Driver: San Francisco sales were "better than planned"

By Fred Dutton Published 8 November, 2011

Ubisoft outstrips its financial targets.

Sales of Driver: San Francisco were above Ubisoft's expectations, the publisher has announced.

Its latest quarterly financial report, out today, didn't provide further detail on exactly how many copies it has shifted.

It was also "especially pleased" with the release of Eric Chahi's downloadable god game From Dust.

Total sales came in at €249 million, down 4.6 per cent from €261 million over the same period last year.

"First-half sales have come in around 30 per cent higher than our initial targets," commented CEO Yves Guillemot.

"This performance reflects: an 85 per cent growth in our online segment; a solid showing by our back catalog, driven by Just Dance, Michael Jackson The Experience and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, which confirms players' enthusiasm for these flagship brands; and better-than-expected sales for Driver San Francisco, boosted by very good reviews.

"Our strong sales figure drove another sharp increase in gross profit and enhanced our earnings performance."

Elsewhere in the report, it revealed that the Assassin's Creed series has now sold over 31 million copies in total.

It believes the next entry in the series, Assassin's Creed Revelations, has the "potential to perform as well or even better than the prior opus," but it has been "budgeted prudently below ACB's performance."

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • metalangel #1 7 months ago

    And remember, Ubi, this is DESPITE you having to remove the requirement for your online pass. Look how much money you made. Don't forget it.

  • Yeoung #2 7 months ago

    I wonder what their target for Rayman Origins is.

  • Eraserhead #3 7 months ago

    Driver SF is a much, much better game than the demo implied. Not exactly deep, but great fun in fairly short bursts.

  • Zerrin #4 7 months ago

    You owe Yahtzee BIG-time, Ubisoft.

  • oceanmotion #5 7 months ago

    Nice one metalangel.

  • CaptainQuint #6 7 months ago

    From Dust made €250?! WOW!

    Very good for them.

  • Quickstick4 #7 7 months ago

    They surprised by Driver SF selling well!?? Driver SF really felt like the driver games of old (driver 1+2) while giving plenty of new features room. First driver game I liked since Driver 2! I just hope they go back to tanner being an undercover driver again at some point.

  • marmaduke #8 7 months ago

    It's worth pointing out that Driver: SF is a really funny game. Some of the best writing since Portal 2, in fact.

  • lostlain #9 7 months ago

    Driver San Francisco deserves praise, It's good fun, exactly what a game should be, and I echo the sentiment that it's sometimes comedy gold!

  • Rack #10 7 months ago

    I didn't like any of the Driver games before SF but SF was a fun game and quite inventive so I'm glad it did well. On the other hamd I really hope the PC version crashed and burned.

  • Gliocair #11 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:49:49 04-01-2012

  • Bilstar #12 7 months ago

    Driver SF was/is a bloody excellent game. For a driving game fan, you'd be (I reckon) foolish not to try this. I had a whale of a time with it, as did anyone I know who played it.

  • Whizzo #13 7 months ago

    Driver:SF is one of the highlights of the year, considering the plot is absolutely bonkers the game just worked so well.

    Fantastic work from Reflections.

  • WukWhiteWolf #14 7 months ago

    @Zerrin TotalBiscuit too
    Edited by WukWhiteWolf at 08/11/11 @ 20:33

  • Miths #15 7 months ago

    Well deserved, it was a much better game than I had expected (I haven't played any of the previous Driver games). In fact it's one of my favourite games of 2011 and one of those pretty rare story based games where I actually finished the campaign.

    The only thing I missed was steering wheel support. Even pure arcade racers can greatly benefit from force feedback wheel implementation, I wish more developers would acknowledge that.

  • jaguarwong #16 7 months ago

    Just throwing my hat on the 'Driver: SF was great' pile.

    I'm still playing it now, flitting between that and Arkham City is proper fun times.

  • atomicjuicer #17 7 months ago

    Yep, this is a quality game.

  • Colvin #18 7 months ago

    Agree with all of you. I really enjoyed the game, which I didn't expect after playing the demo.

    I loved the online modes, better than most racers out there.

    For those that haven't tried it yet, you can get it new for less than 18 quid now!

  • othelaatko #19 7 months ago

    From Dust and Driver SF are both wonderfull games. SF - best arcade racer since Burnout takedown.

  • glaeken #20 7 months ago

    I do wonder how they would keep the shift mechanic in another Driver game as the ending of SF does not really allow for it to be included again. The shift mechanic actually worked out really well I thought and opened up all sorts of game play options despite it initially sounding really silly.
    Edited by glaeken at 09/11/11 @ 13:01

  • Whizzo #21 7 months ago

    Tanner just needs to keep banging his head on regular basis for future games!

    Shift really did seem to be a stupid idea when it was first announced but after playing it you easily fell in love with the concept because it was fantastic.

  • FourQ #22 7 months ago

    @Whizzo Totally agree. GOFY for me. Bonkers and brilliantly so.