ubisoft

Can game developers expand out of the game business?

An interesting article from Kotaku today, discusses Ubisoft's intention to get into the film business and try to expand its offerings beyond video games.

"Our goal is to create a studio that will be very high quality, our goal is to try to get to the level of quality of Peter Jackson's Weta studio," Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot said in an interview. "We have been working to train people, to recruit highly talented people and we are in test mode at the moment. We are going to make sure that we get to the level of Weta. We have a long way to go but in getting to that level will help us to actually be one of the studios where everybody has to go."

Peter Jackson, best known for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and as director of King Kong, is currently working in collaboration with Bungie to create a new game set in the Halo universe. The game is currently titled Halo: Chronicles, but no release date has been given.

Guillemot sounds ambitious and I applaud him for trying to do more with his business, I can't help but wonder if video game developers have any place in other forms of entertainment. Can they really create a stellar sitcom or a blockbuster hit at the theaters? Are they capable of publishing sci-fi novels?

With the way things are going in all of those industries, I don't think it's too far-fetched at all.… Read more

Ubisoft buys Tom Clancy's name

Tom Clancy has sold his name.

French video game giant Ubisoft said Thursday that it has agreed to buy all "intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name, on a perpetual basis and free of all related future royalty payments, for use in video games and ancillary products including related books, movies and merchandising products."

So, strictly speaking, Clancy, the author of megahit books like Patriot Games, The Hunt for Red October, and The Sum of All Fears will get to continue to use his own moniker in his personal life. And even on his books.

But when … Read more

Gaming preview: Ubisoft shows us how World War III will go down

Last week, we brought you new details on two games from the Ubisoft press event held in New York City--Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Far Cry 2. Today we wrap up our coverage with a look at Tom Clancy's EndWar, a new franchise from the publisher.

At first glance, we were quite skeptical of a real-time-strategy game on a console. However, after about two minutes of watching one of the developers play the game using only his voice, we were convinced that the team at Ubisoft Shanghai might be on to something here.

Let us clarify the whole voice control situation---there was barely any manual controlling needing to be done besides aiming with a crosshair and adjusting the camera angle.… Read more

Gaming preview: Ubisoft brings us back to Vegas

Ubisoft held the company's latest press event in New York this week, and we were lucky enough to get in some time with a few highly anticipated new games coming from the publisher this year. Yesterday, Will Greenwald told you about Far Cry 2, with its Crysis-like physics and effects. Today, we'll shed some light on Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

Just when we thought we had enough of Las Vegas (CES can do that to a man), Ubisoft throws us right back into the mix of things in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2. While the first Vegas had us running through casinos and garage lots at night, Vegas 2 takes place more during the daylight hours as you'll be seeing back alleys and the grittier side of the town. Rather than giving us an "add-on" to the first title, the team at Ubisoft Montreal has built a game worthy of being labeled as an official sequel. So rest assured, this is certainly not Rainbow Six Vegas: Out of Cash.… Read more

Gaming preview: 'Far Cry 2:' Cry Harder

Sequels make me nervous. If you have a great game and a sequel gets approved, more often than not it'll become an overworked mess that ignores some of the best parts of the original title while tacking on additions that serve no purpose and make the game a chore to play. This becomes even more likely when the new game is handed off to a different developer. Naturally, when I heard that Far Cry 2, the first genuine sequel to Far Cry (and not a pseudo-sequel with the format Far Cry Additional Word) would be developed by Ubisoft Montreal … Read more

E3: 'Assassin's Creed' gameplay

UPDATE: If you're having difficulty playing the embedded video above, try here instead.

Assassin's Creed has been hyped for quite some time now, and at E3 yesterday, Ubisoft was able to show us a walkthrough of the E3 demo. Creed's overall style and gameplay mechanics may remind you of the Prince of Persia series, as the same developers are behind it. Assassin's Creed is due out in November for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.