Ubi targets seven for Wii launch

By Tom Bramwell Published 4 August, 2006

Far Cry, Blazing Angels, more.

Ubisoft has demonstrated its confidence in Nintendo Wii with the promise of seven titles at launch.

The French publisher had previously announced Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids for Wii, and this week followed it up with talk of Far Cry, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII, Monster 4x4 World Circuit, Open Season and GT Pro Series.

A disputed French version of the publisher's press announcement also made reference to a Prince of Persia Wii title, although that release was soon retracted and reworded to reference other, unnamed games also in development.

Speaking to IGN, North American Ubisoft president, Laurent Detoc, said the depth of the publisher's Wii line-up was down to starting development earlier than its rivals. "We don't have a crystal ball but we think the Wii is going to be a huge success right away and we want to be the number-one independent publisher for Wii in 2006," he said.

According to Detoc, Far Cry will include elements of Xbox title Far Cry Instincts Evolution, in addition to a new storyline, levels, characters and equipment. First-person shooting control will be handled by the Wii remote, as will piloting of vehicles like cars, trucks and boats. In Blazing Angels, he said, the left and right hands would perform separate roles.

New title Monster 4x4 is a arcade driving title with an emphasis on stunts, while GT Pro Series is another racing game "inspired by a Japanese game that was never released here". Ubisoft's attempts to get into driving recently have included the acquisition of Atari's Driver series and the signing of Xbox 360 title Import Tuner Challenge from Genki in Japan.

Ubisoft promised more details on each of its seven announced titles soon.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tomo #1 6 years ago

    Good to hear. Ubisoft aren't a bad company at all and Far Cry at launch is excellent news! My only reservation is that it could turn out to be rushed in order to meet the launch date, but time will tell.

  • AcidSnake #2 6 years ago

    But is it confirmed for launch day?
    Or is it scheduled in the 'launch window'?

  • Santino #3 6 years ago

    i think they said all would be available within the first month of launch AcidSnake.

  • AcidSnake #4 6 years ago

    Thanks...
    Looks like quite a nice line-up then...
    All the bases more than covered

  • Wayne #5 6 years ago

    Ii'm stiill waiiting on an announcement for Beyond Good And Eviil 2.

  • alimokrane #6 6 years ago

    Aparately sequels to brilliant games that do not sell are out of the question. a very sad fact indeed, sorry Jade.

    A New Prince of Persia would be the best thing ever.
    Edited by 1 at 04/08/06 @ 12:08

  • Talha #7 6 years ago

    Far Cry? Somehow doesn't seem well suited for the Wii, not least because of its still staggering technical overhead as well as its tone and content. The rest of the lineup looks ideal, though. I agree with the sentiments about Ubi above and would go as far as saying that Ubi are the best 'big' publisher around.

  • Sko #8 6 years ago

    Tone & Content?

  • Eldritch #9 6 years ago

    The only (hopefully) original title is Rayman (should be interesting to see how they use the new controller).
    FarCry sound like just another port.
    The rest sounds rather generic/boring.

  • alpha-0ne #10 6 years ago

    Shame most of it is just ports of old titles

  • smoison #11 6 years ago

    Lets hope they deliver the goods.


    God knows Farcry on Xbox was sub par thanks to the gamepad.

    This will be quite the test of the Wii-mote, with red steel a MP3 of course.
    Edited by 1 at 04/08/06 @ 12:52

  • Santino #12 6 years ago

    Regarding Far Cry, they said you can do a variety of different action with the wii-mote, such as punching people and lobbing grenades, driving etc...hopefully it will be good. Also, they are including a peripheral with the GT game, wonder what it is... they said to stay tuned...literally, and the game is described as including heavy tuning options. i have no idea what it could be though

  • AcidSnake #13 6 years ago

    Stay tuned?
    Via the wiiconnect you can listen to real radio stations while you drive in the new gt game...
    Could be anyway...

  • SimonM7 #14 6 years ago

    With CoD3 on there I'm not sure Far Cry has a tone & content problem. :)

    I think people have a bias & attitude problem toward Nintendo consoles though.

  • JetSetWilly #15 6 years ago

    Shame most of it is just ports of old titles

    Maybe so, but ports that wouldn't have made it to GameCube.

    If publishers start to see Wii as a place that they can take existing assets to quickly and easily its library of games could flourish. Sure it leaves them open to lazy-port syndrome and using-the-wiimote-for-the-sake-of-it-itis but if it means Wii has a larger and more diverse catalogue than GameCube that's only going to benefit Nintendo.

  • SimonM7 #16 6 years ago

    Also, instead of waiting around for new IPs using the Wiimote for the obvious shooting, fencing, and other wiggle-based activities, we get some pretty good games right away to keep us occupied. That was a problem with the DS back at launch. There were a bunch of obvious uses that weren't really taken advantage of until way later in the shape of Settlers and Metroid Prime Hunters.

    Not that those are the most exciting things you can get out of the DS, or the Wii for that matter, but at least it fills a potential gap.

  • smelly #17 6 years ago

    Far Cry? Somehow doesn't seem well suited for the Wii, not least because of its still staggering technical overhead as well as its tone and content


    Well as the wii is reportedly twice as powerful than the cube (although we still dont have official specs).. that makes it significantly more powerful than the xbox.

    And the xbox handled far cry okay didnt it?


    Shame most of it is just ports of old titles


    That hasnt hurt the 360 so far has it?
    Edited by 1 at 05/08/06 @ 18:40

  • Talha #18 6 years ago

    @Smelly: No, it didn't. Far Cry XBox was a pale, stunted facsimile of its PC counterpart.

  • smelly #19 6 years ago

    Well it's a good job the wii is more powerful than the xbox then isnt it?

  • Carrybagma #20 6 years ago

    Smelly, I do wish you wouldn't present the Wii=GC X 2.5 = XBOX X 1.5 type arguments as a given. It's like saying the PS3 will *obviously* be more powerful than the 360 'cos it's got bigger numbers, and more of them.

    I hope you're right, for what that's worth, but if a console is judged by it's games, then it will only take a few lazy ports of games like Far Cry to make the Wii appear a bit of a let-down.