Assassin's Creed II to Sell 8.5 Million by March, says Analyst

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II was one of the top 2009 holiday releases, selling through 1.6 million units in its first week. That's roughly a third better than the first Assassin's and, according to Stern Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, the game is continuing to perform. He says the game is tracking ahead of expectations currently.

"...we expect the title to sell through close to 8.5M units by March of 2010 (up from prior expectation of 7.5M units). For the December quarter, we have raised our unit expectation from ~5.5 million units to 6.5M units," he stated. "Recall, the game got off to a slightly slower start due to competion from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but subsequently picked up good momentum."

Ubisoft is set to have a strong March quarter with Splinter Cell Conviction, Red Steel 2 and RUSE, but the game that many will be keeping an eye on is the next Prince of Persia, which coincides with the May Jerry Bruckheimer film release. "The average life to date sell through of prior Prince of Persia titles is ~3 million and if the ratings and sell through performance are strong, the title could be a catalyst to the stock," noted Bhatia.