Xbox Addict

Ubisoft Cautious About New IP Until New Console

We hope you really love Tom Clancy games, because it looks like we’ll be seeing more of them before we see much else new out of Ubisoft for a while. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ubisoft European managing director Alain Corre said Ubisoft is steering clear of introducing new IPs until the next generation of consoles, and instead will focus on improving their established brands.
"To launch a new IP you have to invest much, much more marketing to establish it, and if you add up the huge costs of development plus the investment in marketing you cannot be 100 percent sure the target audience you’d expect, which is needed for the comeback on the investment," Corre explained. "Especially in this part of the cycle of the consoles, we are cautious now to introduce new brands. We’ll concentrate on the ones we have and make sure we bring them to the next level in terms of quality."

Rather, Corre said they feel the best time to introduce brand-new franchises is when a new generation of hardware comes around. "That’s always been the case in the past because it’s a fresh approach," he said. "The new technology always brings new ideas for gameplay or innovation and you can use this to introduce a new IP that will be attached to the hardware. And the market is usually less crowded in the first 18 months of a new machine, so then you can try something new. Right now there are so many huge IPs already known that it’s very competitive."

That’s not to say that Ubisoft is turning its back on new IPs altogether. Corre points out R.U.S.E. -- a brand new real-time strategy IP -- is right around the corner, although its niche genre makes it a special exception. "We think with R.U.S.E. what we’ve invested so far we’ll be able to find the right consumers and be profitable," he said. "With niche games it’s possible to have a hit more than in the triple-A space, especially in the fourth and fifth year of the console cycle. We would expect franchises to be established now."

Next up out of Ubisoft after R.U.S.E.: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, new entries in two very well established franchises.