Ubi wants to make a Clancy MMO
Royalties were holding it back before.
Following news that Ubisoft has bought rights to the Tom Clancy name, company boss Yves Guillemot has suggested that the company is interested in making a massively multiplayer game based on the franchise.
"We will be able to adapt the brand to new formats, in particular the MMO format, where the royalties were a big thing holding us back," Guillemot said in a conference call. His comment implies that Ubisoft has been interested in this idea for a while, and that an MMO is near the top of its Clancy wish-list.
Guillemot's comment is further indication that big publishers are now interested in creating MMOs based on their most popular, mass-market brands, and moving away from fantasy content. Activision boss Bobby Kotick kicked around the idea of a Call of Duty MMO some time ago, although Guillemot's words sound more like a serious statement of intent to us.
Guillemot also noted that Ubisoft now has "complete editorial control" over the Clancy universe, which allows for "cross-fertilisation of characters between games, like Super Smash Bros", and could lead to the games publisher becoming "a major player" in film, television and book publishing.
