John-ShepardJust because you enjoy good sales doesn't necessarily mean you'll turn a profit.
Just ask Ubisoft. According to their first-half results , the publisher saw revenues rise an impressive 57% to €260 million ($354 million) but on the downside, they reported an overall net loss of €89.8 million ($122 million). This is down 34.5% in a year-over-year comparison and the company attributes this fall to a couple things: firstly, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 and R.U.S.E. "performed below expectations." The same goes for Shaun White Skateboarding ; CEO Yves Guillemot said the game is "off to a slow start." The second reason behind the loss was "substantial reorganization," which involved the cancellation of several unknown projects. This cost the company €45.3 million ($61.6 million). There's no knowing if the "reorganization" included layoffs and unfortunately, the bad news didn't end there.
Ubisoft has been forced to delay both Tom Clany's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Driver: San Francisco , which were supposed to arrive during the first quarter next year. Now, the publisher expects to launch the titles during their next fiscal year (April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012). And yet, Ubisoft still says it'll hit their predicted guidance for the full year, perhaps because they do have one gigantic hit in the offing this week- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood . Pre-orders are up 25% over Assassin's Creed II , which ended up shipping over 9 million units. To cap it all off, Guillemot says focus group scores for the hotly anticipated title "are the highest ever for a Ubisoft game."
Always nice to end on a positive note.