Yves Guillemot auditions for Captain Obvious, Iwata talks Wii U, and news bits
Hello and welcome. The following daily news update is true. And by true, I mean false. It’s all lies. But they’re entertaining lies, and in the end, isn’t that the real truth? The answer… is no. Today’s story begins at French multinational video game developer and publisher Ubisoft.
Let me remind you about Assassins Creed Unity, as it was a very disappointing game. It was not only a letdown technically, with bugs, framerate problems, issues, and crashes affecting various platforms, but gameplay was a mess too. For any small good point you could try and name, the game also repeated generic, boring, samey ideas ad nauseum. Let us also remember that the story was not great either, at times laughable in its execution, and on top of all this, all post release support seemed like a chaotic mess – that even made 343’s attempts to fix Master Chief Collection seem competent. The more I reflect back on the game, the more I struggle to find anything nice to say about it. There is no need to beat around the bush here, it is very, very easy to say that Assassins Creed Unity was a horrible mess of a video game.
In comes Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. As the head of the company that brought us Assassin’s Creed Unity he should be able to answer any questions posed to him on the game – possibly giving solid reasoning as to why it was such a huge catastrafuck upon release and thereafter. But here is his response when asked about the game in a recent earnings call. I have chosen to highlight the most interesting (read: stupid) part
Each time there’s a new transition of consoles, we try to create engines that take full advantage of the capacity of those consoles. In the case of Unity, we had to redo 100% of the engine. So when you do that, it’s painful for all the group… and everything has to be recalibrated. With this game, a few things were not perfect when the game was launched. But the engine has been created, and it’s going to help the brands to shine in the future.
Now, onto something a little more palatable and sensible. Satoru Iwata!
Even though the Wii U might not be setting the world alight, it is still a great console – three of our Top 10 games of 2014 were Wii U exclusives afterall – and Satoru Iwata is happy to keep reminding people about that. In a Nikkei Interview, when questioned on why Wii U sales remained flat, he had this to say.
I believe the Wii U business still has considerable room for growth, as a number of software titles that are compatible with the console are slated for release in 2015. The way Japanese gamers enjoy video games is different from their counterparts in the West. More and more Japanese gamers play on smartphones and 3DS hand-held devices. On the other hand, a majority of gamers in Europe and the U.S. still connect their consoles to TVs and play them on a bigger screen. In the global video game market, game titles for consoles are still dominant, and that market is much larger.
News Bits
- Lara Croft seems to be getting an endless runner of her very own based on this trademark registration. I would have called it “A Lara, Lara Running” personally.
- Roll7 are better people than Peter Molyneux. Actually most people are better than Peter Molyneux, maybe not as rich, but much, much better.
- This one is very simple. PSN sub accounts can now graduate to a real PSN ID if the holder is 18+. If you dont know what this means, then it probably does not matter to you. If you understand it, then it could very well be the greatest news ever.
- You can now buy a Hatoful Boyfriend Lovers Pillowcase as part of the latest Humble Bundle. Actually, this is the real greatest news ever
- More Ubisoft stuff. According to Yves, The Division, Assassin’s Creed Victory, and Rainbow Six Siege are all coming in FY16. That’s before March 31, 2016 at the very latest in normal people speak.
- If you want to risk the outdoors, oodles of GAME stores are opening at midnight to sell the New 3DS. MCV have thee full list. I will stick to ordering online.
- Here is a fancy new trailer for The Swindle. You should like it if you like both stealth and jumping. Everyone should love stealth and jumping.
Remember to come back tomorrow for an unspecial Friday 13th edition of the daily news.