Gameloft's Mobile Sales Surge In Q4 2005

Gameloft, a major French-headquartered mobile games publisher, has posted the results of the fourth quarter of its 2005 financial year, a period ending December 31, 2005. The company took in consolidated sales of 15.5 million euros ($18.9 million USD) during the quarter, an increase of 71% from Q4 2004. The revenue from the quarter brought the company's yearly sales to 46.8 million euros ($57.1 million USD), over twice what the company made in 2004. However, it should be noted that, as with today's earlier Ubisoft results, under French accounting rules the company is not obligated to provide specific profit and loss statements for the year at this time, giving little clue as to the company's overall profit strength as it continues to grow in the burgeoning mobile market. Nonetheless, the strong growth, which exceeded Gameloft's expectations for the year, was attributed to continued success from the company's back catalogue as well as new titles like New York Nights: Success in the City, Midnight Pool, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and War of the Worlds. Particularly successful was November's King Kong: The Official Mobile Game, which was Gameloft's best-selling game in a single month. Breakdown of sales by country in the fourth quarter revealed that Europe accounted for 53% of the company's sales, with 31% in North America and 16% in other territories, including Asia and South America. The full-year division was similar, with Europe getting 57%, North America getting 29%, and other territories accounting for 13%. For 2006, Gameloft expects sales of around 65 million euros ($79.4 million USD), an improvement of 40% over 2005's takings. Around thirty new titles are planned for release in the new year, in addition to the catalogue of games that continue to sell from its operations since 2002. The long-term goal is to become one of mobile gaming's market leaders. A full accounting of the 2005 financial year for Gameloft will be posted by the company on March 21, 2006, according to an official statement.