Ubisoft: Sales of DS titles drop 67%

During Ubisoft's financial call to investors, CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that new and back-catalog DS games sales dropped 67 percent compared to the same time frame as last year.

The blame was put on DS piracy in Europe and the company does not expect titles for the handheld to pick back up until summer roles around once more.

"Altogether our DS sales are down 67 percent versus last year and this has affected both the back catalog and the new releases," he stated. "It's important to note that we do lots of our DS game sales during the summer which is a period where people go for holidays and buy lots of those games. Because this market is slowing down it has a big impact on the second quarter."

"Entering the second quarter we expect those trends to continue with much lower than expected sales of back catalog and new releases on DS games."

Guillemot said Ubisoft is looking to boost DS sales in the meantime by including extras like figurines and premium packaging to lure customers into a purchase.

"What we are seeing in Europe, especially on the DS, is that the piracy is strong so we are working to put new figurines and new elements in the box that will change that for the future," he said. "But in the short-term it's affecting us. For example in Europe we have the same market share on DS as last year, so it's really the market which is declining.

"Retail, because of that, is less active on the format."

Thanks, GI.biz.