Ghost Recon: Future Soldier helps lead to profitable Q1 2012-13 sales for Ubisoft

Higher-than expected sales of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier helped Ubisoft earn about $160 million in sales for the first quarter of 2012-13.

According to the sales figures for  the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2012, Ubisoft's sales were up 27.2% compared to the $126 million recorded for the same period of 2011-12. These actual earnings were also higher than Ubisoft's original approximation issued during its full-year results for 2011-12.

Aside from the success of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, which was the best-selling console game in the United States for May and June (both in unit and value terms), Ubisoft noted "strong momentum" for the Online segment. Sales were up 112% to 33 million. This was primarily driven by Ubisoft's Free-to-Play titles and by the success of Trials Evolution, which broke first-day sales on XBLA.

Looking forward, the second quarter will see the release of many online and digital titles from Ubisoft, particularly the open beta of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online. With that being said, sales for Q2 2012-13 are expected to be lower than the same period of 2011-12, which saw the release of Driver: San Francisco. Sales are expected to come in at approximately $135 million.

The company also noted a 41% decline in back-log sales, due to industry wide lower retail back-log sales. They did say, however, this was "partly offset" by growth in online back-log sales.

With the numbers in, Ubisoft is standing by its previously announced targets for full-year 2012-13. Ubisoft projects sales of between $1,422 million and $1,471 million.

Moving forward, Ubisoft has a strong lineup which will see the release of Assassin's Creed 3, Far Cry 3, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist, and Just Dance 4.