Ubisoft Releases Improved Financials

French-headquartered Ubisoft, one of the larger publishers in games, has released its financial statement for the first half of the fiscal year, a period ending September 30, 2005. The earnings show some improvement over the last fiscal year, with net sales increasing by 19%, but a loss of $50 million for the half. The net sales for the first half of the year reached 152.9 million Euros ($180.6 million USD), but the company took a loss of 11.3 million Euros ($13 million USD). However, even that was an improvement over the 2004 half-year loss of 33 million Euros ($39 million USD). "Already second largest independent editor in Europe, Ubisoft joined the top six in the USA, and ranks even in the top five on consoles, as it continues to gain market shares," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. "This trend is expected to prevail in the second half of the year: with major game launches scheduled, fiscal year 2005-2006 could well be an outstanding year. The sustained investments that we have done over the past several years, together with the acclaimed quality of our games will make it possible for us to take advantage of every possible growth opportunity presented by the new consoles." The company also announced a list of games to be released in the fourth quarter of the year, in the first three months of 2006. Previously unknown titles revealed in the statement were Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Essentials for PSP and a to-be-announced game for Xbox 360. Other games in the lineup: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Heroes of Might and Magic V, Faces of War, Paradise, and CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder for PC; Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Blazing Angels, AND 1 Streetball, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 4, America's Army: Rise of a Soldier, and Drakengard 2, for console; and Brothers in Arms for PSP. Europe-only releases mentioned in the statement were Settlers 5 Add-On, Rugby Challenge 2006, Street Riders, Field Commander, Untold Legends 2, Tales of Eternia, and Trollz: Hair Affair.