Ubisoft’s strong year continues despite no new releases last quarter

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Ubisoft hasn’t released a major game in a few months, but that didn’t stop the publisher from having a strong sales quarter. For the first quarter of the fiscal year 2017-2018, the company hit sales of $234 million, higher than its projected $196.8 million.

Ubisoft managed this thanks to back catalog and digital sales. Digital revenue, which includes downloadable content and microtransactions, brought in $188 million. It represented 80.4 percent of Ubisoft’s sales, compared to 75.3 percent in the same period last year. Back catalog sales brought in $220.45 million.

The year has been good to Ubisoft. As of May, the publisher had the two best-selling games of the year so far: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands at No. 1 and For Honor at No. 2. This success comes at an important time for the company as it battles a hostile takeover bid from Vivendi.

For the next quarter, Ubisoft is expecting sales of $220 million. During that time frame, it will release Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle for the Nintendo Switch on August 29.