Contrary to what some industry analysts believe, Ubisoft thinks that there will be another generation of new hardware in the next few years, and are already preparing to invest in it.
Despite what Wedbush Morgan industry know-it-all Michael Pachter said earlier this year, and the coming arrival of on-demand gaming services like OnLive, Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot believes that there will undoubtedly be another generation of videogame hardware in the coming years, and publishers better be ready for it.
“We need to get ready for the future generation of consoles,” Guillemot said during a conference call to investors and analysts. “In the next few years, there will be new home and handheld consoles, and if you don’t invest… you will not be able to cope with both [the existing and new generation consoles].”
Guillemot’s prediction directly refutes statements made by Pachter during the GamesBeat conference that took place during GDC a month ago. “I think we’ve seen the last generation of consoles,” Pachter remarked. His reasoning was that third-party publishers, like Ubisoft, wouldn’t support a PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720. Content, he said, is “not going to change in any meaningful ways because the publishers can’t afford it.”
Ubisoft apparently can. During the conference call during which Guillemot made these remarks, Ubisoft reported 14% sales growth in fiscal 2008.
I, for one, can’t wait for a next-gen Horsez. Can you?
