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Ubisoft fiscal Q1 sales slide as DS market diminishes
Ubisoft has reported that sales for its fiscal first quarter of 2009-10 (April through June) were down just over 50 percent from the same period a year ago. The publisher posted roughly $118 million (€83 million) in sales last quarter; a far cry from the $240.24 million (€169 million) cash injection from the first quarter of 2008-09. "We are currently experiencing a very sharp slowdown in our sales for Nintendo DS as well as sales of back-catalog titles, in the context of a market that is tougher than anticipated," CEO Yves Guillemot said. During today's conference call, Guillemot repeatedly singled out Prince of Persia and EndWar as the top under-performers of the company's recent back catalog.Unsurprisingly, Ubisoft has revised its second quarter target ... straight downward. As the next three months rest on the performances of a few shaky releases, including the multiplatform adaptation of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (not a particularly promising forecast, indeed), sales expectations have plummeted 54 percent from $184.9 million (€130 million) to just $113.8 million (€80 million).While Ubisoft's apparently failing business of selling kids their imaginations (one idea at a time), along with oodles of equally imagined, yet previously irresistible petz, is troubling for its future outlook -- "games of only good quality are not sufficient anymore," Guillemot noted -- the company insists that Wii sales of, let's call them, not-so-good-quality titles are increasing and expected to compensate for the losses in the DS market soon enough.
Ubisoft's net profit declined 37 percent in past fiscal year
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.
Take-Two reveals declining Q2 financial results
Gaming industry juggernaut Take-Two Interactive recently released its second quarter financial results (among other things), and as one might expect, the outlook isn't quite as rosy as Q2 of last year. With the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, Q2 2008 brought the publisher a net income of $98.2 million, or $1.29 per share -- this year, with no GTA IV to lean on, the company experienced a net loss of $10.1 million, or $0.13 per share. Not disastrous, but not exactly a celebration-worthy fiscal quarter, either.Combined with Q1, the first half of 2009 has brought Take-Two a net loss of $60.5 million -- a harsh contrast to the first half of 2008, when the company raked in a net income of $60.2 million. The report also highlighted Take-Two's top selling products over the past three months -- unsurprisingly, they included The Lost and Damned, Major League Baseball 2K9, Grand Theft Auto IV and GTA: Chinatown Wars. For more delicious, nigh-incomprehensible numerals, you can read the full report here.
Funcom's Q1 2009 report shows solid revenue
Funcom has released a report detailing their financials for the first quarter of 2009. They brought in over US$7 million in revenue for the period, and although this figure is slightly less than the previous quarter (but without the disastrous US$23 million depreciation loss), they are pleased with the stability of their earnings during the economic turbulence of recent times. The report also mentions some positive trends in their flagship game Age of Conan: Longer average subscription periods, demonstrating customer loyalty The number of new customers per month is much higher than Q4 '08 (the introduction of free trials helped here) A solid and stable customer base for the quarter Higher levels of activity in game than in previous periods Not to be left out, The Secret World made it into the report as well, mostly just to say that the recent reveal was well-received, and the project is on track. Anarchy Online only really had a one-line entry in the report, and it was to say that revenues from the game were slowly declining. The casual and free-to-play games that Funcom referred to in their Q4 '08 report are also keeping to their development schedules -- the screenshot above is from a java-based MMO that is currently in the focus-testing and gameplay tweaking stages. For now though, with TSW and the other casual games still on the horizon, the overall success of Q2 '09 will once again hinge on the performance of AoC.
Big franchises boost Capcom's net sales 10%
Capcom's financial report for fiscal year 2008 reveals that the company seems to have found a way to protect itself against the recession: sequels. Net sales for FY 2008 came to 91.8 million yen, up 10.6% from 2007, an increase that Capcom attributes to its massive franchise releases.Following the sales numbers, Capcom names the games that drove the growth. It refers to Resident Evil 5 as a "mega hit with the first shipment of over four million copies worldwide." According to the report, this game and Street Fighter IV "served as the sales growth engine overseas."In Japan, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite continued to sell throughout FY 2008, in high enough numbers that both MHFU and its lower-price re-release get separate mentions in the document. If it does well in North America, it could appear on a third year's financial report!
Nintendo consoles had 62 new million-selling titles in past fiscal year
A recent Nintendo financial statement/press release was chock full of goodies for those patient enough to dig through all the Bob-ombast. First was a mighty impressive sales figure -- over the past fiscal year, 62 games (first and third-party) which have been released on the Wii and DS reached one million copies sold life-to-date. This brings the total number of million-sellers on Nintendo's current batch of systems to 145. That's a large enough number, even when you don't multiply it by one million.Other interesting tidbits came in the release's solemn reflection over the past fiscal year, where Nintendo claims credit for the "Gaming Population Expansion." Also, the company lays out its plans for the future, explaining that it will continue "capitalizing on being the only hardware platform producer with powerful in-house software development teams." Oh, snap! Massive flame war imminent! Joystiq Thermo-Shield, engage!
Nintendo reports fiscal year sales of 1.83 trillion yen
Though we normally reserve the word "trillion" for flippant exaggeration, we believe its use is quite serious in Nintendo's fiscal report, explaining how it fared during the year ended March 31, 2009. In a few words: very well. In a few figures?1.83 trillion yen ($18.55 billion), 555 billion yen ($5.63 billion) and 279 billion yen ($2.83 billion). That would be sales, operating profit and then net profit, all marking increases over last year's results. Indeed, Nintendo states that sales rose by 9.9 percent, with operating profit up 14 percent and net profit up 8.5 percent. During the period, 26 million Wii units are said to have been sold, trumped by an impressive 31 million DS systems -- the combined software units for both platforms totalled 401 million units (almost a 50/50 split!).As for the coming fiscal year, Nintendo predicts to shift another 26 million Wiis (along with 220 million pieces of software), 30 million DS units and a further 180 million units of DS software. The only bad news in all of this is that we're unable to travel back in time and show this information to our past, post-N64 selves.
Ubisoft preparing for next console generation
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.
Ubisoft: full-year sales up 14% in 2008
Ubisoft announced its financial results (PDF link) for fiscal 2008 (which ended on March 31, 2009), and for the most part news (or Newz, if you prefer) is good. Full-year sales for 2008 grew to €1.058 billion, up 14% over last year's €928 million total.The company explained the strong results of its last quarter with "a continued very strong showing" for its Wii lineup, including Raving Rabbids TV Party, Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip, and My Fitness Coach. One million units each of Shaun White (not just limited to the Wii version), Tom Clancy's HAWX and the Petz and Imagine games were shipped to retailers in Q4.Ubisoft's sales target for the 2009 fiscal year is €1.1 billion. It expects the first quarter sales of 2009 to be weaker than 2008's, due to the relative lack of major releases (Q1 2008 included Haze and Assassin's Creed on PC), with growth to occur in the second half of the year.Source (PDF document)
Funcom CFO resigns in wake of $23.3M loss
These are bad times all around in the massively multiplayer online game industry in terms of the economy. The troubles of some companies are still coming to light, as is the case with Funcom. James Lee from GamesIndustry.biz writes that Funcom has reported its Q4 2008 financial results with "an operating loss of USD 23.3 million, caused by a depreciation of USD 22.8 million due to the lagging performance of Age of Conan." In addition, Funcom CFO Olav Sandes has given notice of his resignation. Sandes is not the first high level employee to quit in recent months, but all is not doom and gloom. Funcom's Q4 2008 subscription revenues from Age of Conan have shot up to USD 8.7 million, up from USD 1.2 million year-on-year, Lee reports. Funcom expects a Q1 2009 revenue of between USD 6 million and 8 million, largely comprised of subscription fees for Age of Conan. James Lee's GamesIndustry.biz article has further details on Funcom's financial situation. Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
Iwata: new Western Touch Generations games, Wii SD update still on the way
Following last week's Nintendo financial report, the company has just posted a translation of the investor Q&A session with president Satoru Iwata. Iwata had plenty to say -- there is a very high ratio of A to Q. Talking about the downward revision of sales forecasts, Iwata classified the Japanese market as "???the least robust market in the world today with regard to home console systems," due in part to an "an overall lifestyle shift where many forms of entertainment are enjoyed while on the go or during spare time."Moving on to the worldwide market, Iwata expressed an interest in developing new products to appeal more to Western interests. He revealed that Nintendo is "working on U.S. and Europe-originated Touch Generations products, which may have a smaller demand in Japan than overseas." "One or two" of these new games will be out this year. He also revealed that the hit Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode would be released internationally.Iwata confirmed that the DSi will not sell for the same price as the DS Lite in America and Europe, citing "current foreign currency exchange rates." He did not identify specific prices.The SD storage update, which allows downloaded content to be saved directly to SD, is still on the way in the spring, but Iwata did not date it. He said that the program Nintendo announced for Japan, offering 500 Wii Points to customers who help friends take their Wiis online, would start concurrently with this update.
EA's Q3 financial report shows big sales for Rock Band, FIFA 09
EA has released its financial report for Q3 2008. Even though the company is currently restructuring jettisoning employees (the financial report says 11% of its workforce, up from the previous 10%), its sales highlights are full of enormous, impressive numbers. According to the report, EA was "the leading publisher in North America with approximately 20% segment share according to NPD." In Europe, EA had a 16% share, second only to Nintendo.The report claims that Rock Band was "the number one title across all platforms in North America for calendar 2008." The key phrase there is "across all platforms" -- meaning "among games released on all three console platforms." It didn't make NPD's top 10 best-selling games.EA's best-selling title of 2008 overall was FIFA 09, which sold 7.8 million copies in 2008. This estimate puts FIFA above three of the games on the combined Enterbrain/NPD/Chart-Track sales list.
Assassin's Creed 2 officially confirmed, with us by March 2010
Ubisoft's third quarter earnings report has finally officially confirmed that the sequel to 2007's best selling assassinate-em-up, Assassin's Creed, will be available before the end of March 2010. While technically impressive, Assassin's Creed was a bit lacking in the gameplay department, we felt. A great proof-of-concept, but without enough fresh content to keep from getting stale after a while. Something we're hoping to see improved in the sequel. Ready for another year of seeing Jade Raymond wherever you turn? The report also mentions that there will be seven franchise titles being released during the fiscal year starting this April, including Splinter Cell Conviction (which we can assume is still 360 exclusive), Ghost Recon and, as we've already mentioned, Assassin's Creed 2. There will also be three new IPs, including I Am Alive. No other games in these categories were mentioned, so no doubt Ubisoft has a few more surprises up its sleeve.
Tabula Rasa goes AWOL from Q1 NCSoft financial reports
When the financial reports for the Q1 performance of NCSoft hit the Massively offices, fingers were quickly pressed to pages with one intent -- finding out what was going on with Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. Already this year, we've heard dour reports on the status of the game, which were then rebuked by NCSoft, but those reports still planted seeds of doubt. Our hope was that the financial numbers could shed some light on what was happening with the game and perhaps reveal the game's direction. Was the game going uphill, or was it careening toward Auto Assault's junkyard?But finding financial information about Tabula Rasa was like trying to track down Deep Throat. In the whole of the Q1 financial reports, TR appears twice. Even when most of NCSoft's major properties are listed and statistics are given, TR does not get mentioned.But where Tabula Rasa does briefly appear, things do not look good at all.
Vivendi leaks a possible Wrath of the Lich King release date
In a strange case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, Vivendi Games, in its latest financial press release, has stated that "Blizzard Entertainment's second expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2008." While that's exciting, Blizzard themselves have not made any official announcement about the expansion's release date.Does Vivendi think that no one's reading these things besides their investors and business partners? Can this be true? If not, it's a serious error that shouldn't be on a financial press release. We're waiting for Blizzard's response to see if there's going to be any kind of spin control on this. In the meantime, revel in the impending release![Via BigDownload]
EA's Q3 revenues led by Xbox 360
Stemming from a recent SEC filing and financial report, EA's third quarter software revenues -- broken down by platform -- reveal that the Xbox 360 proved to be the most rewarding during the three months ending September 30th. A Gamasutra report ranks the revenue for the period, which saw the releases of Boogie, Madden '08 and Skate, as following: Xbox 360: $218 million (an increase of $52 million over the same period last year) PlayStation 2: $73 million (a drop of $196 million compared to the previous year) Wii: $59 million DS: $47 million (up by $33 million) PSP: $21 million (down by $43 million) PlayStation 3: $17 million Does CEO John Riccitiello still think the publisher backed the "wrong horse" by initially focusing on the PS3 and Xbox 360? Judging by third quarter revenues, it seems said horse was actually two buffoons in a poorly constructed costume -- except the one controlling the front two legs could actually make out where he was going. Driven by superb Madden '08 sales in October, the Xbox 360 yielded roughly the same amount as every other platform combined. Wii software revenue shows promise for the system's third-party developers, quite unlike the PlayStation 3's $17 million. With lackluster hardware sales and unimpressive software revenues from one of the world's largest publishers laying quite the rocky road, it's no wonder Sony has to talk supporters out of jumping ship.(Wait a minute. Did we just put a ship on the road? We've got to stop mixing our metaphors like that.)
Eidos believes in PS3, wants price cut
Eidos Chairman Tim Ryan believes the PS3 will live up to its potential. He said so in a written statement that was presented to Eidos' parent company SCi recently, but Ryan, along with many others, thinks Sony must drop the PS3's price before it can be all it can be."The board continues to believe in the long-term commercial success of PlayStation 3 but believes this may take more time than originally forecast by Sony," he wrote. "The board is of the opinion that the key driver to the acceleration of the installed base of PlayStation 3 will be a further hardware price cut."We're not sure if Ryan got the memo, but Sony has plans to release a more wallet-friendly PS3 in the coming months. But could Ryan be mudslinging to redirect some of the blame he and his company is receiving after reporting a $60 million fiscal year loss? Ouch!
Apple Financials Q2 2007
Curious as to how Apple is doing? Want to know how many Apple TV units they will admit to having sold? Need to know about product refreshes and the latest state of Leopard and the iPhone? Mark your calendar. Apple's 2nd Quarter 2007 Financial Results conference call webcast will begin at 2PM PT on Wednesday 25 April 2007. All you need to join in and listen is a copy of QuickTime. The Apple Financial Results web page will provide a link on the day of broadcast.
