Ubisoft’s managing director for EMEA Alain Corre explains to Michael French why the company is investing so much in fresh content at a time when everyone else says only established franchises will sell
MOST territory bosses are – and rightly so – preoccupied with just the tangible things that relate to the P&L for their regions. But when MCVmeets with Alain
Corre, he keeps bringing up emotional topics, and how they are the things that boost the bottom line. Art, love, psychology. Maybe it’s because he’s French. Or maybe it’s because our chat took place while Ubisoft was still riding a huge wave of praise for its E3 showing. At a time when everyone else is cutting back, Ubisoft is investing more in both existing games and new ones – talk that it ‘won’ E3 for surprisingly strong franchises and original ideas reflected that. “It was our best E3 yet and we’re very pleased with the response and the buzz: during the show we had the Top Five trending topics on Twitter for a while,” says Corre. “We’ve never had that kind of response, so it’s given us a lot of positive energy.”
KILLER INSTINCT While new IPs like Watch Dogsand ZombiUraised eyebrows at E3, growing lead franchise Assassin’s Creedat a time period where all franchises are threatened by shrinkage from a struggling retail base, is the top priority. October’s ACIII, then, is the first
‘true’ sequel since November 2009’s Assassin’s Creed II. It changes setting and time period, introduces a new hero, furthers the story, and generally widens the scope of an already-ambitious series.
“The response we are having with this one is enormous. We always wanted to make people dream and inspire them with this series. I think that frankly the game looks like a work of art.” Corre says this artistic flair will translate to sales and expand the Top Three franchise beyond its two chart rivals FIFAand Call of Duty.
18 August 3rd 2012
“We are very positive on Assassin’s, even more than before, and we think that we can really go to the next level on this one in terms of business. In Europe it has been in the Top Three at Christmas. This year… I don’t know if we can grab the No.2 spot, but definitely we can get even closer to it. “In the last few years there’s Call of Dutyand FIFAon top. This year with the product we have and the buzz we’ve been having, we can say hello to FIFA. Hopefully we will beat it. We’re lucky this year because there are not many other action games coming and our product is better than before. When you mix the two, I think the potential can be really, really big.”
THE UNEXPECTED Beating FIFAis a surprising claim, but not something Corre says just for a reaction – the market has prior form in pushing older franchises to the top of the pile, he says. “Call of Dutyshowed the market that you could go and break some barriers. It was the first one to go above 20 million worldwide, at a time when it was five years old. It shows that when a game is perfect, perfectly accepted, then the consumers, with word of mouth, will go for it. With Assassin’s Creedwe are going that way. We are opening it up to a broader audience. We have a lot of different gameplay in the game. You have a lot of quests that can appeal to the hardcore gamer, can appeal also to the father and his son, to the 30-year-old guy with his girlfriend. We’re trying to open up that so it can be an adventure game for everybody and I think there is no limit to what we can achieve.” Corre has similar aspirations for Ubisoft’s Nintendo games. At E3 it was clearly the biggest third-party supporter of Wii U, with eight games on the way. While other
Call of Duty showed the market you could break barriers. It went over 20m when it was five years old. With Assassin’s Creed we are going that way.
“ Alain Corre, Ubisoft
publishers re-evaluated their Wii support when it became clear that only the games with real cut- through succeeded on any scale, Ubisoft has excitedly dived headfirst into every new Nintendo platform. The secret is how people think, not any clever marketing tricks. “You have to understand how the Nintendo fans are and what they like and love, and we have spent time in doing that. Also, we have some developers internally that adore Nintendo. So it’s not difficult for us to ask them to focus on a Nintendo machine. Combine the two, and it’s a good formula. It’s creative. And it’s a different logic