Ubi to make franchise games more often
And they will all have multiplayer.
Ubisoft plans to produce games based on its biggest franchises more often and wants everything to have multiplayer in it, according to CEO Yves Guillemot.
"Our clear goal today is to come more regularly with our top brands," Guillemot told investors (thanks IGN), pointing out that previously there had been long layoffs between Splinter Cell, Driver and others.
"We believe we can launch them more often without risk of brand fatigue."
However, this doesn't mean Ubisoft will stop launching new IP, said Guillemot, with two new efforts launching in 2011 and 2012.
They and indeed everything else will be supported by some form of online play, too. "We've made big investments to make sure all of our brands could become multiplayer," Guillemot explained. "We're coming out with Driver, Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed and Ghost Recon, which will all have multiplayer."
Following the release of the single-player Assassin's Creed II last year, the company has already made plans to follow it up with a new instalment that includes multiplayer, while yesterday it announced Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, complete with multiplayer beta.
Other games on the slate for this year, including Splinter Cell: Conviction (16th April) and RUSE, already promise multiplayer support.
Ubisoft isn't the only publisher thinking this way either. Yesterday John Schappert said that EA was planning online modes and DLC for all its titles in future.