Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot is preparing his troops for the coming of the next generation of consoles, he wants to ”be there with a good team” when they unveil to studios.
Increasing the staff rooster this early is ”a risk,” admits the bossman, but he’s keen to point out that ”without risk you have less success.” Aim to deliver ”another level of quality” this year.
”What we’ve seen is that there are still lots of opportunities in this industry, and we have to get ready for the next generation of consoles,” Guillemot told GamesIndustry.biz.
”I know each time I say that, everybody says that we don’t know when they will come… but what we’ve seen is that when you don’t actually have enough creators to make the games when the new consoles start, you can’t take the time or have enough energy to use the capacity of those consoles.”
”So the goal is really to try to be there with a good team that’s capable of using all the potential of those new consoles.” To that end Ubi have revealed two super sized studios that are expected to grow even more, one in Singapore to fill out to 400 staffers and the other in Toronto at 700 eventually. Other publishers, like EA and THQ, have been trimming down.
”For sure, it’s a risk,” he noted. ”What I’ve seen all the way in this industry is that without risk you have less success. You have to take risk to have a chance to succeed.”
”I believe that this industry will continue to grow fast, and that it will be a very large industry. I think it interactive entertainment will grow in picking up the businesses that are around, like the movie industry did a long time ago.”
Thankfully they’ve got properties like Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell to help fuel their future, and Ubi have big plans for their continued presence.
”That’s why we believe it’s time to invest, because it’s the right time to continue to expand the brands we’re creating, and to make better games. Because we wanted to come here this year with another level of quality,” continued Guillemot.
”On some products last year we were not as happy as we wanted, so this time we’ve been investing more to make sure that everybody will be happy with the games that we launch.”
Does Ubisoft have the right idea? Should the other publishers have done more to keep studios open and just rode out the unpleasantness? The French company sure has hot titles coming…
