The love affair with casual gaming is over, with less ”exposure to the DS” planned. Ubi drops fiscal sales target from EUR 1bn to 860m.
The fiscal year for Ubi wraps up March 31st, and they won’t suffer the declining casual market any longer by ditching most of it.
How exactly? ”…with a view to further reducing our exposure to the DS, we intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox 360 and PS3, the two consoles which are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010,” explained CEO Guillemot, reports Joystiq.
They’ve revised their sales forecast for 09-10’s fiscal period, and it’s down from €1,040 million to €860 million, which will likely result in an operating loss of €50 million. The delay of Splinter Cell: Conviction and R.U.S.E. were cited as impacting this fiscal.
As was the poor performance of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game and some ”non-casual” Wii titles. Ubi has seen ”robust” sales of casual titles on the Wii however, like with Just Dance. There’s been a 50 percent year-over-year drop in casual title sales.
”The 2010-11 line-up – which is stronger in franchises for Xbox 360 and PS3 – reflects our refocusing efforts and should enable us to both win market share and enhance our profitability,” concluded Guillemot. Great, more chance for triple-A releases.