14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft's SVP of sales and marketing, Tony Key, has said that Ubisoft wants to expand and become an entertainment company because it's less risky than being just a video game company.
Ubisoft did mention such plans in the past and even made some steps toward the goal, in the form of the Rabbids cartoon series, which has become a popular Saturday morning program for kids, both in the United States and in Europe.
In addition to this, the upcoming Rabbids interactive TV series will be launched in North America this fall, and the company is also looking at an Assassin's Creed movie deal, as well as a Watch Dogs movie deal, the latter of which was announced even before the actual game shipped.
"Right now we're still primarily a game company – we want to become an entertainment company, and we don't just want to do that because we want to do that. It's important for us as a company to grow, and to grow our key game brands into other areas," Key explains, as quoted by Polygon.
"So when you're creating a new franchise, you're thinking about how you can expand that into other areas. It's important for us to know that these things are expandable beyond just the games themselves," he continues.
Key says that game development is getting more and more expensive, while the video games themselves continue to get sold at the same price point they've been sold at for years, which means that, in order to make up the amount spent on development, publishers have to either expand their audience through more game sales or to branch out to other media outlets.
Ubisoft chose to use both, and Key has used the Rabbids cartoon series as an example for the way the company is attempting to market their IPs.
Rabbids started out as a video game brand at Ubisoft, before the cartoon series spin-off came to life. But the cartoon quickly picked up Steam in both Europe and the United States, which increased interest in the video game series.
"So it ended up coming full circle, where the transmedia is actually going to help grow the game," he points out.
"You need to create big, successful game brands if you're going to survive, and we've seen that it's not possible all the time to do that. We've had our share of less-than-stellar results as other publishers have, so really, the risk for us is not being successful in the core business," Key explains when asked whether Ubisoft isn't taking a risk by attempting to move into the entertainment business.
He has clarified that it's less risky for Ubisoft to expand from its core video game business with movie studios and brand licensing, because that will allow the company to reach a broader audience and raise awareness regarding its products.