Ubisoft Postpones Clancy, Revises Sales Targets

Ubisoft has 'reset' its sales targets for third-quarter and the year 2009-10. The have been revised downwards to €495 million and around €860 million respectively, from the previously announced figures of €540 million and €1,040 million.

The company has also decided to postpone the releases of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction and R.U.S.E. The titles were previously scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2009-10, and will now be released in 2010-11. Splinter Cell Conviction is now expected to hit the stores in April 2010.

The company has given hints that it will release more franchise in the fiscal year 2010-11, as compared to 2009-10. One of the prime attractions will be Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction, a new game in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series. Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands, Driver, Raving Rabbids 4 and a new episode of Assassin’s Creed, which will be the first in the series to have an online multiplayer mode.

The 2010-11 line-up will be more focused on the Xbox 360 and Play Station 3, the consoles which are expected to experience sustained sales growth in games for gamers in calendar 2010. Other new franchises and innovations will also be announced throughout the year.

The company expects to end the year with a current operating loss before stock-based compensation of around €50 million, rather than the previously announced target of current operating income amounting to at least €70 million.

Ubisoft says that this negative swing means lost earnings due to lower-than-expected sales. There is additional depreciation and impairment charges for under-performing products and back-catalog titles, abandoned projects, as well as certain games scheduled for release in future periods, write-downs of inventories.