Posts Tagged ‘ubisoft’
During the question and answer portion of an investor conference call this afternoon, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot clarified his company’s commitment to developing games for both the Xbox 360’s still-codenamed Project Natal and the PlayStation 3’s hopefully-still-codenamed PlayStation Motion Controller. “We have about ten games that will come for Natal during the first six months of the launch of Natal, and we expect between four to five games for the new controller from Sony,” Guillemot explained. “That’s the picture at the moment, it can change in the next twelve months.” (That “twelve months” reference doesn’t bode well for Sony’s purported “Spring 2010″ third-party launch lineup for the motion controller.)
When asked if those games were all new properties, or motion-enhanced updates of existing franchises (like Prince of Persia), Guillemot responded, “I didn’t count the games that in fact are supporting the new functions that those accessories will bring. I was more speaking about casual games that we are doing on those two machines; we can consider that on those games it’s 70 percent new property.” Or – if you consider Guillemot’s suggestion of ten games for Natal and “four to five” for PlayStation Motion Controller – that’s roughly ten new casual properties coming from Ubisoft.
Ubisoft planning 10 games for Natal, ‘4 to 5′ for PlayStation Motion Controller originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
On the conference call covering Ubisoft’s Q2 earnings, management had a chance to discuss its strategies for the company, including support for both Microsoft and Sony’s motion control accessories. “We will also be ready with some very nice innovations when Natal and Motion Controller are launched on the Xbox 360 and PS3 next year,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said, reminding us that a 2010 release for Project Natal is all but confirmed at this point. He later explained that Ubisoft will “also have some games that will come on the new machines that are going to come in the future” and “are working to be ready for the new accessories or new machines that will come soon.” Whether Guillemot is talking about the aforementioned motion control accessories or new consoles altogether (or both!) wasn’t clear.
Continue reading Ubisoft talks dancing, fitness and party games on Natal, PS3 Motion Controller
Ubisoft talks dancing, fitness and party games on Natal, PS3 Motion Controller originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue reading TGS 2009: The Recap Post
TGS 2009: The Recap Post originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Kicking off Tokyo Game Show 2009 with a kick digitally translated into a game, Microsoft has announced massive industry support for upcoming motion device Project Natal. Trumpeting a laundry list of gaming industry all-stars from Activision to Ubisoft, it appears that every major publisher is in some way “actively working on games for Project Natal.”
Microsoft says publishers received development kits in early June and have been hard at work ever since. EA’s Peter Moore thinks Natal “could fundamentally change the way people play sports games” while Capcom’s Keiji Inafune says it “will expand the possibilities of gaming.” In fact, Microsoft is so intent on proving that developers love it, the company is hosting a panel at TGS featuring the aforementioned Inafune, Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi and Konami’s Hideo Kojima.
Wait a minute, Kojima is working with Project Natal? But we can’t do any of that crazy Raiden ninja stuff!
TGS 2009: Every major publisher ‘actively working on games for Project Natal’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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During a Q&A session following the PAX demo of Red Steel 2, creative director Jason VandenBerghe told Joystiq that he would “love” to see Red Steel arrive on other platforms. When asked about the possibilities of the new motion control options headed to PS3 and Xbox 360, VandenBerghe said, “I personally would love to see any and all consoles have more sword fighting experiences.” He then added that any decision to develop the series on other consoles would be up to Ubisoft.
Here’s hoping Ubisoft decides to throw us more than a deluge of Rabbids once the 360 and PS3 climb aboard the motion control bandwagon.
Red Steel 2 director would ‘love’ to see series on 360, PS3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
After teasing us with the carefully scripted Splinter Cell Conviction E3 demo — for the umpteenth time — lead designer Steve Masters commented on the game’s current status as a “March quarter” release today at Ubisoft’s “Holiday Preview” event (we’ll be celebrating well into 2010, you know). Masters echoed CEO Yves Guillemot in saying, “really [the delay] was just a decision to allow us to polish up and really deliver the experience that the fans are looking for.”
“Right now we’re about to hit alpha — literally this week,” Masters confirmed. “So that means the levels are largely complete, and now it’s just time to polish them up and get them looking really great, and playing really well.” The current (and what better be final) iteration of the fifth Splinter Cell game has been in development for roughly eighteen months, according to Masters.
On the topic of platform exclusivity, the designer continued to tiptoe along Ubisoft’s party line when it came to discussing the apparent arrangement with Microsoft. “I can’t really go into the details there. All I can say is that we’re really exploiting the full power of the Microsoft console here, and Microsoft has been tremendous in giving us a lot of support and really helping us to utilize the full power of the 360,” Masters offered. “I don’t think that we’re ever gonna go to the PS3. But I can’t confirm or deny it.”
As for Project Natal and the future of the Splinter Cell franchise? “I would love to use Natal. I think there are a lot of very cool possibilities with that — everything from doing outrageously interesting educational stuff to really-involving video games.” Did he say, educational? Ah, so that’s what exploring Milo is all about … and here we thought it was just outrageous. “I’ve only had a very quick demo with [Natal]. I haven’t had any serious, in-depth hands-on, but I know Ubisoft has been working with it.”
Finally, Masters fielded our most pressing question … Who would win in a fight: Sam Fisher or Jack Bauer? Masters emphatically declared Fisher the clear favorite given his superior sneaking abilities. But if the match-up was limited to a 24-hour time frame? “Bauer does have tremendous bowel control,” Masters conceded. “I think that might be the tipping point in this battle.”
Splinter Cell Conviction designer on delay, exclusivity, Natal … and bowel control? originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
While Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot singled out a nosedive in the DS market as a significant contributor to his company’s poor Q2 performance, he didn’t condemn the growing casual gaming space or his company’s increasing reliance on it. Where the DS software market is falling – Guillemot pointed to Ubi’s consistent market share in Europe, despite a drop in revenue – other casual opportunities are growing. “The DS is declining quickly, but the Wii is taking off quite fast,” Guillemot said. “That’s why the average margin remains around 20%.” So, while DS software sales dipped, Wii software was there to make up the difference. So why did a drop in DS software sales hurt so bad in the last quarter? Guillemot says Ubi’s summer Q2 “is a period where people are going for holidays and they buy lots of [DS] games and because this market is going down it has a big impact on the second quarter.”
With DS software sales flagging, Ubi’s not without a plan to safeguard its lucrative casual franchises. Executive director of Ubisoft, Alain Corre, broke down the Wii’s growth, saying, “This year we expect the Wii to represent over 40% of our sales on casual versus last year it was at 18%. So it’s a big change for the Wii, and [the Wii] is contributing much more to our casual sales than the DS last year.”
So Ubisoft is looking to the Wii, and beyond, for the bulk of its casual gaming sales. “The casual business is changing rapidly and it will still be a very interesting business but we have to reinvent it this year,” Guillemot expained. “We already have a big shift from DS to Wii this year, and we’ll continue with the Wii and the Xbox 360 with the new 3D camera next year.” Of course, we’ve been focused on how Project Natal will work with “our” games; however, here’s the CEO of a major publisher talking about the Xbox 360 (not the PS3’s motion camera though?) as another prong in its successful casual strategy.
Ubisoft looks to the Wii, Project Natal for casual gaming future originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Speaking with VG247 at the Develop Conference in Brighton, UK, EndWar development boss Michael de Plater said that he thinks Microsoft’s Project Natal could reinvigorate the console (and PC?) RTS market. Comparing Natal’s potential “power” and “precision” to menu scrolling in the film Minority Report, Plater anticipates Natal’s combination of voice and gesture control to potentially be “really powerful and immersive.”
During E3 2009, Ubisoft showcased the upcoming RTS RUSE on Microsoft’s touch-screen-enhanced Surface table. While Plater knows the $12,000 home furnishing isn’t going to be a regular household accessory, Project Natal has the potential to work with software in a similar fashion. “If the technology works — so you could translate the interface they’ve already got working really well on RUSE into Natal — it could work very, very well.”
Hopefully Microsoft will reveal when Natal is hitting stores and what the device’s final price will be soon and Joystiq won’t have to put so much money into developing its own set of drug-addicted “precogs.”
EndWar dev excited about Natal’s RTS possibilities originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Speaking to CNBC, Ubisoft big cheese Yves Guillemot says that development costs on the next generation of games are going to be huge. With large games currently costing up to $30 million to develop, Guillemot believes that cost could rise to $60 million by the time the next hardware cycle arrives.
Regarding Natal, which Microsoft is treating like a new console, Guillemot says that consumers will soon “take the other step – pushed by the environment.” Guillemot is happy to keep working with current hardware, saying, “I’d like to stay with this generation as long as possible, but my customers will want the best machine possible.”
One thing that might push the next generation of games out sooner than expected, according to Guillemot, is the potential of new online consoles like OnLive. “If OnLive manages to make this work,” said Guillemot, “we will have a next generation of systems sooner than currently planned.”
Still, Ubisoft is in no hurry and plans to develop motion controlled games for all the current consoles — up to 80 percent of Ubi’s lineup will likely be motion controlled, actually. That’s a lot of Rabbids.
Ubisoft on next gen costs, current gen motion control originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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E3 was brütal! If you blinked, for a split/second, you missed something. Even if you were trine to keep up, it was a blur — staying a.wake like that, you only pushed yourself to the brink of your own dark void. That’s where Joystiq comes in; to crackdown on the madness; to reach out … with conviction — phew! Crysis averted.
We’ve scoured the dark corners and survived the inferno to piece together this roundup of all things Xbox at E3. Why? Just ’cause we love you. So, draw nier and shift your eyes past the break.
Continue reading E3 2009 highlights: The Xbox roundup
E3 2009 highlights: The Xbox roundup originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
- Natal vs ps3 (2)
- Project Natal (137)
- Project Natal reviews (5)