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If there's one thing that's typified this generation so far, it's a huggy, snuggly sense of bringing everyone together in warm, soft-focused harmony and togetherness. Whether it's Nintendo uniting all of your relatives in the fun of videogames and the shared joy of dealing with Granny's Wii-induced popped hip as a family, Microsoft getting the whole world playing together over Live, or Sony making us all get cute and co-operative with Little Big Planet, it's been one big, gooey, Christmas special-style love-in so far. The latest company to turn into a bunch of big hippies is Ubisoft. During his speech at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today, CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that a secret project is underway at the company, focusing heavily on user input and centering around consumer-created content. He stated that "We need to put gamers in the spotlight and recognize their creativity and make sure that our consumers are the stars." as he described the multi-platform game in which Ubisoft will encourage and reward users' involvement. Guillemot also went on to describe the game's heavy emphasis on community:
Community-created content is far from a new idea of course, but the way Ubisoft seems to be considering it as the whole raison d'etre of its new project is definitely interesting. Let's hope it will turn into a worthwhile game in itself rather than just another dabbling in the current zeitgeist. Also mentioned by Guillemot at the EIF today was Ubisoft's forthcoming venture into cross-media production by way of its new Digital Arts Studio. Hit the jump for what he said on why Ubi is branching out and how the new media projects will relate to its games. We are moving towards launching books, games and movies at the same time. The movie industry creates more ideas than us at the moment, but the more they work, the more they are coming up with the same ideas. We are working more and more on re-using the same graphics [to reduce costs], and we are going in that direction, especially for AAA products. We will have to start making movies, because if we don't do it, we won't be able to take advantage of the power of the next generation. In creating movies and games at the same time, we see what we have to improve to make better games as well. We try to make the products complementary in different media. The goal is not to do the book of the game, but a quality product in itself, that will help you feel more immersed in the game because you know more. It's the same in the movie. Maybe it's just that it's late and I'm tired while I'm writing this, but Guillemot's comments strike me as a bit less exciting than what we last heard about the studio. Back in June, talk was of converging the film and gaming media to create new hybrid experiences, and while news like that is obviously best served with kilo or two of salt on the side, it was ambitious and certainly enough to raise an interested eyebrow. The new comments seem to imply some more standard spin-off merchandising at the moment, although obviously the fact that these projects are being created in-house rather than farmed out to Hollywood bodes for much better results than those enterprises usually yield. We may well eventually see the kind of converging media that has previously been spoken about, and I certainly hope we do, but I get the feeling it's going to take a period of learning and experimentation from Ubisoft before it happens. Once again my friends, we shall have to wait a while and see how well this talk translates to reality. Though that doesn't of course, mean that we can't have fun speculating wildly in the meantime. [Thankyou once again, GoldenDonut!] Did you know? You can now get daily or weekly email notifications when humans reply to your comments.
Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)12:30 PM on 03.28.2013 Ground Zeroes prequel to Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom PainDuring the yesterday’s Metal Gear Solid V reveal (find the fabulous gameplay demo and trailer here) I was sort of sure I knew what was going on. To my understanding, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid:...
6:30 PM on 03.23.2013 Runescape 3 pops into existence this summerMy first foray into the world of Runescape was a less than successful one. I was a wee bit lost, chopping wood and not really knowing what to do with it, when I asked a friendly looking chap for a bit of advice. He promptly ...
5:15 PM on 03.18.2013 Daedalic's new adventure game, Memoria, looks gorgeousIndie adventure developer Daedalic is returning to Aventuria, the setting of last year's sumptuous, yet sometimes frustrating The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav, with Memoria. If it's anything like the previous installment, it p...
9:30 AM on 03.15.2013 Wargaming to show off new game at GDC 2013Wargaming has announced that it will be unveiling a new title at GDC 2013, which is set to begin in just over a week. Along with the new title, Wargaming will also be showing off World of Warplanes, which received a larg...
9:30 PM on 03.06.2013 Contra 4, Double Dragon Neon dev forms new studio[Update: The Yatch Club Games Twitter profile is up with a little shadowy sprite in the top left corner of the banner image. The Facebook page has even more shrouded figures. What does this mean?!? I know, but I can't tell yo...
2:00 PM on 02.24.2013 Second DLC for Painkiller: Hell & Damnation now availablePainkiller: Hell & Damnation's second piece of DLC has launched and is now available to download on Steam. The Clock Strikes Meat Night will cost you $6.99 and adds three new enemies, a new environmental weapon ...
9:34 AM on 02.21.2013 The Witcher 3 officially confirmed for the PlayStation 4It's official -- The Witcher 3 will be coming to the PlayStation 4. CD Projekt explains that this was in the cards for some time, and not a recent decision: "We were thrilled when asked, several months ago, to be one of the ...
7:47 PM on 02.20.2013 Watch Dogs officially confirmed for Wii UJust yesterday we heard rumblings of a possible Wii U version of Ubisoft's Watch Dogs. Well, today Ubisoft has officially confirmed the existence of a Wii U version alongside of the PlayStation 4 reveal. The touch s...
6:20 PM on 02.20.2013 inFamous: Second Son announced for PS4Following what could only be characterized as a "downer" moment during Sony's live presentation today where Sucker Punch's Nate Fox reminded everyone that Big Brother is watching us, we have been shown the first footage of t...
6:19 PM on 02.20.2013 Blow's The Witness will be a timed exclusive on PS4Apparently Sony is wanting the PlayStation 4 to drown in indie titles, and with this in mind they are letting indie developers self-publish on PSN. To emphasize this, Braid designer Johnathan Blow was brought on st...
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