Guillemot: Casual could overtake hardcore
Ubisoft CEO explains why it's investing in its family brands, and what it wants from next gen
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO, thinks that casual gamers, and the revenue they produce, could outstrip that produced by hardcore, AAA titles.
"In the long term there's no reason why the casual would not overcome the hardcore business because there are more people that are interested in buying casual," Guillemot told GamesIndustry.biz in an exclusive interview.
"We were amazed by the success of Just Dance and it showed that lots of people, when you really bring the game that they are interested in, they actually buy huge quantities."
He also pointed out that casual gaming was already 40 per cent of the company's revenue.
As well as family brands like the Raving Rabbids, Just Dance, and the Imagine series aimed at teenage girls, Ubisoft is also investing heavily in online, recently purchasing free to play developer Owlient.
It also currently has around 20 Facebook apps, including CSI: Crime City, Horse Saga and The Smurfs & Co, which has around 10,000,000 monthly active users.
But in the shift to casual Ubisoft hasn't forgotten the console market, in fact Guillemot has a wish list of features he thinks the next round of hardware has to include, and for him it's all about accessibility.
"More interaction with people, the possibility to adapt content to the time that people want to play,"
"To to be more of a service to consumers that can get and get out. So the software will have to be very different so that everyone can play and can take from those the games the bit they want to get."