'We want to be number two in five years,' says Ubisoft Montreal boss

Ubisoft Montreal boss Yannis Mallat has revealed that the company intends to become the second biggest third-party publisher after Electronic Arts by 2012.

Speaking in a Q&A session following a press tour of the studio recently, Mallat said, "We are going to keep our winning strategy, which is to put our creativity and innovation at the heart of our creations - making good quality games which surprise the market and consumers. We have a reputation for quality and this Ubisoft seal of innovation and quality is the key, definitely, to accessing consumers.

"Our strategy objective is to be the number two publisher within five years," he added.

Ubisoft Montreal was founded in 1997 and now employs more than 1000 members of staff. The studio is best known for producing titles in the Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia series, and hit the headlines earlier this year after clashing with EA Montreal over staff hirings.

When asked if those problems have now been resolved, Mallat replied, "I wouldn't say we had problems, actually; we had differences.

"EA is a competitor and business is business, so sometimes we have competitors' relationships. I know Alain [Tascan, head of EA Montreal], he's someone I know and I respect, and we are now competitors as with A2M and as with Activision, and our relationships are as fine as they could be."

Ubisoft Montreal's forthcoming titles include Assassin's Creed for PS3 and Xbox 360, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas.