Ubisoft sales decline in fiscal Q1 2009-2010

Today Ubisoft reported sales for the first fiscal quarter that ended on June 30, 2009. Sales for the 2009-10 fiscal first quarter came to €83 million ($113.71), down 50.6 percent, or 50.8 percent at constant exchange rates, compared with the €169 ($231.53) million recorded for the same period of 2008-09. Those numbers were 12.6 percent below the guidance (approximately €95 million or $130.15 million) issued when Ubisoft released its sales figures for fourth-quarter 2008-09.

According to Ubisoft, this was due to slowdown in sales of Nintendo DS games in Europe and the United States (see this news story) that impacted new and old game sales. Lower back-catalog sales of titles for PS3 and Xbox 360 than in the first quarter of 2008-09 also contributed to these numbers - as did cited bad market conditions during the quarter.

On a positive note, Call of Juarez and Anno launched during the quarter and were in line with expectations, with Anno receiving solid ratings for the PC, Wii and Nintendo DS. The quarter also saw significant market share gains on the Wii since the start of the calendar year (7.2 percent market share in Europe versus 4.6 percent one year earlier, and 4.5 percent in the United States compared with 2.7 percent).

Looking to the fiscal second quarter, Ubisoft expects to see some good results on games being released during that time (see this release schedule) including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up for Wii and PlayStation 2; a game based on the animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox360, PS3, PSP and PC; Academy of Champions for Wii in the UK, the Nordic countries and Australia; and new casual titles for Nintendo DS and Wii.

Sales for the second quarter of 2009-10 are expected to be at around €80 million ($109.60), a 54 percent decrease on the second quarter of 2008-09. This guidance is lower than the €130 million ($178.10) announced when Ubisoft released its sales figures for fourth-quarter 2008-09, for the same reasons as mentioned above. A few delays (read about that here) can’t be helping guidance for Q2 09-10 at all.

Note: numbers have been converted from European Euros to U.S. Dollars at an exchange rate of 1.37 US Dollars to 1 Euro.