Ubisoft's Michael de Plater

Call of Duty took a long time to get there...

Well, EndWar sold about three times as many units as Shogun: Total War, as a new IP. And in pretty much everywhere in the world we did better than Red Alert 3. So probably Command & Conquer would be our most direct competitor, and as far as I can see we beat them on our first go.

So it was actually a really good starting point - but it's the relativity of the perception. If I could go back and change one thing, I wouldn't launch on the same day as Gears of War 2. I think that's another lesson actually - from the experience on PC, where you can get out into the market and there's a much longer cycle, I think console is more day one, more hit-driven.

It's interesting though - in the last five years the two biggest RTS games are now Halo Wars and EndWar, and they're two console ones. But in relative success, obviously they're not as big as console shooters, and so on.

I think the short answer is that it's as hard as it's ever been, but probably - for Mirror's Edge, Dead Space and ourselves - it's a bit tough to launch a new IP exactly at Christmas when you're head-to-head with blockbuster sequels.

And Ubisoft's got RUSE coming out in 2010. Even God of War 3's in 2010, that's how brutal it is. I mean, you've got Assassin's Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect 2...

Well there's an example - the sequel to a 95 per cent-scoring game that's pushed back... that's a big lesson from last Christmas.

To be honest the software and the headsets that we use were an original evolution on the headsets that NFL coaches use on their sidelines - basically anywhere in the real world where people use voice ad their interface, you can imagine applying that in a game.

The reason it works fairly for EndWar is that we could keep the vocabulary limited - it's about 80 words - and because it's military you can use that syntax. Where we were in terms of that working well is still a long way from having completely natural speech, but it'll get there.

In five years you could imagine Mass Effect 4, or whatever, having actual speech recognition in - it's a bit like Milo and Project Natal - I'm sure there are still some limitations there, but it's showing that potential.