Contrasting Financial Performances from Atari and UbiSoft

[fitbabits]

Thanks to Gamecloud (http://www.gamecloud.com) for the following two reports:

Atari Records Losses for Latest Fiscal Quarter (http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=2156)

This week's flurry of financial announcements continue with Atari's results for its fiscal 2006 second quarter (July-Sept 2005). Revenue for the time period was $38.4 million versus $68.0 million for the same period a year ago. The net loss for the period was $25.2 million. Atari said the losses were expected due to the lower quantity of releases for the time period.
UbiSoft Records Record Revenues (http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=2157)

Yet another financial report was released today, this time from UbiSoft with their second quarter 2006 fiscal time period. Revenues for that quarter were 110 million euros, up 64 percent from the same period a year ago. The increase in revenue was due to solid sales of recent games including Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Far Cry Instincts and Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood. Revenues for the third 2006 fiscal quarter are expected to be 250 million euros thanks to upcoming releases like the King Kong game and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.
What a sad state of affairs over at Atari. And will UbiSoft's strengthening financial standing make a takeover by Electronic Arts more or less likely?

[The Iron Weasel]

As much as Ubi pisses me off sometimes, I'd like them to stay as far as EA as possible.

[JediSanf]

I wonder, can EA accumulate enough stuff and produce so many crappy movie licences that it would actually collapse? Or is Madden their Microsoft Office, msking so much cash they can just piss the rest away?

In any case, I second the Weasel, as much karma as an Ubi-EA merger would fulfill I really think it's a bad idea.

[KNOTE]

Atari is in shambles. In their announced games list, the ones that will pull them out of this hole, are Shiny's new matrix game, another driver, test drive 360, and Timeshift... I give them props for greenlighting and releasing Indigo Prophecy, but their future looks severely grim.

[The Iron Weasel]

I'd let a EA employee punch me in the face, if it stopped that take over.

[A-Team]

What a sad state of affairs over at Atari. And will UbiSoft's strengthening financial standing make a takeover by Electronic Arts more or less likely?
I wouldn't consider a 10-Q report to be a factor in EA's choice to or not to assume the role of majority stockholder in Ubisoft. A small leap in quarterly earnings doesn't mean too much in the grand scheme of things because like we saw with Take-Two recently (GTA:LCS being delayed in many parts of Europe), the smallest change could put Ubisoft back where they were during fiscal Q1.

To make more sense of what I'm saying, investors tend to be more concerned with year-by-year results vs. quarter-by-quarter, hence the reason you see phrases like "from the same period a year ago" being pushed around. Quarterly results are nonetheless still important, but investors want to see how far their money has taken them over four quarters, not just one.

So, to answer your question, I wouldn't be surprised if EA dove into Ubisoft's shareholder pool a little deeper with the big gains they're reporting. I can't see EA dropping the majority stakeholder bomb just yet, but ya never know.

[DoubleUranium]

Ubi getting bought by EA might end gaming for me. If an EA Trax dialog popped up in Splinter Cell I would just lose it.

[The Iron Weasel]

Ubi getting bought by EA might end gaming for me. If an EA Trax dialog popped up in Splinter Cell I would just lose it.

I would stomp down to EA head quarters. Cover the building in gasoline, shake my fist at them, and as I throw the lighter at the building give them the finger. And then run away flailing my arms....

[see colon]

as bad as EA are as a developer, they're pretty good as a publisher. asside from the whole "if you do something good we'll try to buy you" thing they do. but ultimatly, that's in the hands of those being bought. look at dice.

VU, on the other hand, have been downright cutthroat as of late. they've been suid for many of the things EA has (extended overtime w/o pay; 12 hr days, ect), blatently broke publishing contracts with valve, dropped support for games released durring the holiday season 91 days after giftmas (they have a 90 day return policy). they've beem leaking talent left and right as of late as well. i'm glad the guys over at arena net are going just fine without them.

[mister_slim]

Ubisoft is basically fucked either way, but hopefully they can maintain enough independence to set up some sort of poisonpill. The thing is though, if they do well their a good investment for EA and if they do poorly their properties are still worth quite a bit to EA.
Ubi getting bought by EA might end gaming for me. If an EA Trax dialog popped up in Splinter Cell I would just lose it.
An Amon Tobin soundtrack earns Ubi a lot of cred. EA could learn something there.

[The Iron Weasel]

How is Ubi fucked if thy don't get bought out?

[Frogleg Special]

Command and Conquer degenerates into CnC: General, which is an ok game by itself. Rainbow 6 degenerates into Lockdown, which is a disaster in every angle.

By that premise, I think Ubi is even worst than EA in devolving game franchises.

[The Iron Weasel]

Generals was a great game....

And the multiplayer in Lockdown is good.

[see colon]

Command and Conquer degenerates into CnC: General, which is an ok game by itself. Rainbow 6 degenerates into Lockdown, which is a disaster in every angle.

By that premise, I think Ubi is even worst than EA in devolving game franchises.
lockdown for PC is shaping up to be a different beast than it's console brothers. i'm pretty sure you'll be happier with it than you are with the console versions. assuming you enjoyed the series on PC.

don't forget about all of the franchises EA has butchered.

[bjornbarspingvinen]

Stay away from EA. They are too big as it is.
They bought criterion, bought the NFL license, bought nascar, bought ESPN license etc etc. They are bad for the future of games, unless you are a greedy shareholder who don´t care about "competetion makes for a better product"...

[Stormwatcher]

EA killed Wing Commander Online. Death to them

[Malovech]

Atari deserves every slag pointed at them.

[maniac_of_noise]

I thought I read something a while back about the French government possibly supporting Ubisoft in any bid to fight a buyout?