14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft's vice president of creative, Lionel Raynaud, has revealed that the software giant has no plans to abandon last-gen consoles. On the contrary, the company intends to support the consoles for several more years.
Ubisoft's last big title, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was a title that bridged the generation gap, being available on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and the upcoming Watch Dogs is going to do the same when it launches on May 27.
Raynaud states that the company wants to be able to provide games to people who are playing on last gen consoles, dismissing the notion that developing games that are compatible with both generations is restrictive for the next-gen version, mentioning that it's simply a matter of choice.
"If you decide that new gen is lead for all of your games, then you have no restrictions at all – you're just saying that the other generation will maybe not be able to have everything but still be a better game than we're used to having on this generation. We never made choices on Assassin’s Creed or Watch Dogs where because we have this other generation we couldn't put something in the game. It would be a very bad call from a company and brand perspective,” Raynaud shares.
He says that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was the first game in series that showed up on the new generation of consoles, but it wasn't really a cross-gen game as it was designed with the PS3 / Xbox 360 generation in mind, having features that could only be for this generation.
He pointed out that the level of audio and visual detail in Ubisoft games that are going to be released this year is already noticeably superior when compared to the games that were released at the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 launch, saying that the development teams have learned a great deal in the process and that they are still learning.
"It's not only about visuals, it's going to be about connectivity and the fact that these consoles are always online. That allows us to create more surprising experiences that exploit that. It's going to be a long progression, because each generation brings new potential. We will be able to measure that as the dev team master the new technology. This will keep on improving for a very long time, actually,” he said.
He closed off by informing that the company will continue making games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this year and the following ones, as Ubisoft wants to be able to provide games to the ample market of last-gen consoles.
As such, there are rumors that the company is planning to release two Assassin's Creed games this year, one for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and one that is next-gen exclusive.