Ubisoft said it signed a distribution deal with Square Enix to br...
Ubisoft said it signed a distribution deal with Square Enix to bring videogame Kingdom Hearts II to Australia, New Zealand, Benelux, France and Nordic lands including Iceland. Terms weren’t disclosed. The game, a hit in the U.S. and Japan,…
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will ship for PS2 in PAL territories this fall, the game publisher said. To date more than 9.1 million units of games in the Kingdom Hearts series have been sold worldwide. Since its Dec. and March releases in Japan and N. America, respectively, the sequel has sold 2.4 million plus units total. The games feature classic Disney characters as well as characters and locations created by Square Enix. The latter’s CEO, John Yamamoto, said his company chose Ubisoft for PAL distribution based on the publisher’s “strong distribution channels.” Ubisoft, meanwhile, said it is looking to enter or expand its offerings in game categories where until how it has had little to no presence, including kids games, role-playing games (RPGs), sports, movie and TV licensed games. Ubisoft hopes to introduce 5 new game brands in each of the next 2 years, it said. Ubisoft, with about 2,800 developers at its internal studios, plans to add 500 developers during the current fiscal year, it said. Bank of Montreal (BMO) Capital Markets analyst Edward Williams said in a research note “this will add to product development costs [but] Ubisoft’s studios are located in low-cost territories and this should mitigate the overall increase in headcount.”