In the next few years

May 4, 2009 20:11 GMT  ·  By

Ubisoft is, arguably, the third most powerful publisher in the West at the moment and what the company is doing for the long term is interesting to all those who are watching the world of videogames. After revealing the financial results of his companies, its Chief Executive Officer, Yves Guillemot, announced that Ubisoft was getting ready to create videogames for a new generation of hardware.

As he talked to investors and to industry analysts, Guillemot said that “We need to get ready for the future generation of consoles. 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 Ubisoft man did not elaborate on the issue, nor indicated which companies he believed to be creating new hardware.

His statement comes as more and more rumors related to new gaming consoles, both handheld and for the home, are popping up. Blizzard is said to be talking to Microsoft about new platforms, even though the company has at the moment no plans to release its upcoming Starcraft II and Diablo 3 on anything else than the PC.

Sony is pushing the idea that the PlayStation 3 will be around for at least ten years, which is questioned by those who say that its power will be fully realized by 2010, and there are rather substantiated rumors that a new PlayStation Portable will be coming by fall. Nintendo is rumored to already be working on an HD and hard drive-enabled version of the Wii.

The big problem standing in the way of new gaming consoles is the fact that the sums of money needed for development are extremely high and companies need to first offset the costs incurred on the creation of the Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.