Support NeoGAF

[Quentyn]

Paris, February 12, 2015 – Today, Ubisoft released its sales figures for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2014.

Sales

Sales for the third quarter of 2014-15 came to €809.7 million, up 55.8% (or 49.5% at
constant exchange rates) compared with the €519.7 million recorded for third-quarter 2013-14.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2014-15, sales totaled €1,293.9 million versus €813.0 millionin the corresponding prior-year period, representing an increase of 59.2% (or 58.3% at constant exchange rates).

The third-quarter sales figure was higher than the target of approximately €730 million
announced when Ubisoft released its first-half 2014-15 results. This performance reflects:

-A sharp increase in market share to 12.8% for 2014 (from 9.6% in 2013).

- A very good performance delivered by the two Assassin’s Creed® opuses, Far Cry® 4
and The Crew®, with respective sales of 10 million, 7 million and 2 million units (sellin):

- Far Cry 4 was voted “Best Shooter” at "The Games Awards 2014".

- Assassin’s Creed Unity won the prize for best “Character Animation in a Video
Game” at the Annie Awards.

- To date, The Crew has recorded the best sales for the racing games released in
late 2014.

- A solid showing from Just Dance® with 4 million units sold (sell-in).

- The continued success of Watch Dogs®, with 10 million units sold (sell-in) since its
release. Watch Dogs is the biggest launch ever of a new IP in the EMEA region and the
second largest launch in the United States.

- A 157.0% surge in digital segment revenues to €138.0 million in the third quarter. For
the first nine months of 2014-15, revenues generated by the digital segment came to
€274.1 million, up 120.3% year on year, and representing 21.2% of Ubisoft’s total
sales compared with 15.3% in the same period of 2013-14.

- A robust 25.9% increase in back-catalog sales to €67.1 million in the third quarter. For
the first nine months of the fiscal year, back-catalog sales rose 6.1% to €181.9 million.

Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer, said "In 2014, Ubisoft offered gamers the most
diversified line-up in the industry, with titles such as Assassin’s Creed Unity, Child of Light, Far Cry 4, Just Dance 2015, The Crew, Trials Fusion and Frontier, Valiant Hearts and Watch Dogs.This uniquely varied offering was also recognized for its overall quality. As a result we achieved a third-quarter performance that was well above target and we expect to generate a record level of free cash flow for 2014-15. We are now capitalizing on the investments we have made over the past several years to further develop our creative strengths, boost our marketing impact and extend our digital footprint. Our performance is all the more impressive given that it is wholly the result of Ubisoft’s teams. Each of these successful games was developed by our in-house studios and we own our brands, which means that our destiny is in our own hands and we are internalizing the value created for our shareholders.”

Yves Guillemot concluded by saying "2015-16 should see a return to growth in the consoles market, in a more competitive games environment and with a substantial installed base for both Xbox One and PLAYSTATION 4. Against this backdrop, Ubisoft will be offering an exceptional line-up and we intend to drive player engagement further through high-potential live services for our games across consoles, PC and mobile."

Outlook

Sales for the fourth quarter of 2014-15

Ubisoft expects fourth-quarter 2014-15 sales to amount to approximately €146.0 million, down by approximately 25% compared with the fourth quarter of 2013-14, which saw the release of South ParkTM The Stick of TruthTM.

Full-year 2014-15

Ubisoft has raised its sales and non-IFRS operating income targets for full-year 2014-15. The sales target is now approximately €1,440 million (versus the previous target of at least €1,400 million) and the new non-IFRS operating income target is approximately €165 million (compared with the previous target of at least €150 million). In addition, the Group expects Free Cash Flow generation to reach more than €150 million.
Full-year 2015-16 Ubisoft is standing by its target for non-IFRS operating income to reach at least €200 million.

https://www.ubisoftgroup.com/comsit...8ubisoft q3 fy15 english finaltcm99193920.pdf

 

[Blablurn]

Far Cry 4 deserves those numbers. What a game.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

2m for The Crew... I wonder if they're happy with that. I actually like the game.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

I know MS couldn't have known AC Unity would be so broken, but I'm still salty that they bundled this game and helped make it a massive success.

 

[Darklord]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

 

[BibiMaghoo]

Read as Far Cry 47 million. Was pretty shocked.

 

[rhandino]

- To date, The Crew has recorded the best sales for the racing games released inlate 2014.

Amazing, my brothers love this one =D

 

[Schryver]

They managed to ship 2mil worth of The Crew? WTF

 

[Lalalandia]

Goddammit I hope they don't mistake those Watch Dog's numbers for 'Good Job, more of the same please!' but who am I kidding the only feedback that counts is denominated in $.

 

[udivision]

That AC combo number, heh.

 

[FDC1]

"The continued success of Watch Dogs®, with 10 million units sold (sell-in) since its release. Watch Dogs is the biggest launch ever of a new IP in the EMEA region and the second largest launch in the United States".

What is the largest in US? Destiny?

 

[shadowsdarknes]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

True.

But ACIV also hit PS3,360, and Wii U.
And the game wasn't a broken turd at launch.

So its impressive that Unity did so well.

 

[Morts]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

To be fair each AC game this year was on half as many different consoles as last year.

 

[Mr.Fletcher]

Excited to see where they take Watch Dogs. It had problems but it has a lot of potential.

 

[Vintage]

imo 2mil for Crew is amazing knowing how the game was shat on and got basically a stealth release.

 

[Servbot24]

Not to be a dick, but I just can't imagine what kind of person runs right past Forza and Driveclub to grab a copy of The Crew.

 

[bombshell]

"The continued success of Watch Dogs®, with 10 million units sold (sell-in) since its release. Watch Dogs is the biggest launch ever of a new IP in the EMEA region and the second largest launch in the United States".

What is the largest in US? Destiny?

Yes.

 

[Schryver]

The AC numbers don't include bundles right? And Driveclub am cry

 

[skLaFarebear]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

Black Flag was on every single console, including the Wii U.

Unity and rogue were both limited to one generation. Though sales are still probably down either way though because well, the game isn't as good as Black Flag.

 

[Setsuna]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

11 million in 3 months

 

[Ascenion]

Curious as to the split between Unity and Rouge. I know the X1 bundle pushed a lot of units but still word of mouth is bad where I am. (Anecdotal but still).

 

[Koh]

I'm disappointed at how well broken games continue to sell. I guess it's not a big deal to the mainstream buyers.

 

[SFenton]

Crew did better than Isolation, in a year that Forza and DriveClub already owned.

what.

 

[Acquiescence]

I wonder when they'll announce the inevitable Watch Dogs 2. Knowing Ubisoft, it'll be sooner than expected.

 

[The_Dama]

I just want Rainbow Six to be good.

 

[Crossing Eden]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

Both were exclusive to a generation of platforms compared to AC4 being released on everything.

Goddammit I hope they don't mistake those Watch Dog's numbers for 'Good Job, more of the same please!' but who am I kidding the only feedback that counts is denominated in $.

Creative Director stated that WD2 would have some major changes. I really didn't expect The Crew to sell so well.

 

[BrokenIcarus]

10 millions is Rogue and Unity combined?

 

[Elginer]

Not to be a dick, but I just can't imagine what kind of person runs right past Forza and Driveclub to grab a copy of The Crew.

I work at a GameStop and have seen this happen several times. I'm not even joking. It's sad really.

 

[hydruxo]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

It has more to do with Black Flag being cross-gen. Unity had less potential to sell that much when it was only on a handful of platforms.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

[Well deserved, Far Cry 4 was great and even if the bugs and the downgrade I still had fun with AC:U and Watch Dogs and it's all that matters to me.

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

Not really, it's 2 games but they have the same number of platform that Black Flag alone had.

 

[Sami+]

Disappointed the AC sales are so high tbh. Unity doesn't deserve it.

 

[Led_Zeppelin]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

I HOPE that the fiasco that was AC Unity launch has taught people to don't buy Ubisoft game at release anymore. Even less when It is becoming more common with Ubisoft games (and the industry in general with the exception of Nintendo) Then again I don't think the average Joe cares and we will have to get used to this "pay to beta test our games during the first weeks and get some Free DLC!"

 

[Nirolak]

AC went from selling 11 million to selling 10 million across two different games. That's a pretty serious slump in ONE year.

They had a split audience though and the other one was made in Sofia, so it's not exactly a giant cost addition.

 

[John Harker]

Not to be a dick, but I just can't imagine what kind of person runs right past Forza and Driveclub to grab a copy of The Crew.

open world social connectivity are the two biggest trends in console gaming now.
And that's how The Crew was sold. It's one of those interesting cases where graphics in the genre, for the mainstream, isn't the biggest selling point, which is primarily how DC was marketed, for example.

Ubisoft has been transitioning all of their games to that model over the years, and it's evidently paying off (For now)

 

[I H8 Memes]

I dont understand what anyone likes about any of these games. Ubisofts AAA games are completely soulless. They feel like they were made on a AAA videogame assembly line. Which they pretty much were.

 

[dex3108]

I wonder when they'll announce the inevitable Watch Dogs 2. Knowing Ubisoft, it'll be sooner than expected.

E3 2016 is my guess and 2017 will be release year. And there is chance that announcement and release will be same year.

 

[Penguin]

Am I wrong in thinking that Watch_Dog numbers are weak.. didn't it launch close to 8 million so it only sold about 2 million for the reminding 6 months of the year?

 

[nelchaar]

How the hell did The Crew ship 2 mill, and was the best selling racing game in Late 2014 with DriveClub and Forza Horizon 2 out? It even has the worst metacritic score by far compared to both games.

People what are you buying, and why.

 

[DarthWalden]

AC actually ended up being a pretty good game I thought but the negative publicity took away from that.

 

[Chobel]

2m for The Crew... I wonder if they're happy with that. I actually like the game.

I think they are, they expected it to sell 2 million in the first year.
Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...-6-million-the-crew-2-million-first-year.aspx

 

[Lalalandia]

Creative Director stated that WD2 would have some major changes. I really didn't expect The Crew to sell so well.

Hadn't seen that, thanks for the update, hacking is a game mechanic with a lot of potential I hope they get it right next time

 

[Adam M]

I still don't have the watch_dogs because most of you says it's not good and has a meh story...
So I guess I wait for some crazy price drop or maybe not

 

[Sami+]

Am I wrong in thinking that Watch_Dog numbers are weak.. didn't it launch close to 8 million so it only sold about 2 million for the reminding 6 months of the year?

That's normal. Game sales are notorious for being extremely front loaded.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

Goddammit I hope they don't mistake those Watch Dog's numbers for 'Good Job, more of the same please!' but who am I kidding the only feedback that counts is denominated in $.

Exactly, U-B-I softo still getting paid regardless of backlash.

 

[SFenton]

I HOPE that the fiasco that was AC Unity launch has taught people to don't buy Ubisoft game at release anymore. Even less when It is becoming more common with Ubisoft games (and the industry in general with the exception of Nintendo) Then again I don't think the average Joe cares and we will have to get used to this "pay to beta test our games during the first weeks and get some Free DLC!"

People outcried after Rayman went multiplat, saying how terrible Ubi was.
People outcried after Watch Dogs, saying Ubi were all liars.
People outcried over Unity, saying Ubi didn't know how to make a game.
People outcried over massive DLC transfer issues with Rocksmith, saying Ubi didn't know what they were doing.
People outcried over The Crew, saying it was too microtransactiony.

Yet all these games have sold moderately to very well. I don't think people are going to stop buying in.

We will see this exact same thing with [at least] The Division. And I'd say there's a shot we see some backlash aimed at Rainbow Six as well.

 

[Supermanisdead]

Not to be a dick, but I just can't imagine what kind of person runs right past Forza and Driveclub to grab a copy of The Crew.

Really? You wonder who would buy The Crew over Driveclub?

 

[1st Course]

To date, The Crew has recorded the best sales for the racing games released in
late 2014.

wtf

 

[Floridian]

How the hell did The Crew ship 2 mill, and was the best selling racing game in Late 2014 with DriveClub and Forza Horizon 2 out? It even has the worst metacritic score by far compared to both games.

People what are you buying, and why.

Ubisoft is popular, and metacritic with racing games doesn't really matter.

 

[Nirolak]

How the hell did The Crew ship 2 mill, and was the best selling racing game in Late 2014 with DriveClub and Forza Horizon 2 out? It even has the worst metacritic score by far compared to both games.

People what are you buying, and why.

I imagine a lot of people who have some interest in racing aren't actually interested in simulation or simcade type mechanics.

There's a reason Mario Kart sells so well.

Am I wrong in thinking that Watch_Dog numbers are weak.. didn't it launch close to 8 million so it only sold about 2 million for the reminding 6 months of the year?

It shipped 8 million at the start. It presumably took a while to get through the stock.

That said, it's one of the best selling $60 retail games of all time and easily one of the best selling new IPs ever.

 

[SFenton]

To date, The Crew has recorded the best sales for the racing games released in
late 2014.

wtf

Sweet Jesus that's even worse.

why.