Ubisoft posts $74M net losses, cancels games

Ubisoft has detailed its results for the fiscal year ending in March 31, 2011. The period showed a $74 million loss, a 19% increase in sales, and the cancellation of unspecified games.

14

Ubisoft has published its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011. The company reported a net loss of 52.1 million euros (approximately $74 million) for the period, despite a 19% increase in sales to 1.039 billion euros ($1.47 billion).

The company credited the sales uptick to the continued success of the Just Dance games, hopping on-board the Kinect and 3DS launches, and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. It seems like Ezio is a pretty safe sales bet, which might explain Assassin's Creed Revelations.

For next year, the company is expecting to "post further growth in both sales and current operating income." That apparently means trimming some fat from its game line-up, though, as the company has terminated some unspecified projects. We may not know which games received the dreaded axe for some time, but the long-dormant I Am Alive and Beyond Good & Evil 2 seem like prime suspects.

Editor-In-Chief
Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 12, 2011 4:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Ubisoft posts $74M net losses, cancels games.

    Ubisoft has detailed its results for the fiscal year ending in March 31, 2011. The period showed a $74 million loss, a 19% increase in sales, and the cancellation of unspecified games.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:05 PM

      Damn, I was looking forward to I Am Alive. Coming from a PC gamer this serves them right for their bullshit DRM agenda. They lost multiple sales out of me because of it.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:06 PM

      I really love the AC games, but I would still be extremely disappointed if BG&E2 wasn't going to happen. Although considering all we ever saw was a teaser trailer YEARS ago, it wouldn't surprise me if it was stuck in some sort of development hell anyways. :(

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:06 PM

      Not really surprised considering what all they showed at the last E3. With the exception of Assassins Creed: Brotherhood and Splinter Cell they had a whole lot of nothing and some weird laser tag thing.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:16 PM

      Dammit, no. I have been waiting to long for BG&E 2

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:21 PM

      Jesus how poorly managed do you have to be when you are selling more games but losing money?

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:23 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:26 PM

      I'd like to see another Prince of Persia game!

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:28 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:30 PM

      That's what happens when you put horrible DRM on your games. They would have sold more.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 4:31 PM

      Oh for fucks sake, LEAVE BG&E2 ALONE!!!
      BTW, this DRM scheme worked pretty well for them.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 5:04 PM

      The fat they can trim is the executives salaries. Save BG&E2!

      • reply
        May 12, 2011 5:16 PM

        That would make too much sense. They can lay off a ton of developers instead like every other shitty big publisher.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 5:13 PM

      Did they say what they attributed the net loss to when sales increased?

      • reply
        May 12, 2011 5:18 PM

        yes, 95.9 million euro non-recurring reorganization charges. http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/gallery_files/site/270/1042/2418.pdf

        • reply
          May 12, 2011 5:19 PM

          Excluding non-recurring items and before stock-based compensation, the Group would
          have generated profit for the period amounting to €21.4 million, representing diluted
          earnings per share of €0.22, versus a €31.6 million net loss and a diluted loss per share
          of €0.33 in 2009-10.

        • reply
          May 12, 2011 5:21 PM

          What is a non-recurring reorganization charge?

          • reply
            May 12, 2011 5:26 PM

            A one-time-only reorganization charge. Like desks and nameplates.

          • reply
            May 12, 2011 5:26 PM

            they don't really say in the press release and i don't know enough about the business side of the industry to guess

          • reply
            May 12, 2011 6:15 PM

            Perhaps related to their new film studio?

          • reply
            May 12, 2011 8:05 PM

            Likely the vast majority is severance expense

          • reply
            May 12, 2011 8:06 PM

            balance sheet tweaks. could be writing off an asset or something.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 5:19 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 5:29 PM

      When Chaos Theory hit shelves, I thought the future belonged to Ubisoft but they seem to have lost that mojo and now there is nothing in this publisher's lineup that interests me (sorry AC fans). Their release schedule seems to be shifting to more casual games, handheld games, and Kinect games anyway.

      R6 Vegas was the last Clancy game I liked. I hated Conviction's gameplay changes to the Splinter Cell series and Future Soldier looks to do the same to Ghost Recon. After filler like End War and HAWX, the entire Clancy line has lost most of its appeal. I think the next R6 game is the only Ubisoft product I would pay any attention to at this point.

      • reply
        May 12, 2011 11:12 PM

        Yeah, I totally agree.

        Ubisoft seems to be really bipolar in their decisions and releases.

        Like...sometimes their shit is amazingly innovative and awesome. Sometimes, they make terrible decisions that negatively impact the customer.

        It seems like they've been kind of muddling their way through to a sort of semi-success thus far.

      • reply
        May 12, 2011 11:45 PM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        May 13, 2011 12:01 AM

        Yeah, seeing their company intro was uplifting when I launched Chaos Theory and some other games.

      • reply
        May 13, 2011 11:19 AM

        In complete agreement. R6V2 was the last Ubi game I enjoyed--in fact, my friends and I still play it somewhat frequently.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 5:49 PM

      All those losses are retarded DRM schemes.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 6:08 PM

      Dang, starting a movie studio is expensive.

      • reply
        May 12, 2011 6:15 PM

        Exactly what I first thought.

      • reply
        May 12, 2011 6:16 PM

        Nothing will come of that endeavor. They'll waste cash that could have been spent on real product development and then shut it all down.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 7:55 PM

      I'm glad. Shaft gamers more ubi.. Your games suck

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 8:12 PM

      I wonder how the last splinter cell did.

    • reply
      May 12, 2011 11:42 PM

      Hey ubisoft, that's what you get for charging 60 bucks for the shitty pc ports of your medicore games, greedy fuckers.

      • reply
        May 12, 2011 11:46 PM

        And using shitty DRM with those ports as well.

        • reply
          May 12, 2011 11:49 PM

          Yep. Never bought any of the AC series because of this shit n

          • reply
            May 13, 2011 12:46 AM

            Me neither, I've opted to borrowing it from friends and that's how I've been playing the series. I played AC 1 on PC with a physical copy and AC2 on PS3. I refuse to give them money :c.

    • reply
      May 13, 2011 12:09 AM

      Maybe they shouldn't waste money on DRM...

    • reply
      May 13, 2011 12:29 AM

      just make FC3

Hello, Meet Lola