EA acquisition would 'kill creativity', says Ubi boss

With confident next-gen plans that include breaking into the sports and RPG markets, Ubisoft has told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz that a takeover from EA would be "dangerous" for business.

Speculation of an acquisition by publishing giant Electronic Arts has refused to go away, after the company bought a 20 per cent stake in Ubisoft two years ago.

"We have the capability, the management, the brands, the studios and the energy to go on alone," said Alain Corre, executive director for Ubisoft EMEA.

"I think it would be dangerous for a company like Ubisoft to get together too much with a company like EA, because it could kill creativity - and in our industry, I think that's key."

"The plan is for us to go on developing the business ourselves. What we have proven over the last 18, 20 months after EA got into our capital is that being independent, keeping our own strategy, was very lucrative and was the right thing to do," he added.

Confident of its performance on the next-generation consoles, Ubisoft is still looking for developer acquisitions to help it break into genres it doesn't currently have in its portfolio.

"The idea for us is to tap into the genres we're not in. We did that last summer with the acquisition of Driver and the Reflections studio, so we're now into racing more. We want to go down that route and get the skills to develop sports and RPG games in the future," revealed Corre.