French publisher Ubisoft has become one of the preeminent game companies in the business over the last several years, and each quarterly report has reflected that. Today Ubisoft announced second-quarter sales of €175 million (about $225 million), representing a 37 percent increase year-over-year. Ubisoft said this exceeded the company's prior guidance of €160 million. For the first half ended September 30, total sales were up 31.5 percent to €344 million.

Ubisoft said the great second-quarter performance was largely driven by Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, Soul Calibur IV (distributed by Ubi in Europe), and "solid sales" of casual games such as Imagine Teacher, My Secret World by Imagine and PlayZone Sports Party.

The publisher noted that it now expects a "marked increase" for its first-half current operating income.

"Ubisoft delivered a robust performance in the second fiscal quarter against an uncertain environment. We are carefully and regularly monitoring changes in the economic context in order to factor them into our market forecasts and financial targets," commented Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer. "Going forward, we are confident that the video game industry will be able to continue its dynamic growth in 2008 and 2009, buoyed by the increase in the installed base for consoles coupled with the steady influx of new consumers. At the same time, we believe that thanks to the diversity and quality of Ubisoft's games line-up – which caters to both hard-core and casual gamers – we are ideally positioned to continue to win market share in the coming years."

Speaking of market share, for the first nine calendar months of 2008, Ubisoft was the number 4 independent publisher in the U.S. with 5.1% market share (compared with number 4 and 5.6% one year earlier) and number 3 in Europe with 8.1% market share (compared with number 3 and 7.9%).

Looking ahead, Ubisoft expects third-quarter sales to come in at around €500 million, which would be up 11 percent year-over-year. The holiday period should be bolstered by Far Cry 2, Tom Clancy's End War, Rayman Raving Rabbids 3, Prince of Persia, Shaun White, and more games in the Imagine, Petz, Planet Rescue and My Coach lines.

Ubisoft also noted that "in view of the good first-half trends and the positive outlook for the third quarter," the company has pushed back Anno and an as-yet unannounced franchise. These games were previously scheduled to be released in 2008-09 will now be slated to release in 2009-10.

For the 2008-09 fiscal year, Ubisoft said it's raising its targets; the company now expects total sales around €1.050 billion ($1.35 billion) compared with the previous figure of around €1.02 billion. Guidance for current operating income before stock options has also been revised upward to at least 13% of sales versus the previous target of at least 12%.