"Under-pressure Sony must react to 360" - Ubi boss
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Johnny Minkley 09:01 29/09/2006
Increased competition will benefit everyone, argues Guillemot
Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot has hailed Microsoft's X06 showcase, warning that the growing strength of 360 is putting market leader Sony under pressure to react with its rival PlayStation 3 console.
Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz at the aftershow to the glitzy Barcelona event, Guillemot, whose firm significantly pledged an exclusive Splinter Cell title to the next-gen Xbox, said increased competition will benefit everyone in the market.
"What Microsoft is showing is that even if Sony has a lead in market share, Xbox is going to get better penetration in Europe," he said. "It's good to have many players on the same battlefield; I think it will push Sony to react, and also Nintendo to look at how they position themselves to make their machine a success. When the manufacturers are making great games and pushing each machine hard it can help everybody make the videogames business a better business."
But Guillemot refused to be drawn on whether Sony's market-leadership was now under seriously under threat, adding: "Sony is very far ahead in terms of market share so it's not possible to say today - we will see how Sony reacts. But there is more competition, which we think is good."
Ubisoft proved one of the biggest third-party 360 cheerleaders on the night, with the announcement of the Splinter Cell exclusive and an on-stage demo of the stunning Assassin's Creed proving one of the highlights of the conference.
On the decision to hand the next instalment of the lucrative adventures of stealth operative Sam Fisher to Microsoft, Guillemot explained: "Splinter Cell was created on the first Xbox, so we thought it was important to come back for one volume with Microsoft to create a very good quality title focused on using the full power of the system.
"And especially for next year when the big guns will be out, it's very important to have a game that will use 360 to the full, because you will need that to fight against all the other games that will be there. For us it's a good way to win the next-gen battle. We love Xbox 360 because it's easy to develop on and that's why we want to put great quality products on it."
Elsewhere, the French publisher boss also praised Microsoft's partnership with movie director Peter Jackson as vital to the development of interactive entertainment.
"I think this was a great presentation not just because it showed great games, but also great future games," Guillemot insisted. "The most important thing was the alliance between the movie industry, the CGI industry and the videogames business. I think that's a good move in creating games that will bring more emotion to the experience - those guys know how to create emotion so they are going to help us as an industry to deliver that."
Ubisoft worked with the Academy Award-winning filmmaker on the chart-topping Kong Kong videogame in 2005, and has previously expressed an intention to make film tie-ins account for 20 per cent of the publisher's overall business in the future.
