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Ubisoft Announces Solid Semester Numbers

Ubisoft, one of the world's larget and most prominent video game publishers, has officially announced their revenue for the first semester, which ended September 30.

Sales for the semester '06/'07 were up 13% to $218.4 million from the $194.3 million from the same period in '05/'06. The second quarter, however, slipped 7% to $129.5 million from the $139.7 million from the same quarter in '05/'06. Even so, despite the fall, the decline wasn't as bad as the company initially predicted; they expected to hit only $99.1 million.

The company attributes the increase in sales to the $14 million raked in due to game sales (including the likes of Kingdom Hearts II ), which weren't included in the original projection. They also reported surprisingly solid online market performance ( Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter , for example) and better-than-expected sales of back catalog titles.

Ubisoft took things a step further by boasting their big list of releases for the second semester '06/'07. They're set to roll out Rainbow Six Vegas and seven Wii titles for the the system's launch, and all this activity has caused the company to increase its '06/'07 and '07/'08 objectives. Ubisoft now anticipates a sky-high revenue of about $342.9 million in the third quarter of '05/'06.

The overall revenue growth for '06/'07 is currently expected to be between 8% to 12%, which is in stark contrast to the earlier forecast of 5% and 10%. For the fiscal year '07/'08, the anticipated revenue growth now sits at approximately 25% compared to the previous forecast of a little over 17%.

In terms of game news, Ubisoft announced the unfortunate delay of both Assassin's Creed and Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway , and the encouraging moving-up of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 . Along with the additional 7 Wii titles in the fourth fiscal quarter, the company is certainly cranking along at maximum capacity.

"We have the second largest creation workforce in the industry, which we have built up over the past 10 years, and a powerful and wide-reaching distribution network. Ubisoft has ideally positioned itself to outperform the very strong growth of the market in the coming years." said Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft.