French publisher Ubisoft has today revealed their third-quarter earnings for the holiday period ended December 31, 2013, with total sales coming to €520 million ($709.4 million), down 35.2 percent year-over-year. This was in line with the company's projected sales of between €500 million and €540 million, however looking at the first nine months of fiscal 2013-14, the picture isn't any better, as sales totaled €813 million ($1.1 billion), which represents a decrease of 24.8 percent.

Ubisoft has claimed that the numbers year-over-year are down due in part to the recent console generation transition. Ubisoft also said that its latest Rocksmith game failed to meet sales expectations, shipping around 1 million units total. There was some good news though for the publisher, with the most recent pirate-infused Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag shipping 10 million units and Just Dance also totalling 6 million in shipped units.

As for other areas of the business, Ubisoft's digital sales actually contracted four percent to €53 million ($72.3 million) for the third quarter. Also, the publisher's back-catalog sales contracted 21 percent to total €53 million as well, which Ubisoft also claimed was due to the recent console shift.

"The launches of the PS4 and Xbox One were both hugely successful, with sales of these machines more than doubling those for the previous generation and confirming the growth potential of the console market in the coming years. Over the short term, the high quality of our titles - which is unanimously recognized by gamers - has enabled us to achieve our third-quarter sales target despite the transition period currently affecting the market," said Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer.

"Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag performed particularly well, reinforcing the franchise's long-term potential and therefore its upcoming iteration. This robust showing was achieved thanks to the excellence of our teams, our extensive development capacities and the efficiency of our Lead and Associate studio structure."