CEO Yves Guillemot of Ubisoft has said they're positioning themselves to be ready for when new hardware roles out, they'll have devs in place when its time.
While admitting the "details are confidential" on any new hardware or platform launches, Ubisoft aren't going to just sit back and wait. It's "important to recruit now" and be prepared.
"It's difficult to answer because details are confidential, but what we see is that on handheld and on consoles there are lots of things that will happen in the next few years," said Guillemot.
"That's why we consider that it's important to recruit now, and train people, so that those investments will come in the next few years. I'd say that some of the needs will come in one to two years, to start working on products."
"To answer the question on new technologies - I'd say at the moment it's no more than 10 per cent of internal development, on technologies that have not yet been made public yet."
Some in the industry have predicted new platforms by around 2012 or 2014, though analysts doubt we'll be seeing a PlayStation 4 from Sony at least.
New tech is "going more towards ease of use and accessibility than anything else," he adds.
"Yes, internet and multiplayer, digital downloads and the ability to stream products will increase, but most of the things that will happen will be in the technology to help people to play."
"What we see is that we never have enough people in our studios, even after recruiting 1300 people this year, we still need 500 people more to create more products that we are sure will be profitable." On average Ubi wants to employ 900 more people each fiscal year.
"So the need for very talented people in our studios is very important, and that's why we're recruiting and training lots of new talent, to make sure we can continue to create high quality games in the future, at a good speed."
What new hardware do you think Guillemot is getting at? Could we see a new Xbox by 2012-ish?
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
