Tag Archives: Yves Guillemot

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has refused to confirm that Assassin’s Creed will be taking a break next year.

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Ubisoft said in its fiscal year financial call last night that it reckons over half of the games line-up due out in 2012 will be 3D-enabled.

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Ubisoft’s confirmed a €78 million loss for the first half of the current fiscal year, ended September. The same period in 2008 saw a €33 million profit.

Revenue plummeted compared to last year, down to €166 million from €344.5 million in the previous corresponding period.

Ow.

“Ubisoft had a light first-half line-up, driving much weaker sales (down 52% vs. last year), with DS software piracy, lower catalog sales, and a continued weak retail environment all contributed to the decline,” said Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter in a note.

Ubi boss Yves Guillemot pointed to brightness from Assassin’s Creed II in the current half of the year, but warned against optimism related to Ubi’s Wii games.

“First week sales of Assassin’s Creed II, up 32%, with positive initial indications for the second week, combined with an overwhelmingly warm reception from gamers, validates our strategy of developing bigger franchises,” he said.

“Based on this initial data, Assassin’s Creed 2 looks well positioned to outstrip targets while our Wii games have got off to a more contrasted start in a less predictable arket.

“Finally, sales of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game should benefit from the launch of the movie which is expected to be the biggest blockbuster of this holiday season.”

Hit this for the full joy.

Ubisoft has said in their first half 09/10 results call that the company is working on ten games using Project Natal, and four or five games for the PlayStation Motion Controller.

Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot made the announcement in the call. Guillemot said that over 70 percent of the titles in development for both motion controllers are new IPs.

Ubi also said games being made for Natal will be released within six months of the motion camera’s launch.

From TVGB.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told investors and industry executives at the BMO Capital Markets conference in New York today that new genres are on the way from the company.

These include fighters, music, RPGs, and sports, but while he did not give specifics on what these games entailed or what the titles were, but it’s known that a Might & Magic fantasy MMO called Heroes Kingdoms is pegged for early next year.

Guillemot also said that Trackmania 2 will be out on 2010, as well, and in-house developers are currently sweating over casual games for Project Natal and Sony’s Motion Controller.

Good to know more is on the way.

Via Kotaku.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has revealed that preorder numbers for Assassin’s Creed II are up 80 percent compared to the original, which is in stark contrast to Monday’s report from Janco analyst Mike Hikey, citing preorders for the sequel were up 10-20 percent on the original.

This bit was revealed during Ubisoft’s financial call to investors, along with the news that the company expects 15-25 percent higher total sales of the sequel.

Guillemot also said that Ubisoft and Sony signed a television marketing deal this year, which means that TV spots featuring the game will be PS3centric only.

Take that other formats, we reckon.

Via GI.Biz.

Trackmania developer Nadia’s sold out to Ubi, it’s been confirmed today.

Did you know Trackmania’s played by 700,000 people a month? Well, it is.

“The acquisition of Nadeo is an important step in our expansion within the on-line gaming sector”, said super Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s mega-boss.

“Through Nadeo, Ubisoft will gain an expert team, one of the best on-line technologies around as well as a flagship multiplayer game that enjoys an unrivalled reputation among a loyal and committed community.

Trackmania 2 was announced recently for a 2010 ship.

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Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said that because Q1 2010 is getting a bit overcrowded, consumers should prepare themselves for more game delays.

“We now have a situation where there are a lot of good games due for release in the first half of next year, but I think some publishers will move again,” he told MCV. “The first quarter of 2010 is looking pretty crazy.

“So I expect some movement from the other players – some of those delayed games will be moved again.”

Sorry to say, but most of us kind of figured this out a while back, Mr. Guillemot.

More through the link.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and EA Games president Frank Gibeau have spoken of the “exceptional” price cut Sony brought in for the Playstation 3.

“It’s exceptional news, actually. I think the machine is a great machine, with the Blu-ray. I’m happy that they were able to move to that [price point], particularly in the UK,” said Guillemot.

As for Gibeau: “I think it’s awesome. It’s an old line, but it still rings true for us: ‘We make the ammunition for the hardware wars’. So the lowest priced hardware possible is a good thing for us. We want to see as big and broad a base as possible, and the Sony hardware is a good piece of equipment.”

Sony announced the price cut on Tuesday at it’s GamesCom presser. It now retails for £249/$299/€299.

More at GI.

During Ubisoft’s financial call to investors, CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that new and back-catalog DS games sales dropped 67 percent compared to the same time frame as last year.

The blame was put on DS piracy in Europe and the company does not expect titles for the handheld to pick back up until summer roles around once more.

“Altogether our DS sales are down 67 percent versus last year and this has affected both the back catalog and the new releases,” he stated. “It’s important to note that we do lots of our DS game sales during the summer which is a period where people go for holidays and buy lots of those games. Because this market is slowing down it has a big impact on the second quarter.”

“Entering the second quarter we expect those trends to continue with much lower than expected sales of back catalog and new releases on DS games.”

Guillemot said Ubisoft is looking to boost DS sales in the meantime by including extras like figurines and premium packaging to lure customers into a purchase.

“What we are seeing in Europe, especially on the DS, is that the piracy is strong so we are working to put new figurines and new elements in the box that will change that for the future,” he said. “But in the short-term it’s affecting us. For example in Europe we have the same market share on DS as last year, so it’s really the market which is declining.

“Retail, because of that, is less active on the format.”

Thanks, GI.biz.

Ubisoft super-chief Yves Guillemot has predicted game budgets will rise to an average of $60 million in the next hardware cycle.

“The next generation is going to be so powerful that playing a game is going to be the equivalent of playing a CGI movie today,” the exec told CNBC.

Big budget 360 and PS3 games cost between $20-30 million to make.

There’s a full interview through there. Thanks, EG.

While Natal and PS3′s motion tech presents a large opportunity for some games, Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot has told CNBC that big action games will most likely continue to be played on traditional controllers.

“The current pad for gamers is giving them a lot,” he said on the subject of whether or not games like Assassin’s Creed or Splinter Cell will be played with motion-sensing.

“They play for hours, so they don’t want to get up and down. They don’t want to be tired after five minutes. These games are about reactivity.”

Guillemot added, however, that he expects as much as 80 percent of the company’s future family games – including Rayman – to utilize motion-sensor controls.

Hit the link for the full thing.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told investors during the company’s full-year financial call today that Apple is set to be a bigger name in gaming and not because of iPhone, but in gaming hardware.

“There’s also a new entrant in the business,” he said. “[That entrant is] Apple, with the iPhone. And we don’t think they will stop there.”

It’s worth noting that Guillemot’s older brother, Michel, runs GameLoft, a huge player in the development of games for iPhone. So he may just know of what he speaks.

Elaborating on his April prediction of new handhelds and consoles, Guillemot spoke more about his thoughts on gaming hardware when prompted by an analyst’s question.

“We will see more customers coming to the video game industry… They will start also to come under the boxes you see under the TV because those TV boxes will be more powerful… We will see more consoles on which we will be able to put products,” he said.

“As for the next generation of consoles we can’t give you a date but from what we see there is a lot of energy to improve the consoles [that are out now]. We are already working on some of the elements that will appeal in the next generation.

“You saw new interfaces with the Wiimote and also with the DS with the stylus. What we see for the future is they will also be big announcement in interfaces. It will not only happen in consoles but also happen on those TV boxes as well.”

Thanks, Kotaku.

Ubisoft said in a conference call last night that Shaun White Snowboarding has now sold more than 3 million units, Gamespot reports.

On the strength of the numbers, Shaun’s going to make a comeback, boss Yves Guillemot said.

“You can expect more Shaun White in the future,” said the exec.

Ubi showed a Q4 sales increase of 14 percent to $1.4 billion last night.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed in an earnings call earlier today that he hope review scores for Prince of Persia “can be in the 9s.”

“Already, there’s a number of good marks,” he said. “We have 8s, some 9s and one 10.”

“But we’re still waiting for a lot of marks to come. So altogether, at the moment [scores are around] high 8s. We hope it can be in the 9s, but [we expect] it to be 8.5 and 9.2 or 3.”

Why is 9.4 always overlooked?

Game’s out next week. Thanks, Edge.

By Mike Bowden

As reported by Reuters, a slew of games industry heads said at the BMO Capital Markets interactive entertainment conference in New York yesterday that they remain optimistic about sales this Christmas and are expecting general growth again next year.

“I think it’s going to hold up a lot better than other industries,” said Mindy Mount, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division. “We remain cautiously optimistic.”

“In general, there’s a lot of competition (from other publishers), but we see that software is selling well, just due to the fact there are a lot of machine owners who need software,” said Ubi boss Yves Guillemot.

Guillemot said he still expects 2008 North American and European video game industry software sales to grow by more than 20 percent, and added that 2009 “will also be a great year.”

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime had more bluster.

“If I look at this from an industry perspective I think cautiously optimistic is quite appropriate,” he said. “If I look at it from a Nintendo perspective, I would say very optimistic.”

EA sports head Peter Moore sounded a little more realistic.

“We are entering uncharted water from an economic standpoint,” he said. “We are holding our breath and hoping the consumer comes out to play.”

More through there.

Ubi boss Yves Guillemot has told GI that Europe is the biggest cash territory for the publisher, bringing in more than 5 percent more revenue than the US.

“First, our money – the pound or the euro – is very strong and because of that the turnover from those countries is heavier than they used to be,” he explained during an interview at Games Convention.

“So for Ubisoft turnover Europe is actually more important than the US now, and by more than 5 percent. It’s become a very strong market for us.

“I think there are lots of customers that want to play – because in Europe we love to play – the only problem we had was that the games were becoming more and more difficult to play.

“Now that there’s more accessibility, some accessories that are helping people to have fun, I think this market has no limit in the growth it can have if we can make sure that the people that are coming in are staying.”

There’s a full interview here.

Adam over at Kikizo diarized some face-time with Ubi-cheese Yves “Likeable” Guillemot at Ubidays, and asked him some fair old questions. He dodged most of them, as is his wont, but this makes for interesting reading nonetheless. So do so.

Speaking to GI, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has given a good bit of detail on how important creating CGI animated movies will be for the publisher going forward, saying the aim it to rival the likes of Peter Jackson for quality.

“Our goal is to create a studio that will be very high quality, our goal is to try to get to the level of quality of Peter Jackson’s Weta studio,” he said.

“We don’t need to be always making [a] movie, but what we have to do is make sure that what’s necessary for our games is done close to us so we can reuse assets. Or we can have a specific relationship with a director who is going to do 3D imaging in such a way that we can also use them in our games,” he added.

“The goal is to produce the images, the animations, to work on defining scenarios, because that’s what we need in our games.

“For the rest, we will start by working with external companies that are interested and know this business, but we will make sure that movies are coming out at the same time as our games, as our books and other ancillary products.”

Much more through the link. The full interview’s here.

Ubisoft announced last Thursday – just as most of the British press had landed in the pub to “celebrate” Easter – that it had acquired the rights to the Tom Clancy brand from the man himself, in itself a major announcement.

In an investor call after the press release was issued, though, Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the publisher was now to start work on a Clancy-branded MMO. It only takes a small leap of logic to realise that the ramifications of such a project could be seismic.

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