Ubi game sales down by more than half
But things are looking up, says bossman.
Ubisoft has published a financial report for the six months ending 30th September, revealing it sold less than half the number of games compared to last year.
Sales fell 51.7 per cent to reach £149 million / €166 million. Operating loss is likely to stand at £72 million / €80 million.
But everything's going to be all right, according to CEO Yves Guillemot. The company should still hit €1 billion sales for the full year as the next six months are set to be "significantly more favourable, with a strong return to growth and profitability".
Games released in the first half of the year include Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, with 900,000 units sold. "As expected, in the first half of fiscal 2009-10 the market was very difficult both for Nintendo DS games and for our back-catalogue titles, with few new releases," said the Ubi boss.
But the schedule for the rest of the perido is looking hot, reckons Guillemot, with Assassin's Creed II, Avatar, Your Shape, Just Dance, Shaun White and Rabbids Go Home due in time for Christmas. Then next year there's Splinter Cell Conviction, Red Steel 2 and Ruse to look forward to.
"Finally, thanks to the investments we have made in recent years to develop our creative workforce, we will be launching numerous initiatives and innovations in the short and medium-term in all segments of the industry, both for current and future consoles and for on-line games," Guillemot said.
The full banana can be found over on GamesIndustry.biz.