Ubisoft released its earnings information for the first half of the 2008-09 fiscal year, and in the process confirmed the development of the follow-up to
Assassin's Creed. The company brought in 334.5 million Euros (about $430 million USD), a rise of 31.5% from the year prior. Additionally, Joystiq
reports that during a fiscal conference call, an Ubisoft executive was asked about Assassin's Creed 2. In response, he remained tight-lipped and simply said the company is "working hard on the product."
Ubisoft saw
impressive success with Assassin's Creed, and the company clearly still has the lead character
top of mind. It was always a safe bet to assume that Altair would be making a come-back, especially given the first game's cliffhanger ending. Rumors have been circulating that the game is aiming for a holiday 2009 launch, which would certainly give the series some
breathing room, but we have no official confirmation yet.
Most of the money brought in by Altair was in the second half of the previous fiscal year, so for this report Ubisoft attributes its success to a mixture of casual and core games. The constantly growing interest in casual games drove 35.4% of Ubisoft's sales for the period as compared with 14.5% in the previous fiscal year. Ubisoft also credits the core game
Far Cry 2 with its success, as it sold
a million copies in less than three weeks. Ubisoft is quickly developing a wide portfolio of casual and core titles, so we can probably expect them to alternate franchises on a year-to-year basis to keep them from feeling overdone.
Its says that they are working on it but hopfully they are, But I will contiue to look for more info about this.
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