Delay In Release Of The Crew, Watch Dogs :

Shares in Ubisoft, the French video game maker behind the popular Assassin’s Creed franchise, fell as much as 30 percent on Wednesday after it announced a one-year delay in the release of two forthcoming titles. Ubisoft, based on the outskirts of Paris, said it had pushed back the release of Watch Dogs, a first-person game set in Chicago, and The Crew, a car racing franchise.

 "This is a pretty severe downward revision - these games were supposed to come out in time for Christmas," said Gregoire Laverne, a Paris-based fund manager at Roche Brune.

"They're being delayed for reasons of quality, which is a good thing, but companies like Ubisoft already have a tendency to restrict the amount of titles they produce. If they release fewer games they have to be a blockbuster every time, there is no room for error."
The company now expects to report an operating loss of between 40 million euros ($54 million) and 70 million, against a previous target for a profit of 110 to 125 million.

The French company is best known for Assassin’s Creed, whose next installment is due to be released in early November. The last version sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, and Assassin’s Creed is expected to be turned into a Hollywood movie during 2015.

The blending of video games with the wider entertainment industry underscores how important new releases have become to companies like Ubisoft and Electronic Arts.

Revenue for the global video game industry is expected to rise 5 percent, to $66 billion, by the end of 2013, according to the data provider DFC Intelligence.