Ubisoft Confirms Online Assassin's Creed, Wii/DS Cause Concern News

Dissapointing sales of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game and a dwindling DS market today forced Ubisoft to adjust its forecast for the third quarter and full year figures.  Sales for the third quarter ending December 31st 2009 are now expected to reach €495 million from previously announced figures of €540 million, with full year sales revised downwards to €860 million from previous expectaitons of €1.04 billion.

The demise of the casual market saw a drop of 50% in sales in the sector to €160 million, despite the success off Just Dance on Wii.  The French publisher also confirmed that Splinter Cell: Conviction has suffered a further delay to April 2010, along with R.U.S.E which has been pushed into the next financial year.

Brighter news for the French publisher came from over 6 million sales of Assassin's Creed II, which is expected to pass 9 million by the end of March 2010.  To soften the blow, Ubisoft confirmed that a new title in the series, the first to fetaure online multiplayer, is expected to arrive in the next financial year ending March 31st 2011.  Such a quick turnaround suggests that Ubisoft has either been working on the title in conjunciton with the second title, or perhaps could be a side title to the main series.  Either way you'd imagine Ubisoft would want to release the title during the Christmas market, when previous titles have been released.

CORRECTION: a re-read of Ubisoft's press release has made us aware that the publisher refers to the new online multiplayer features for Assassin's Creed as an "episode". With this in mind, we're inclined to think that the online multiplayer additions are destined for Assassin's Creed II rather than a new standalone title, although Ubisoft does not state this explicitly. We'll check-in with Ubisoft on this and update the article should more info arise.

CORRECTION 2: On second thoughts, forget about that last correction. It's a standalone game featuring Ezio, as Ubisoft has confirmed in a post-financial report conference call. Click through here for more details.

Further titles planned for the 2010/11 financial year include Ghost Recon 4, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands, a new Driver title and Raving Rabbids 4.  Ubisoft noted that its focus will be on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3, which it expects to experience sustainable growth throughout the year.  Read another way, that doesn't seem to inspire too much confidence in the state of the Nintendo Wii.

Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer, stated "Despite a number of highly successful titles, such as Assassin’s Creed 2 – which is expected to reach 9 million sell-in units by the end of March 2010 – and Just Dance – our great Wii success during the holiday season – Ubisoft has not met its financial targets."

"The considerable contraction in the DS market during the year particularly affected Ubisoft, leading to a €160 million, or almost 50%, year-on-year drop in the Company’s casual segment sales. At the same time, like in 2008, the year 2009 saw the release of many more very high-quality games than in the past."

"Against this backdrop and with a view to further reducing our exposure to the DS, we intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox360 and PS3, the two consoles which are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010. Ubisoft has already demonstrated its capacity for success in the high-end games market thanks to Assassin’s Creed 2, with sales 40% higher than for the first title. The 2010-11 line-up – which is stronger in franchises for Xbox360 and PS3 – reflects our refocusing efforts and should enable us to both win market share and enhance our profitability."