Ubisoft has a knack for getting ahead of major trends in the gaming industry. The publisher embraced live-service games, and that has paid off with hits like Rainbow Six: Siege. But the company is also wants to avoid settling into a rut. To accomplish this, it’s planning to shake things up by creating some new intellectual properties.
“We cherish our fans that are following our brands like Assassin’s Creed or Ghost Recon going forward,” Ubisoft EMEA boss Alain Corre said in an interview with MCVUK. “But we feel that it’s also a good moment now to [invest into] new IPs.”
The company already announced that it is preparing to launch Gods & Monsters in March. This is a new action-adventure from one of its Assassin’s Creed teams. But the game is more fantastical, which Ubisoft is going to use as an opportunity to explore different types of mechanics and gameplay verbs.
“We are going to feed this game with new things along the way,” said Corre. “Ideally, if the fans respond positively, it can have a long life in the future.”
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
Why Ubisoft is embracing new properties now
But what is different about this moment? Shouldn’t publishers always look to create something original? Corre explains that the cyclical nature of gaming is creating an opportunity where people are going to be looking for new kinds of games.
“There are lots of new technologies appearing,” said Corre. “PC is still developing fast, there are new consoles coming next year, the streaming technology is there, cross-play is also something that will excite players, so we feel it’s the right time to create new genres, and new IPs for us.”
Ubisoft has had success capitalizing on moments like this in the past. Watch Dogs debuted early in the last generation, and now that is a regular franchise. The same is true for Assassin’s Creed on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The company is definitely looking to replicate that success once again.
As Corre said, “If the sun can shine on [our new properties], we’ll have them for a long time to come.”
