Ubisoft: More franchises can help quality

via Games Industry


Fabrice Pierre-Elien, Ubisoft's business development manager, has told GamesIndustry.biz that he sees the development of new intellectual property as crucial for the company, but that creating additional franchises can help to improve the quality of games.

"Just to churn out sequel after sequel, we have done that in the past as well, and we are still very keen on establishing franchises - but we take the time in between those sequels to make the best possible game, not just another title of which the previous edition was out twelve months ago," he said.

"The more franchises you have, the more time you can take to make sure the next one is as good as it can be."

Talking in an exclusive interview in the build-up to GDC Lyon and Game Connection, Pierre-Elien added that the creation of new IP was crucial, but that the company didn't have to just rely on its internal studios to work on that area.

"One of our corporate goals is to create new IP, and we've been very successful in launching some of them in the past few years. It's something we're very keen on, at a global corporate level," he said.

"So our studios are creating new IPs, we're also creating new IP with excellent partners - we feel it's important to have some fresh air in the portfolio."

GDC Lyon and Game Connection are taking place this week at the Centre de Congres in Lyon, France. The full interview with Fabrice Pierre-Elien is available now.

Some of the best games in video game history have been remade into multiple sequels. If done right and really created with care and love from developers, a single IP like Mario, Link, etc. can turn into timeless classics that people won't mind buying sequels to.

UBISOFT has done their fair share of terrible games and trying to milk certain licensed franchises. So lets hope that new original games and characters are created. What's it gonna take? Do I need to come up with a good new IP? Because I'm thinking about it...