Buying into Ubisoft's casual range of games is going to fund its hardcore efforts.
August 26, 2007 - The development and subsequent sales success of casual games on Nintendo's Wii and DS is an "extremely profitable" business for Ubisoft, according to the company's CEO Yves Guillemot, who told Reuters at the Games Convention in Leipzig last week that these games help to finance the costly development of games for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.
Guillemot explained that the development of casual games costs anywhere from 1 million euros to 4 million, depending on how many platforms they're being created for. By comparison, a normal Wii game costs about 5 to 10 million euros, while an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 one costs from 10 million to 20 million.
Casual games are expected to contribute 20% of Ubisoft's revenue this year, which is up 10% on last year. Meanwhile, the entire games industry is attracting many more customers which are, according to Guillemot, "going to grow the market tremendously. I expect the market to grow by 50 percent in the next four years," he said, concluding, "It's a very exciting time for all the developers and publishers."
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