14 DAY TRIAL // Yves Guillemot, the chief executive officer of publisher Ubisoft, says that both Sony and Microsoft contacted his company during the development process for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720 in order to see what the most requested features were.
The executive tells Kotaku that, “Because we’ve been in the industry for a while, what happens generally – before creating the specs and creating the machine – the manufacturers come to us and say, ‘What do you want on the next one?’”
Ubisoft answered by asking the teams to create an experience that veered off from traditional console ideas and came closer to the extensive gaming capabilities of the personal computer.
Guillemot says their initial requests were, “We want social, we want all the things that exist on PC to be possible on a console. We want the mobile capacities to play short-term and to play from anywhere you want.”
When Sony revealed the PlayStation 4 console last week, the company emphasized the fact that its device was built using a traditional X86 architecture and then went on to talk about extensive social features, including a new dedicated share button.
Despite the similarities between the Sony reveal and Ubisoft’s requests, the company has so far confirmed that just one title, Watch Dogs, will be released on the PS4 during its launch window in late 2013.
A new trailer was shown during the New York event, with some pretty impressive graphics, but little sign of improved social features.
It will be interesting to see how the Xbox 720 from Microsoft, which might be revealed in late April, matches the requirements set out by Ubisoft.
The publisher is currently also working to launch new titles on the Nintendo Wii U, although it has recently eliminated the exclusivity previously linked to Rayman Legends.