State of Play: Ubisoft

Unsurprisingly for a company that wants its brand to take on Mickey Mouse, Ubisoft always seems keen to ensure a presence early on in the life cycle of new consoles, and has already confirmed it's working with Wii U and developing an Assassin's Creed game for PlayStation's Vita handheld.

Corre was keen to praise the Vita, but it was Guillemot who really explains its attraction as a platform.

"Because the machine is extremely powerful it's a great first step to go for mobility with a game that will be close to what you have on 360 and PS3," he says.

"Here we have the possibility to really go with a very deep game that is very similar in technology to what we have on the 360 and PS3, but with a different setting, a different hero and so on. So afterwards, with the improvement of those handheld machines, in one year, two years, three years, they will be as powerful as Vita, so we will be able to put that game on all those devices."

Basically, fans can expect to see the Assassin's Creed game currently in development for Vita, and due for release in 2012, popping up on any number of other mobile devices, whether they come from Nintendo or Apple, at some point in the future.

I think it's part of our DNA, to be early and to bring innovation on new machines.

Alain Corre

"I think it's part of our DNA also, to be early and to bring innovation on new machines," adds Corre.

"Because again we have people, very talented people, who go there very, very quickly, so that's one force of our company."

Unlike Crytek's Avni Yerli, Guillemot didn't foresee any problems for a handheld launching in today's smartphone overloaded market. But he argued that Ubisoft would need to make sure that the game is a "piece of art" to make a worthwhile investment. Only when specialised machines are used to their full capacity do they have "real value."