A lot of people out there (myself included) apparently love Ubisoft’s latest historically themed murder simulator, as the very happy publisher announced today that Assassin’s Creed 3 has managed to sell a whopping 3.5 million copies in its first week on store shelves — a very impressive number by any standard, which also represents a 100% increase in sales over the previous best-selling game in the series, Revelations.
Despite the massive sales success of AC3, Ubisoft posted an operating loss for the last fiscal quarter. Ubisoft reported that a loss of about €58.1 million for the first half of the fiscal year, citing expenses involved in advertising games like AC3, Far Cry 3, and Just Dance, though Ubisoft executive Yves Guillemont says that his company is confident that they will more than recoup that loss once profits from those games start rolling in.
In fact, Ubisoft is confident that they’ll be able post record profits during the next fiscal quarter, thanks to the release of big titles like Far Cry 3 and the already blockbuster sales of AC3. Ubisoft was one of the few third parties to make a lot of bank on the original Wii, so the company is hoping to similarly cash-in on the upcoming launch of Nintendo’s Wii U, and they’re predicting that their exclusive titles like ZombiU and Rayman Legends will be among the best selling games for Nintendo’s new system.
After hearing dire reports of THQ’s financial status throughout the week, it’s good to hear that there are still some companies out there who have an optimistic future. I’m playing through Assassin’s Creed 3 right now, so expect a full review within the next few days (I’m currently on Sequence 11 out of 12.)
