Ubisoft is not amused about the 700,000-some copies of Assassin’s Creed that spread like wildfire around the web six weeks before the game was available at retail stores. Ubisoft has tracked the initial leak back to Optical Experts Manufacturing, the company in charge of producing copies of the game for sale. It was found that an employee of the company had taken the game home and leaked it out onto the internet, which Ubisoft called “an extraordinary breach of trust and gross negligence.”
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Should they make a comeback?
How big of a waste of time was E3 this year? Watching the coverage on G4, you’d think something important was happening. Maybe FPS With Different Shades of Brown 87 still interests y’all, but I’d say the show was rather bland.
Even Electronic Arts, everyone’s favorite giant of a publisher, agrees that the show has lost its luster, saying that the show’s new format, shall we say, stinks on ice:
I hate E3 like this. Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we’ll have to have our own private events.
Thus spoke EA CEO John Riccitiello. Only 5,000 people showed up to the event this ear, whereas in years past it drew somewhere around the 60,000 mark. So, EA is saying, essentially, bring on “da noize,” or we’ll just rent out some hotel’s event space for our own purposes. That’s all well and good for the big publishers, but what about the little guy?
Even Ubisoft harshed on the show this year.
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Ubisoft has got a hell of a lineup coming. And for once I am convinced of the necessity of having a headset to get the best out of a game — and believe me, with EndWar it’s a good thing. I also got to see the new Prince of Persia in action, and Far Cry 2 was in effect as well. Click below for shots and impressions.
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I can think of two reasons of the top of my head why the PC is the right platform for casual gamers. People just getting into gaming, first of all, don’t even own a console, but they almost certainly own a computer (and let’s be honest, a lot are playing at work). That tips the scales already — your target audience self-selects. Secondly, gateway casual games are ones that utilize interfaces people already know. Pointing and clicking, or basic four-directional movement, things that don’t overwhelm soccer moms. Hence the success of games like Bejeweled and Diner Dash.
Ubisoft’s lead game designer Emeric Thoa appears to think along these lines as well. With the casual market expanding, it’s worth checking out a few baskets before putting all your eggs into one (small game developers don’t have the budget for multi-platform releases) — and the PC at this point is the winner by far.
What in the world is this guy thinking? What with the current buzz around Ubisoft being that they don’t care about quality content for the Wii, this has to be the worst possible time to announce a plan like this. I respect them as a game company and they’ve got nothing to worry about with their more serious titles like the Tom Clancy series and Beyond Good & Evil, but the idea of creating full-length movies is barking mad. The news of 90-minute cutscenes in MGS4 was received with horror, and MGS cutscenes have always been excellent. Now we’re looking at Rayman: The Motion Picture.
He says there’s already a TV show in development (A Sam Fisher sitcom would be excellent but impossible), but he also says he wants to compete on equal terms with Peter Jackson’s Weta. Is he high? Cinema-quality games are one thing, but cinema-quality cinema is another entirely.
Ubisoft released this trailer for its upcoming Prince of Persia title and while it’s not in-game footage, it still looks amazing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t shed any light on the premise of the game, but the video is fun to watch. The Prince also gets himself a super powerful ally that I’m sure he secretly wants to cuddle up with. All that I can glean from the video is that darkness is spreading and there’s a new warrior to help kick its ass, but I’m just reiterating what’s being said in the video. Enjoy.
Shaun White Snowboarding will be hitting stores this winter and the Wii version will make use of the Balance Board for a quasi-realistic snowboarding experience.
The game itself looks pretty cool — you’ll need to travel around the world in the hopes of finally meeting up with Shaun in Park City, Utah. One seemingly odd feature is that you’ll need to pick a suitable cameraman before you hit the slopes and, while snowboarding, your cameraman can give you little boosts. The game’s being developed by Ubisoft, so who am I to question the inclusion of camera operators?
IGN Wii via NWFB
I’ve been playing Ubisoft’s “Lost: Via Domus” for a few minutes and so far it’s not too shabby. But, then again, I’m a huge fan of the show so I may be playing favorites. The game begins with you on the plane experiencing the crash from the perspective of survivor of Flight 815. You wake up in the jungle and can’t really remember too much of what happened. I’ve run into Kate and she’s sort of uncooperative thus far and doesn’t seem too keen on answering any questions or helping. There’s also some woman that randomly appears but as I get closer she disappears. It’s creepy and scary. It appears that when you encounter other characters you go through a Q&A phase. When you think you know them you revert to a flashback of the plane where you snap a photo for future reference. It’s kind of weird, but makes sense. I’ll be sure to finish this game when I get back from CTIA.
Has anyone else played this?
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Ubisoft recently acquired the rights to author Tom Clancy’s name and they’re going forward with an MMO. It’s unclear how much Ubi was paying in royalties, but the acquisition is estimated at EUR 60 million. Ubisoft expects they’ll be saving themselves EUR 5 million a year with the rights. President of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot had this to say,
“Having no fees, it’s going to give us a full return, [so] we’ve really decided now to go for an MMO on the Clancy name, which is big”, Guillemot said during a conference call.
An MMO would cost anywhere from $40 to $50 million and they already have the technology to go forward so it all makes sense in the end. Right? Who’s excited for a Tom Clancy MMO?
Ubisoft greenlights Clancy MMO [CVG]
Publisher announces Rainbow Six Vegas 2 ships 1 million [Game Industry Biz]
Who the hell are the Frag Dolls and why do they get to play Tom Clancy’s EndWar? I want to play EndWar damn it! What’s really neat about this RTS from Ubisoft is the voice command function. It may take some getting used to, but I’m sure most gamers will adjust quickly. I may not, though. I like to yell and scream. Again, who the f are the Frag Dolls and why do they get to play this first?
EA’s attempt at assimilating Take 2 was kiboshed, for now, and rumors are stirring that Ubisoft is next on the list. If one were to extrapolate on the recently (2/22) minted EAUbisoft.com domain purchase, but EA also registered EATake2.com on the same day. Both were registered through proxy. However, with a string of hot sellers like Assassin’s Creed and its Tom Clancy titles, the French publisher is once again on EA’s radar. Granted, the Redwood City-based company has a 19.9 percent stake in the publisher already, but they’re getting serious about that ratings slump and they’ve got some money burning a hole in their pocket.
EA and Ubisoft? [via Kotaku]
Looks exciting doesn’t it?
For what? You might ask. And that’s a very good question considering Fresno is in BFE and doesn’t seem to have anything going for it, but they can now tout themselves as winners of Ubisoft’s “Great American Word Challenge.” As winners of this prestigious competition that began last November a local family literacy center will get Nintendo DS Lites and Ubisoft’s My Word Coach, which, if you remember, I recommended for the holidays. Did your city rank in the top 5?
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I like AC as much as the next guy, but I’m not so sure I’d want to play it on my DS. It looks better than I expected, but it’s not really doing it for me. Yay or nay?
If you’re really into miniatures, and want your PS3 to double as a board for your figure-based strategy game (I know Warhammer 40,000: Vegas is coming out soon), this sort of thing is plainly for you. A lot of work has gone into this completely impractical conversion, which was made for an Ubisoft promotion.
I’m more a fan of modding your case into a something, well, awesome, instead of a (albeit sweet) diorama.
PS3 Rainbow Six casemod [Technabob]
For the rabid Tom Clancy fans in the audience here’s some good news. Ubisoft has finally dated the latest TC title, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and it’s due out March 21. Hooray!
Looks like POP is looking to make a comeback in the Spring. No other details have been disclosed. I really need to spend the next five minutes looking for an emulator because I really want to play the original now.
Prince of Persia to return [Euro Gamer]
Even though it’s being delayed indefinitely until Spring, Ubisoft has gone ahead and announced that FC2 will be coming soon for the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. The FPS is set in Africa and will have all the next-gen HD tech backing up the custom-made video game engine. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Heh. Let’s see it soon!
Some of you may be weeping uncontrollably after I tell you that Far Cry 2, Tom Clancy’s End War and Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway is being delayed until sometime in Q2 and I’m sorry for that. Not so sure what’s causing the delay, but those three titles are Ubisoft’s big hitters for 2008. Maybe they’re riding on Assassin’s Creed’s surprising influx of revenue to boost their third quarter earnings as well as all of 2007. I don’t really blame them, but I was looking forward to End War. Oh well, I still have AC to beat since I took a hiatus from my Xbox 360 a few weeks ago.
Ubisoft delays key titles [euro gamer]
Yes, we all know the Wii is still an elusive bugger and the DS is hot stuff (it’s outselling the PSP), but the novelty of both have warn off. I don’t touch the Wii anymore, but I am learning Spanish via My Spanish Coach at the moment on my DS. The NYT has a fancy, yet bloated, article on the success of both devices for Nintendo and the only thing worth noting from the whole thing is the following:
Mr. Fils-Aime said that future DS device will be more tightly integrated with its Wii console. Complete games as well as game samplers will be able to be downloaded into the Wii using its broadband connection, and then transferred wirelessly to the DS.
With Wii and DS, Nintendo Has 2 Hit Game Devices [NYT]
You can’t seriously be working on a sequel to one of the worst Wii games ever, right? I assumed the previous rumors were, that, just rumors. You better have better controls and a better UI among other things for Red Steel, Ubi. I think I’m about to barf, but it could just be the Absinthe I took a shot of.
Ubisoft Reveals Red Steel 2 Coming in 2008 [Shack News]
