Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag ships 10 million units to retailers

In announcing its third quarter financial results, Ubisoft made particular note of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag shipments, which sold-in 10 million units during the quarter which ended December 31, 2013. As always, it's important to note that this is different from the number of units sold-through to consumers; rather, the announced number is how many were sold to retailers.

Nevertheless, Ubisoft boasted of "excellent momentum" for the latest entry in its popular open-world series. "This performance bears witness to both the high quality of the game and the franchise’s  strong dynamic with gamers," Ubisoft said despite the fact that Black Flag's sell-in number is less than that of its predecessor, Assassin's Creed 3.

During the same span in 2013, AC3 sold-in 12 million units and was available on two less consoles (Xbox One and PS4 weren't out at the time). However, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot did note that sales of Black Flag during the first six weeks of the year are outpacing those of AC3 during the same span last year, suggesting the latest game will have a longer tail.

For the quarter, Ubisoft reported sales of €520 million ($709.5 million), a decline of 35.2 percent over the €802 million ($1.1 billion) during the third fiscal quarter of 2012-2013. Although this figure is in line with the target range, Ubisoft is now expecting its full-year sales in the lower end of its projection, which means an operating loss of approximately €65 million ($88.7 million).