Splinter Cell Conviction™ and Red Steel® 2, whose releases were previously planned for the third fiscal quarter, will now be released in the fourth fiscal quarter.
Ghost Recon® and I am Alive™, which were previously scheduled for release in the fourth fiscal quarter, will now strengthen the line-up for fiscal 2010-11.
Full-year 2009-10 targets revised downward
Today, the Company has revised its targets for full-year 2009-10 downward. Sales are now expected to come in at approximately €1.040 billion, with current operating income before stock-based compensation representing at least 7% of sales, compared with the previous guidance of around €1.1 billion and at least 11% of sales.
The revised targets mainly incorporate the negative impact of the first half of the year. The sales target of approximately 23% growth for the second half is being maintained, with the impact of the announced postponements of releases partly factored into previously issued guidance and partly offset by higher sales assumptions for Assassin’s Creed® 2 following the very warm response received at the E3 trade show.
Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer, stated: “We are currently experiencing a very sharp slowdown in our sales for Nintendo DS as well as sales of back-catalog titles, in the context of a market that is tougher than anticipated. This will have a significant impact on our first-half showing. Against this backdrop, the solid performance of our Wii titles combined with the successful launches of Anno and Call of Juarez are points of satisfaction and demonstrate that good products are continuing to sell well. We are disappointed that we have to postpone the release of several major games but we consider that this choice is the best one in the long-term interests of Ubisoft. Lastly, we are having to adjust our full-year targets to take into account the fall in business over the first half. The excellent response to our games at E3, as well as the high buzz generated for titles such as Assassin’s Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Avatar, reinforce our belief that the company can achieve strong growth in the second half of the fiscal year.”
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