14 DAY TRIAL // Yves Guillemot, the chief executive officer of publisher Ubisoft, wants to see a short life cycle for the recently announced PlayStation 4 from Sony and for the yet unrevealed Xbox 720 from Microsoft.
The executive tells MCV that, “The consoles have taken a long time, we’ve been saying it for a long time. Once those consoles come, we can let creative people more risk, and they feel they can take more risk because new consoles can be more open.”
He adds, “They have so many features that they can play with. It’s easier to be a creative person with new consoles, because after four years of people using all the capacity, it’s harder to be innovative. With PS4, we will see new ideas and new ways to approach gamers. And that will excite consumers and excite creators.”
When Sony announced the PlayStation 4, the company explained that it chose a X86 system architecture in order to make it easier for companies to launch video games for it and since then, a number of developers have expressed interest in the new system.
Yves Guillemot says that he expects that the teams Ubisoft is working with will need about two years in order to unlock most if not all the power of the PlayStation 4 and begin delivering high-profile titles that use the console in innovative ways.
At the reveal ceremony for the new Sony console, Ubisoft showed off Watch Dogs, which is expected to be a launch window title, via a trailer complete with new gameplay.
Sony has always maintained that its consoles have a ten-year life cycle in order to give all developers time to create interesting games for them.
Microsoft is widely expected to show off the Xbox 720 during late April, with a focus on new Kinect features and more computing power.