a beloved, abysmal commercial failure that caused the industry to bust a gut whenever a continuation was mentioned. We can hardly begrudge Ubisoft for wanting loads of people to actually buy it this time around. However, it's is a very fine line to walk, and the desires of core and casual gamers don't necessarily agree. Guillemot himself admits that "so many customers were extremely happy with the game," and we can only hope that he doesn't see Fit to pull their pants down just because it'll make the casuals giggle.

For now, we'll have to trust in series (OMG it's a series now!) creator, Michel Ancel, being able to deliver the game as he envisions it. Heck, the man's paid his dues in Rabbids by now, hasn't he? Ubisoft owes him.

Seems that talking up about the PlayStation 3's development process is in style -- first IO Interactive said how fun it was, now Ubisoft's own Yves Guillemot is claiming that it's no harder than programming a 360 title. Perhaps that's stretching it a little. Ubisoft is saying that, from a development standpoint, the two consoles can yield them equal results, working on the respective strengths of each console. In addition, he feels the rest of the year will be excellent for the PS3, with the price cut and lineup of good games.

As for the rumor that it costs a lot more to work on the PS3, well, it's still true, but not a major hike in price due to Ubisoft's complete cross-platform engine thingy. "What we do now is create for the PS3 and 360 at the same time, and it doesn't cost more than 10 per cent extra to develop for the other machine ... Before it was costing us more, about 20 per cent, just because it was difficult to learn the PS3 hardware, but now our engines are done and we can easily develop for both machines." Good stuff, we guess. Hopefully this means less delays for PS3 versions of games as well as equivalent gaming experiences.