Ubisoft’s CEO claims that the current generation of consoles has worn out its welcome, and that the lack of new home gaming consoles is stifling developer creativity and putting pressure on publishers.
In an interview with MCV, Yves Guillemot (CEO of Ubisoft) explained that going six years without a new console is beginning to stifle the industry’s creativity by promoting only the well known brands that have been with the consoles since their inception. “As consoles get more mature it is the big established brands that soak up most of the sales,” he said. “When a new format launches, we look to use the new technology to bring new games and new ideas to our consumers. We would always hope to be more successful on new formats than our competitors.”
The consoles are also becoming a bit out of date, tech-wise. “Processors are more and more powerful, graphics cards have moved on, there are many technologies that would help us deliver a better experience and help the industry to grow.”
It isn’t just up to publishers and developers to innovate, he said; the console manufacturers need to innovate on their end as well, to keep the gaming climate from stagnating. “That’s part of the reason why the industry is in depression. Consumers like the current formats, but there is not enough creativity at the end of a cycle to really spark the business.”
Source: MCV
