Sales of DS casual games drive Ubisoft past $1 billion
Why the publisher is thanking heaven for little girls (and their mummies' creditcards)
We all know French company Ubisoft has been the most impressive game publisher on the planet over the past decade. Frankly, it used to be rubbish - anyone else remember Tonic Trouble? - but partly thanks to little platforming hero Rayman and mainly thanks to big handfuls of cheap Francs from the French stockmarket, which were very competently invested in a huge Canadian development studio, plus Tom Clancy's Red Storm company, and a laser-like focus on highly polished shooter and action games, Ubisoft is now one of the few companies that sells over billion dollars worth of games every year. And it's still growing fast. Indeed, faster than anyone else.
So tell us something we don't know, smartie pants?
Okay, the most important console in terms of Ubisoft's sales during its April 2007 - March 2008 financial year was the DS. How's that for a surprise?
To get technical, actually the DS and the Xbox 360 both made up 26 per cent of the company's overall sales of �928 million (�730 million), but if you take into account the much cheaper costs of making DS games, its share of �241 million (�190 million) of sales makes it by far and anyway Ubisoft's most profitable console.
Who would have thought it? Imagine: Fashion Designer outgunning Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Or My Life Coach giving Assassin's Creed a wedgie. And telling it to clean its teeth more often. He! He!
Indeed, over the past 12 months, the DS's share of Ubisoft's total sales has risen from 11 per cent to 26 per cent while Xbox 360's share has dropped from 28 to 26 per cent.
Will the trend continue?
Probably not. PlayStation 3 sales - at 20 per cent - are rising fast and although the proportion of Ubisoft's sales due to Wii were down in FY07-08 compared to FY06-07, the smart money suggests the DS has now peaked. But Ubisoft's speed in terms of churning out dozens of casual DS games aimed at 7 to 14 year old girls before anyone, even Nintendo, realised what was going on, just goes to underline its all-round prowess. Viva la Ubisoft etcetera, etcetera.
