Ubsioft has reported that sales for the first quarter of 2009-10 came to €83 million, down 50.6 per cent (or 50.8% at constant exchange rates) compared with the €169 million recorded for the same period of 2008-09.

First-quarter sales for 2009-10 came in 12.6 per cent below the company’s guidance (approximately €95 million), issued when Ubisoft released its sales figures for fourth-quarter 2008-09.

The firm blamed a slowdown in sales of Nintendo DS games in Europe and‘significantly’ lower back-catalogue sales of titles for Playstation 3 and Xbox360 than in the first quarter of 2008-09.

However, the firm reported significant market share gains on the Wii since the start of the calendar year (7.2 per cent market share in Europe versus 4.6 per cent one year earlier, and 4.5 per cent in the United States compared with 2.7 per cent).

As a result, Ubisoft lowered its sales forecast for the second quarter of 2009-10 to around €80 million, representing a 54 per cent decrease on the second quarter of 2008-09. That was down from the €130 million announced when Ubisoft released its sales figures for fourth-quarter 2008-09.

It also revised its targets for full-year 2009-10 downward. Sales are now expected to come in at approximately €1.040 billion, with current operating income before stock-based compensation representing at least 7 per cent of sales, compared with the previous guidance of around €1.1 billion and at least 11 per cent of sales.

Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer, stated: "We are currently experiencing a very sharp slowdown in our sales for Nintendo DS as well as sales of back-catalog titles, in the context of a market that is tougher than anticipated. This will have a significant impact on our first-half showing.

“Against this backdrop, the solid performance of our Wii titles combined with the successful launches of Anno and Call of Juarez are points of satisfaction and demonstrate that good products are continuing to sell well.

"The excellent response to our games at E3, as well as the high buzz generated for titles such as Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Avatar, reinforce our belief that the company can achieve strong growth in the second half of the fiscal year."