Ubisoft Q4 and full-year FY13: Assassin’s Creed 3 ships 12.5 million
Ubisoft has announced its full-year results for fiscal year 2012-13 with sales totaling €1.26 billion, which is up 18.4% compared to €1.0 billion year-over-year.
Sales for Q4 of the firm's fiscal year came in at €175 million versus €161 million year-over-year, up 8.7%.
The firm reported €928 million in revenue generated from games for core gamers, up 60% year on year and was fueled by record-breaking sales for Assassin’s Creed 3, which between shipped (sell-in) units and digital sales hit over 12.5 million.
Far Cry 3 hit 6 million shipped (sell-in)and digital units sold and the firm's free-to-play game The Settlers Online also contributed to the firm's banner sales.
Ubisoft said €328 million in revenue canme from casual games, representing a year-on-year contraction of 32% and accounting for 26% of total sales versus 46% in 2011-12.
Just Dance 4 moved 8.5 million units despite a revenue decline of just 14% in value terms.
Online/digital sales leaped 86% to €148 million which represented 11.7% of the Group’s total sales. In 2012-13, back-catalog sales dipped slightly by 4% to €206 million, thanks to sharp growth in online and digital back-catalog sales that partly offset the decrease for the retail back catalog.
"Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance have joined the prestigious club of the 20 best-selling brands for the current generation of consoles, ranking fifth and twelfth respectively. This performance was achieved thanks to high quality levels and regular releases –two key characteristics found in each of the highest-performing brands in this console cycle," said company president Yves Guillemot.
"Franchises are underpinned by recognized creative know-how and premier development capacity. With more than 7,000 developers, Ubisoft has the necessary caliber to offer its fans
exceptionally rich and immersive gaming experiences on a regular basis.
"A new console cycle is beginning and it will offer players an unrivalled experience. They will see a major leap in quality with an extraordinary level of immersion as well as the incorporation of all of the innovations developed in recent years in online and social games, giving players the opportunity to create their own experiences and share them within their communities.
"In order to reap the full benefit of the strong growth expected from the launch of these new consoles, we are integrating into our next blockbusters all of the expertise we have built up over recent years through our online games such as Settlers Online, Trackmania, Howrse and Trials Evolution, as well as our online services platform Uplay which offers us a strategic link with players.
"Our experience in connected gaming, the quality of our brands and our ability to regularly release major titles, will be vital strengths for capturing new market share and will serve as key growth drivers for the coming years.”
Sales for the firm during Q4 were broken down by the following percentages per region: Europe 45%, North America 45%, Rest of world 10%.
Breakdown of sales by platform for Q4 are as follows: Nintendo DS 0%, Nintendo 3DS 2%, PC 20%, PS3 33%, PSP, 1%, Wii 14%, Xbox 360 27%, Vita 1%, Wii U 1%, other formats 3%.
A breakdown of sales by platform for the full year were: Nintendo DS 1%, Nintendo 3DS, 1%, PC 9%, PS3, 30%, PSP 0%, Wii 15%, Xbox 360 34%, Vita 2%, Wii U 4%, and other formats 4%.