DS boosts Ubisoft sales by 37% in Q2

by David Hinkle { Oct 24th 2008 at 5:57PM }

Ubisoft loves the DS. The system has aided them in accumulating mucho cash money during Q2 of the 2008-09 fiscal year. The company made €175 million (US $220.24 million), beating the previous year by a whopping 37%. With some big titles releasing during this time, such as Soul Calibur IV in Europe and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, It's no wonder they made so much. What's surprising, though, is that 39% of that total €175 million came from the DS, thanks to titles such as Imagine Teacher, My Secret World and PlayZone Sports Party. This is up from last year, where the company only made 23% of its profits from Nintendo's handheld.

Gallery: Imagine Teacher

[Via Joystiq]

Source [PDF]

Tags: business, europe, north-america, sales, salesfigures, ubisoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

aj @ Oct 24th 2008 7:11PM

Buying your children any "Imagine" game is a form of abuse, and should be punishable under the law.

RupeeClock @ Oct 24th 2008 7:33PM

Ubisoft are the current prime example of pushing out shovelware and exploiting an ignorant market, I hate them for that.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/search/?game=imagine&platform=0&sourceid=mozilla-search

19, 19 different imagine games for the DS.
3 of them alone are baby games, I don't take offense to the idea of appealing to a young girl's interests, but they're clearly not making an effort to make a good game if there are 19 different titles available so quickly.

bVork @ Oct 24th 2008 8:17PM

I've always been confused by the disparity between Ubisoft's 360/PS3/PC titles and their handheld/Wii games. The former are generally excellent hardcore games, the latter are horrible minigame fests, shitty ports, and casual cash-ins.

milan @ Oct 24th 2008 11:33PM

I hate Ubisoft's exploitation of the market as much as the next guy, but IMAGINE this: isn't it also possible for this greedy corporation to actually make some people happy with their games?

aj @ Oct 25th 2008 12:05AM

Maybe, but while everyone is busy screaming about violent video games, what are our daughters learning? Their place is in the kitchen, holding the baby, and thinking about dresses? I'd rather kids go out and start shooting police officers than have an entire generation of women convinced that the ideal is to be a baby making machine who can make pies and cakes. And all because someone, somewhere wanted to make some cash. It's offencive on a very, very deep level.

milan @ Oct 25th 2008 12:48AM

Well, I wouldn't give Ubisoft so much credit.
And what about a game like Cooking Mama? Hell, what about baby dolls and girly toys and Easy Bake ovens? Women are not necessarily easily influenced morons just because they are inclined to like girly things when young.
These 'games' are merely an extension of the toy market for children. What I find offensive is how marketers target these unknowing children to sell their shitty products to. Professional child manipulators, selling products that are cheap and that seem appealing to the uninformed or naive.
If the toys I played with as a child influenced me so much much I would be a racecar driver or brick layer or something. I wouldn't be worried about that. Besides, it's easier to blame the media (tv, movies, games) than it is to blame bad parenting. Thanks for an interesting discussion!
-milan

Naiyeli @ Oct 25th 2008 7:33AM

What I despise about it is it's continuing to reinforce the gender stereotypes that have plagued us that don't fit the "mould". Despite the world changing, as a girl I've constantly heard references that I should "be in the kitchen", or "you're not allowed to marry because you don't want/can't have kids." or "girls must be protected". I outright despise the gender stereotypes and I cringed when I saw young girls playing the Imagine series. When I was their age I was playing Sonic on Gamegear, not playing with crappy dolls or play ovens.

chibi_wings @ Oct 25th 2008 12:51PM

I have to agree with Milan, what you play with as a child doesn't always determine what you will be like when you grow up, BUT it does reinforce popular gender stereotypes.
I played with Barbie (yes I admit it) and dolls and all those very stereotypical things, but I'm actually very tomboyish now (to use our nice stereotypical word so that I can get the idea across). What was it that allowed me to develop as a normal human being? certain life experiences and education. Education does wonders, it helps you question things like stereotypes. But education in itself isn't enough, you need proper parenting like Milan pointed out, and even certain experiences (experiencing gender discrimination yourself is important I think).

But yes, shame on Ubisoft for dumping all their crap onto the DS. If they made some good games I would be more forgiving, but it seems like all they're publishing for the DS is the Imagine line. -___-

Bowser the Baptist @ Oct 25th 2008 7:04AM

Ubisoft are cowards, peddling their wares to wee children who don't have the worldly experience to ignore their overly aggressive marketing.

I agree with Aj: a new generation of our women are being raised to believe submission to 1930s gender roles should be their station in life. It's embarrassing that megacorprations like Ubisoft can get away with such whiolesale brainwashing yet us, as older brothers/sisters/parents/role models, have so little say in their secondary identification. Once they leave the door, enter school, all that hard work you've done, trying to create a well formed INDIVIDUAL, goes to shit. Our kids get bombarded with marketing bullshit, and scum like Ubisoft profit with laughably weak excuses for software. It really pisses me off.

Onomah @ Oct 25th 2008 7:47AM

I don't know what I find worse about these games, that they enforce negative gender stereotypes, or that they are generally ill made. Game making is a cynical business, Ubisoft are well aware of how crappy these products are. But why should they pump money into making quality games when it would sell the same as cheap crap. I think that the Gender Issue here is as much a symptom as it is a disease. On the one hand it is telling little girls how to be but on the other hand they only find these games appealing because the rest of society is telling them how what to be too. They are told to be simpering little women and so they lean more towards what they think they want. So we can't just blame any one company, I don't think we can even blame all the companies in the world. It's a social issue. It's all very depressing really

Hamster @ Oct 25th 2008 7:59AM

Ubisoft are scum.

The fact that they can get away, nay make lots of money with this lazy, shoddy, cynical, manipulative, exploitative bullshit saddens me deeply.

DonsSword @ Oct 25th 2008 1:47PM

Geez guys, ease up on the hate. The money earned by successful shovelware is what funds Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Beyond Good and Evil, Assassin's Creed, Rayman Raving Rabbids, My Word Coach series, and any of the other really amazing games they make.

Think of it like this, the car dealer has to sell 50 budget cars in order to sell a couple of the Lamborghinis. You may only be interested in the Lamborghini, but lots of other people still need the Yugo to get around in life, and the car dealer can't stay in business selling 1 Lamborghini a year.

Besides, there are some bright spots in the Imagine line-up: Figure Skater and Teacher are both respectable games. My Fashion Studio (not the Imagine one) is decent as well.

And, Ubisoft has a better reputation for how they treat their peeps than EA, yet gamers continue to buy EA's shovelware of football and basketball games -- EA has sports shovelware down to a science but no one every complains about that.

Don't hate Ubisoft just for being successful.