Ubisoft CFO projects Prince of Persia sales, Far Cry 2 performance; talks acquistions and ratings

Although Ubisoft has been acquiring companies left and right, that is not to say that they are not concerned about their financial performance, particularly with that of their new games Prince of Persia (PS3, Xbox 360) and Far Cry 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC). He also talked about their acquisitions, and why ratings need not necessarily define a game.

Although Ubisoft has been acquiring companies left and right, that is not to say that they are not concerned about their financial performance, particularly with that of their new games Prince of Persia (PS3, Xbox 360) and Far Cry 2.

Ubisoft Montreal‘s CFO, Alain Martinez, provides us insight as to their real thoughts and projections with their said games at the UBS Annual Global Media Conference. He said that while it’s “very early” to give out a definite projection on overall sales, it is safe to posit that 2.5 to 3 million is feasible for Prince of Persia. And hopefully, they will get the better scenario.

“If you look at our first Prince of Persia [Sands of Time], we thought it was going to do great, but it did two million, so we were kinda disappointed,” he shared.

If the adventure title rakes in four to five million, then that would definitely be an “upside factor for the company”. ” And that would certainly be most welcome seeing as how getting the top sales positions is even harder in the current state of economy, as well as the fact that there are even more product competitors out there. But still, he remains postive, reiterating that they have raised their guidance three times this year.

As or Far Cry 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), he noted that it was a rather curious case, it being outsold by Dead Space in North America, but well-received in Europe. Factoring this in, it would then seem that reception does have the tendency to be region-dependent. The key therefore is to ensure game quality.

He then also implied that ratings, while they are important, are not the driving points of a game, supporting this notion by citing what happened to Assassin’s Creed. “To be honest, when Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360, PS3) launched and got 82 percent, we were desperate, and we thought we were going to die.” But we all know it was a runaway hit (personally I’d give credit to Jade Raymond, though).

In short, “It’s not ratings that mean everything, but we think quality and innovation are the key.”
Martinez also revealed that their acquisition spree is still ongoing, currently negotiating about three deals within the five million euro range. Hopefully, one or two of them will be finalized in the next couple of months.

“We lost one deal which we were a bit mad [about]. We lost Cryptic; it’s a US company that was taken by Atari… we were a bit disappointed.

• First half 2008 report: Ubisoft profits down a bit
• Ubisoft is “working hard” on Assassin’s Creed sequel
  
• Cryptic Studios to join Atari, Infogrames

Via Gamasutra