Ubisoft Comments On Sales & Acquisitions News

Speaking at the UBS Annual Global Media Conference Ubisoft's CFO Alain Martinez has provided an update

Reported by Gamasutra, Martinez spoke about the French publisher's hopes for the recently released Prince of Persia, claiming that "2.5 to 3 million is clearly achievable."

Suggesting that greater sales would have a positive impact for Ubisoft, Martinez cautioned that if the title failed to reach 1.5 million units then it would have a downside factor.

Martinez moved on to talk about the sales of Far Cry 2, suggesting that the title hadn't been the immediate success that Ubisoft were predicting, but adding that the publisher hopes it will become a steady seller over the long-term and predicts overall sales of between 2.5 to 3 million units.

Portraying the mixed critical reaction to last year's Assassin's Creed, Martinez added that the company were fearful:

"To be honest, when Assassin's Creed launched and got 82 percent, we were desperate, and we thought we were going to die."

Nevertheless the title became a runaway hit and contrasted the lack of sales despite critical acclaim that surrounded Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Finally, Martinez confirmed Ubisoft's surprising intention to move for Cryptic Studios, who eventually became the subject of an acquisition from Atari.

"We lost one deal which we were a bit mad," he said. "We lost Cryptic; it's a US company that was taken by Atari...we were a bit disappointed."

However it seems further acquisitions are on the cards for the French publisher:

"We have about three deals within five million euro range that we are negotiating," he said.  "Most probably, one or two of them will be closed in the next three or four months."