August 27th, 2008

Ubisoft Europe

The fact that Ubisoft moved a lot of its operations in Europe is not something new, since notorious games like Silent Hunter 3 or the Blazing Angels series were developed by Ubisoft Romania, for example, but the idea was to use Europe's talents for coming up with great products for the US market at a lower cost that usual. What's that? Well, think again, because I also reconsidered my position - Europe is not Ubisoft's biggest territory!

Who said that? Don't worry, I am not claiming to be a seer, because I am not. This is coming straight from Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot, who spoke with GamesIndustry.biz about their new breakthrough in Europe. How was this possible?

"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. So for Ubisoft turnover Europe

is actually more important than the US now, and by more than 5 per cent. It's become a very strong market for us," explained Guillemot at the Games Convention to GamesIndustry.biz.

Sometimes, I wonder how come I don't manage to push my parents into computer gaming, but since we don't meet too often, the last thing I'd wish would be seeing each other to talk about...the latest computer games! Sounds like a mad scenario? I know, but for some people, this could also be the truth, since Ubisoft's CEO also said that "(..)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."

You know what's the funnies part? While Guillemot talks about putting game quality above financial schedules, Ubisoft Romania also released Silent Hunter 4, an extremely unpolished and buggy title. So...what does have this to do with game quality? :(