Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft and one of the founding brothers, gave a speech a while ago advising the videogame industry not to blindly pour its efforts into mimicking Japanese developers' abilities. He spoke of Japan's notoriously discerning, experienced gamer and the difficulties Western publishers face when trying to crack that particular cultural barrier. Though it may seem harsh and a little shortsighted, he went on to suggest we shouldn't even bother trying. To do so would only hamper the successful recipes many developers have created for making more locally appealing games.
Splinter Cell struck an immediate accord with this line of thinking. Where Ubisoft vehemently avoids building its games around genre, it does at least have a strong sense of who its audience is, creating titles that hit their intended mark with unswerving accuracy.
Splinter Cell, developed by Ubi's Montreal Studio, shares Ubi's philosophy of building trans-genre games without the confusion or aggravation of making them cross-culturally relevant. Whether this is a good or bad facet of Ubisoft's profile really depends on which side of the ocean you live on, but having titles specifically geared to my Western gaming fingers was no bad thing.
These ubiquitous themes were repeated throughout my pile of games, and every time I came close to recognizing a specific genre, it ducked out of sight like the stealthy, balletic characters that permeate Ubisoft's massive catalogue. Rainbow Six, XIII, Beyond Good & Evil, even Rayman (one of the in-house development team's earliest outings) seemed to nimbly side step any expected facets of the 2-D platform game, aiming at the younger player who traditionally prefers this type of bouncing cutesy character, while offering a challenge grueling enough to make the most seasoned joystick junkie sit up and take notice.
With this year's E3 disappearing into the distance, a further source of evidence presents itself in the form of the shameless self promotion that is key to the event. Ubisoft's public face certainly seems to be behind the next generation of consoles and the new realm of gaming delights they pledge to bring us. Looking at its forthcoming lineup, it seems the French giant is continuing to build its empire with yet another multiverse of horizon-expanding titles, such as Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six Vegas, all promising to hold Ubisoft's defiant, genre-less principles at their core.
This trend for creating strong brands (even those that may have originated elsewhere, such as the Tom Clancy franchises) is another telltale piece of the jumbled Ubisoft jigsaw. Many large companies, and not just within the video and computer game industry, are well known for latching onto a popular product and milking it dry until people lament the day they ever heard of it. Ubisoft, however, has a frankly remarkable track record for not only sustaining a brand longer than its limited life deserves, but consistently improving it with each new incarnation.
When looking at the origins of the company itself, bred and built from such strong family stock, it's no surprise that the empire is growing precisely as the Guillemot family has always intended it to. Rather than following the established route to software success, which consists mainly in conquering the U.S. and/or Japanese markets, Ubisoft first set its sights on a distinctly Eurocentric domination; improving its stamina in a local arena before breaching any demanding cultural barriers.
Though he may only have voiced his opinion openly in the last few years, Yves Guillemot's mildly controversial advice about dispensing with the incompatible Japanese market is apparently not a new philosophy for his company. Forging alliances across the globe and building a personal presence with strategically placed development studios in such places as Romania, China and the heartbeat of modern game design, Canada, the software powerhouse is mustering a wealth of industry strength.
It would appear the Guillemot foundation holds true to more than just a 20-year-old company mission statement. With its established family heritage, penchant for strong brands and a shrewd understanding of its own scope, Ubisoft has evolved more akin to an imperialistic French noble house intent on broadening its empire.
Although the colonies may be no more, the new world to be conquered is undeniably that of emergent businesses, and approaching it as a noble and ancient imperial clan establishes a principal set of unbendable values that cannot fail to permeate every aspect of the company's existence, from the people who choose to work for it to the customers who unswervingly salute the company banner.
