Ubisoft’s Senior Vice President of sales and marketing, Tony Key said that the next generation of consoles is just what the industry needs. He is hopeful that the “raw power” found in the PS4 and Xbox One is going to open up a whole new level of gaming.
“We need to bring excitement back to this industry…”
In a recent interview, Key said that “…there’s so much more under the hood…” in reference to the next-gen consoles.
“Give them just a little more time and you’re going to see the difference start to build. The amount of innovation that’s going to occur around these machines is really going to inspire the category. That’s what we need: We need to bring excitement back to this industry.”
This echoes a statement from Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, in the summer of 2012 where he said that the lack of new consoles was damaging the potential and creativity of developers.
Key also gave a reason as to why cross generational launch titles are poorly received citing sales on current generation consoles as a key factor:
“Right now, all publishers are transitioning their development resources. For a game like Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, most of the sales are still going to be on current- generation platforms. We can’t make a version for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One that’s so wildly different that we can’t market them together,”
Key said that in the future as the gap grows that situation will change,
“For now, developers and designers are focused on making a game that works really well on all of the systems–but as we transition resources to the next gen, it’s going to be more difficult to do that because the power of these machines is going to allow so much more creativity.”
Key said that he was heartbroken that Ubisoft had to delay its upcoming franchise, Watch Dogs, which was originally scheduled as a launch title for the next generation; it’s now scheduled for Spring 2014.
The company plans to make Watch Dogs a “long-term” brand and Key said the delay was required to ensure that the game can reach its full potential.
