Ubisoft FY 2012-13 Q3 Sales Call [WiiU/Vita Sales, AC:L 600K, PC/Console Split, More]

Why are they not in a position to talk about how much PS4, NextBox, and Wii U titles cost to develop? Isn't that a pretty important piece of info for investors? What harm would it do to disclose?

They can probably talk about their costs, but aren't willing to talk about how much they are spending in the fiscal year in particular since it hints at a release window.

Some publishers have though like EA, but EA is will to annoy console vendors way more than Ubisoft.
 
There are some fascinating numbers regarding digital in there.

An average of 6-7% right now, and it's only going to get bigger next gen.
 
That short piece of writing on Watch Dogs didn't exactly give off the vibe that it's going to be out anytime soon. :(
 
Still under NDA on the next-gen stuff that hasn't been announced.


That's a kind of crazy NDA, if they can't even give a ballpark of what developing games for the new systems cost (distinguished from what developing Title PS4 Project costs). If a company is asking an investor for money to put into developing a video game, you'd expect the company to provide what that will cost and what they think the return will be.

They can probably talk about their costs, but aren't willing to talk about how much they are spending in the fiscal year in particular since it hints at a release window.

Some publishers have though like EA, but EA is will to annoy console vendors way more than Ubisoft.

This makes sense, though.
 
Extrapolating physical Vita game sales by that additional 15-20% doesn't get them in line with PSP benchmarks but it does get them a heck of a lot closer.

That is a surprising and encouraging figure for devs and pubs considering Vita titles.

I have always felt Vita owners are very avid buyers of new content. Hopefully that picture is being painted to all the publishers. Sure it may not have a lot of owners right now, but those owners will buy your games.
 
Liberation sold 600k??

Holy shit i did not see that coming.

Ubisoft is looking pretty good.

It was bundled heavily. I bought the game with the Vita and memory card on Black Friday for $180. It could have been any game in the box and I still would have bought it.
 
Kill ManiaPlanet, bring their titles to Steam/UPlay

ManiaPlanet is a failed ecosystem, a false economy, fighting against their own UPlay. Complete waste of Nadeo's time and effort. Damages end user experience. Shootmania isn't going to solve that and I have doubt that TrackMania 2 free will even revive the platform.

Agreed and while they're at it, they should kill Uplay as well.
 
600K for Liberation is not a bad number by any means, all things considered, but it remains to be seen whether that actually translates into substantive further support from Ubi or any other Western third party.
 
Particularly since the game was part of the biggest selling bundle last holiday. I would guess that AC:L would have more physical than most titles.
Was the bundle physical? I'd assumed it was a download code.

600K for Liberation is not a bad number by any means, all things considered, but it remains to be seen whether that actually translates into substantive further support from Ubi or any other Western third party.
Heh, I can feel your gritted teeth ;)
 
For reference Far Cry 3 had a peak of around 19,949 concurrent players on steam:

http://steamstatshistory.appspot.com/list

50:1 ratio. Interesting.

What do people usually say? 20:1 is a good reference number?

Agreed and while they're at it, they should kill Uplay as well.

I have a feeling they're going to see if their "ace in the hole" works first. I'm honestly skeptical as to whether or not the free Stadium remake is gonna work, but I'm sure that's their motivation.
 
I hope the digital growth is a sign they're going to keep at it with their DD only 'speculative' titles. From Dust and Outland were two of my favorite Ubisoft titles this past Gen. Both were beautiful and different from most of the other stuff big publishers are throwing out these days. It would be a big bummer if Ubisoft abandoned this initiative.
 
600k for Liberation is great. Hope that translates to continued support from Ubisoft on Vita. They've been pretty good so far.

Also surprised by that 15-20% digital. Didn't think it would be that much.
 
50:1 ratio. Interesting.

What do people usually say? 20:1 is a good reference number?

I think ratios are diluted if we talk about long legs. CS: GO has more players than CS 1.6 according to Valve but CS 1.6 tops it in stats constantly.
 
Was the bundle physical? I'd assumed it was a download code.


Heh, I can feel your gritted teeth ;)

Eh, if Vita continues doing like 100k per month WW outside of Holidays, there's not such a big need of gritting teeth.

Not that I'm not surprised by AC's result. It's true that a big amount of those copies is due to bundles, but it's still pretty respectable. If the bundles had fisical copies of the game and not download codes, those DD numbers could also be a sort of sign for the next future for everyone: if 15% of total copies is possible on Vita, I'd say sales numbers just for copies sold through retailers are not so reliable for console market anymore. For everyone, from PS360 to 3DS (that has an insanely high connection rate, over 80%, in US and Japan)to Wii U too.
 
Grim either way, but correct me if I'm wrong: AC:L doing better than any other 3rd party current generation handheld game in the west?

I'd argue that the game is far too buggy to deserve it, but congratulations Ubisoft.
 
I honestly think the 90-120K AC:L sales from PSN is more impressive than the 600K total. I don't think AC:L had a sales either, it's always been $35.99

Assuming sales in dollars, that's a revenue of $3.24 - $4.31 million, with a 70/30 split that would mean Ubi revenue was $2.26 - $3.02 million, with Sony's revenue being $.97 - $1.29 million off PSN sales.

Also proves that ratings should never be used to try to extrapolate a game's sales. AC: L had something like 1600 ratings.
 
Here's a random tidbit (not exclusive to Ubisoft), but going along with their digital attach rates... on Wii U for some of the big launch titles, was around 2-3%

Granted, that could be different now as we're a bit further than launch.
I'd hope Nintendo gamers have learned to connect online a bit more since October. They did a terrible job learning to connect their Wiis :)
 
I honestly think the 90-120K AC:L sales from PSN is more impressive than the 600K total. I don't think AC:L had a sales either, it's always been $35.99

Assuming sales in dollars, that's a revenue of $3.24 - $4.31 million, with a 70/30 split that would mean Ubi revenue was $2.26 - $3.02 million, with Sony's revenue being $.97 - $1.29 million off PSN sales.

Also proves that ratings should never be used to try to extrapolate a game's sales. AC: L had something like 1600 ratings.

AC:L was on sale (along with the digital copy of AC3 I believe) for a whopping 2 day weekend sale lol (which I can't recall happening on PSN very often). I picked up mine digitally for roughly $20 or so.

And yeah Sony has to make a nice sum off their crazy priced memory cards if the digital rate for other publishers is anywhere near that high.
 
Here's a random tidbit (not exclusive to Ubisoft), but going along with their digital attach rates... on Wii U for some of the big launch titles, was around 2-3%

Granted, that could be different now as we're a bit further than launch.
I'd hope Nintendo gamers have learned to connect online a bit more since October. They did a terrible job learning to connect their Wiis :)

Sounds like Nintendo is ruining the average.

What does this mean for NPD threads? We have no idea which titles are doing strong digital sales.
 
Good for Liberation. As buggy as it was, it was a good tech demo. Remove some people or something for draw distance/framerate sake or new engine and it'd be good on the system.
 
Here's a random tidbit (not exclusive to Ubisoft), but going along with their digital attach rates... on Wii U for some of the big launch titles, was around 2-3%

Granted, that could be different now as we're a bit further than launch.
I'd hope Nintendo gamers have learned to connect online a bit more since October. They did a terrible job learning to connect their Wiis :)

You mean 2-3% of total hardware sales or total sales per game?
Is there a comparable data for 3DS right now?
 
I guess Ubisoft expectations were very low or they think ACL is still gonna sell any significant number after the holiday season. I mean, 600k is probably not very far away from what RE Revelations sold (if not more) and we all know how that ended.

Maybe there were some hats made of money that made them happy...
 
Far Cry 3 - sold 4.5mil units, way better than expected. 2x better than Far Cry 2 in half of the time. Fantastic open world gameplay, making it unique. Nothing like it. Gamers love it. Expect Far Cry 3 to continue well in coming months.
Good to hear. It's a good game (so far that I've played) and I was afraid it was going to get steam rolled at the end of the year. I guess releasing in December out of the way of the big November releases actually helped it stand out.
 
[
Grim either way, but correct me if I'm wrong: AC:L doing better than any other 3rd party current generation handheld game in the west?

I'd argue that the game is far too buggy to deserve it, but congratulations Ubisoft.

]
I'm still going by this, as I haven't heard anything to the contrary:

3DS SW 3rd party LTD

500k
bird (Yes it's no.1)
400k
ssf4
logo sw3
kh3d
sonic
300k
mario sonic
skylanders
logo potc
200k
re:r
asphalt
logo batman2
rayman
cars2
150k
 
The Assassin's Creed Liberation number includes bundles right?

How does Ubisoft get paid for bundles? Do they make the same amount per unit sold? Who pays this amount?
 
I'm still going by this, as I haven't heard anything to the contrary:
I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say. Road was referring to worldwide numbers, Ubisoft was as well with Liberation. You're citing US only numbers where Revelations sold less than in Japan.
 
I'm still going by this, as I haven't heard anything to the contrary:

Sorry, but I'm not following. What contrary to what?

Those are only the physical sales for the United States. Ubisoft is reporting ACL shipments and digital sales for the entire world.

If you're talking about Revelations, Over 150k in the US + 280k in Japan = 430k physical sold-through at least in these two markets alone. When you consider the rest of the world (Europe, Canada, Australia etc.), then it's not impossible Revelations have shipped, say, 500k. But, that is just my guesstimation, not a fact.
 
Woops. I actually meant to quote my earlier post, and not Road's. Apologies. Multiquoting on mobile is hard.
 
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