anno-1404 posts

Ubisoft is hanging in there with some mostly solid financial results for the France-based game publisher. Today the company announced their that full fiscal year sales results (for the year ending March 31) came in 14 percent above the previous year's results. Sales for the fourth quarter were 206 million euros, down from the 217 million euros recorded from the same time period a year ago but still in line with previously announced expectations for the period.

Ubisoft said sales of its new Tom Clancy game brand HAWX, which shipped in March, matched its expectations of 1 million total unit sales. This coming quarter is a bit light on releases with only Day of Discovery (also known as Anno 1404) and Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood due for the PC for the current quarter that ends on June 30. As a result Ubisoft expects the quarter to have sales that are 44 percent lower than the same period a year ago.

However, the company is prepping for a big holiday 2009 season which will include releases like Assassin's Creed 2, the long-delayed Splinter Cell Conviction and the game adaptation of James Cameron's sci-fi movie epic Avatar. Other games that are scheduled for release sometime in the current fiscal year are the RTS game R.U.S.E., the action game I Am Alive, and a unnamed new game in the Ghost Recon military shooter series. Unfortunately no mention was made of Beyond Good and Evil 2, the sequel to the acclaimed action-adventure game that Ubisoft first announced nearly a year ago at their last Ubidays event.

Last year Ubisoft announced it would be taking over the publishing duties of the long running Anno historical trading sim series. Today the publisher announced that the US release of the next game in the series, Anno 1404, would be given the title Dawn of Discovery for its US release this summer.

As with previous games in the Anno series, Dawn of Discovery is about expanding your Western civilization. The new game, set during the Middle Ages, concentrates on establishing trade with the Orient with other countries and learn about new technologies. In a bit of a departure from previous games in the series, Dawn of Discovery does not appear to deal with any kind of combat. Related Designs is once again handling the development duties.

[Via email press release]

Last month Ubisoft reported its financial results for the last quarter of its fiscal year. Today the game publisher released new results, this time for the first six months of its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. According to their latest press release the company had revenues of 344.5 million euros, up 31.8 percent from the same period a year ago. The company had a net income of 24 million euros for the period

Ubisoft's current quarter contains games such as Far Cry 2 which they have already announced as selling through 1 million copies. However in today's press release Ubisoft admitted the game was selling better in Europe than in the US. Even with the global economic slowdown, Ubisoft says it's confident it will have sales of 500 million euros for the current third quarter and 1.05 billion euros in sales for its full fiscal year.

As previously reported, Ubisoft has delayed the release of two games from next quarter (Jan-March 2009) to its next fiscal year; an unnamed game and the PC sim-strategy title Anno 1404. Also Ubisoft revealed it had canceled previously announced plans to develop a game based on the Heroes TV series.

It's earnings season once again and Ubisoft is the first game publisher out of the game to release its financial results, this time for the quarter that ended on September 30. Revenues were 175 million euros for the French-based publisher, which is up 37.3 percent from the same period a year ago. The company is expecting sales to total 500 million euros in the current quarter, up 11 percent from the same period a year ago.

Ubisoft had a little bad news today as well, confirming the delay of two of its titles in its next fiscal year (which begins on April 1, 2009). While one of the games delayed is currently unannounced, the other is Anno 1404, the latest game in the historical trading-sim title from Related Designs that was previously scheduled for release in March 2009.

Ubisoft recently announced that it would be publishing Anno 1404, but no announcement should be without a nice trailer to back it up. Fans of history themed strategy games should take notice, since the game focuses on establishing trade and diplomatic relations between Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.

Download the Anno 1404 HD Trailer (137 MB)

It's one of the longest running historical strategy-building game series and now yet another new title is in the works. Ubisoft announced today that Anno 1404 is under development for release in March 2009. Several months ago Ubisoft announced that it was buying the Anno brand as well as a stake in its long time developer Related Designs.

The new Anno game in the series will break away from the Western world and check out the Orient for the first time. The title will have new customizable elements, along with bigger islands and worlds and a full sandbox gameplay mode. The Anno game series is highly popular in Europe but not as popular in the US. The series has had a variety of publishers in the States over the years and have ditched the "Anno" title in favor of the "A.D." name after the year of the game. There's no word yet if Ubisoft will do the same for Anno 1404.