Sales for the third quarter ended December 31st 2007 came to €450 million, up 44.4 per cent compared to the €311 million recorded for the same period the previous year.

Ubisoft put its forecast-beating performance down to “exceptional” sales of Assassin’s Creed, which in the US was the second-top seller on PS3 and third best seller on 360 in 2007.

It reports “excellent” sales for its casual games division, in which its Imagine, Petz and MyCoach titles all performed well.

Ubisoft also confirmed its strength on next-generation consoles – 84 per cent of the Group’s sales were on new formats in the first nine months of 2007-08.

The French publisher made progress in market share too, ranking as second independent publisher in Europe with a market share of 8.7 per cent. Ubisoft is now ranked as third independent publisher in the United States, where it boasts a market share of 6.1 per cent.

Chief executive officer of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot added: “Ubisoft moved up from fourth to third place in the overall ranking of independent publishers in 2007 – a year that saw the video game industry enter new dimension with previously unheard-of visibility.

“This revolution stems from the greater accessibility of Nintendo's consoles as well as from the superb cinema-like visual experience provided by Sony and Microsoft consoles. We expect this situation to significantly drive up market performance once again in 2008, with overall market growth representing at least 10 per cent. Against this backdrop, Ubisoft will continue to leverage its strong brands and design capacities with a view to outperforming the market.”