They’re not happy with the ”three to four years” it has taken for Splinter Cell to come back. Ubi also want ”all of our brands” to have multiplayer.
”Our clear goal today is to come more regularly with our top brands. For example, it took three to four years to come back with Splinter Cell, Driver, Prince of Persia, or Ghost Recon. We believe we can launch them more often without risk of brand fatigue,” said boss Guillemot, reports IGN. They won’t skimp on launching new IPs though…
”This commitment to our franchises does not mean we won’t continue to launch new franchises, as certain projects have been under development for some time, and two new titles will be launched in 2011 and 2012.”
A new Assassin’s Creed entry is expected later this year, meaning the franchise is turning annual already. Multiplayer has been announced with it taking place in Rome.
”When you add up the three Raving Rabbids games over the years, what we are seeing are the total amount of units going up,” added CFO Alain Martinez.
”Assassin’s Creed has kept selling and is still one of our best sellers. Bringing a game regularly is actually maintaining a better sell of your back catalog because you are more present and people will buy the new title or the cheaper, cost-effective ones.”
Multiplayer is where the money is. ”We’ve made big investments to make sure all of our brands could become multiplayer,” said Guillemot. ”We’re coming out with Driver, Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed, and Ghost Recon, which will all have multiplayer.”
”Those games will take full advantage of the ability to play with friends, either over the internet or locally at home. We are putting a lot of emphasis on that subject to make sure our games can be played by more people together,” he continued.
”It’s also a key factor for the relationship we have with our customers on a long-term basis.” Ubisoft plan to bring us all together, how nice. Their new PC DRM method, which isn’t DRM (but is), demands users stay connected to the Internet - enforced multiplayer?
