[cue zelda fortune teller tune, hum along]
Remember when Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was telling everybody to start getting ready for new hardware, at a time when everyone else -- analysts and people like EA boss John Riccitiello -- were saying to hang in for a long console cycle?
Well, naturally these new possibilities for input tech mean they're both right, in a way, and I just talked to Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc about the company's prescience about the future and what it sees on the horizon. Hint, the fact it bought Sin City and 300 special effects studio Hybride back in 2008 has something to do with it.
Ubi made no secret of its cross-media plans during its briefing, of course (I only listened to it on a livestream and zoned out during the James Cameron Show), so I was happy to have the opportunity to ask Detoc a little bit more about what they have in mind for the future. Check it out!
Incidentally, what do you think of Ubi's product pipeline here at E3? I'm not accustomed to paying all that much attention to their games in past years -- with a few exceptions, they're either building casual brands (wise, and they do it well, but I'm not the target audience) or making shooters (and I wouldn't know if they're nice ones, because I don't often play them).
But in recent years, I've been really into some of the stuff they've been trying from a design standpoint with Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia and stuff, even if I'm not convinced they had it precisely right in either of those games. And like I've said in nearly every blog post, Splinter Cell: Conviction is one of the most popular games at E3, and I don't seem to be the only one who thinks so.
I've got another blog post in the works about why I think it's pretty nearly impossible to judge a game from the glimpses we're given at E3 -- too premature. But while it's too early to bank on anything concrete, I do have to say I was pretty impressed with the company's booth this year. At least to the eye, the stuff they've got in the works looks to be of blisteringly high quality (as are a good number of slates this year!) I'll definitely be paying more attention to Ubi from here on out.
Anyhow, in this interview, Detoc visualizes a future where the film is the tie-in product, and the game is the lead -- and to keep one from being a knock-off or cash-in opportunity, Ubisoft believes in integrating tech, assets and production from the get-go, and that's why it's getting a headstart now. What do you think of the idea?
