Ubisoft: ‘Penalized’ by Current Hardware

Jul
25

Ubisoft: ‘Penalized’ by Current Hardware

Published: 25 July 2024 Posted In: Industry, News Written By: Wesley Copeland
Publisher: Ubisoft

Ubisoft CEO and co-founder, Yves Guillemot, was recently interviewed by Gamasutra. In the interview he discusses his worries about this current generation of consoles, citing that “What we missed was a new console every five years,” and boldly claims “We have been penalized by the lack of new consoles on the market.

I understand the manufacturers don’t want them too often because it’s expensive, but it’s important for the entire industry to have new consoles because it helps creativity. It’s a lot less risky for us to create new IPs and new products when we’re in the beginning of a new generation. Our customers are very open to new things. Our customers are reopening their minds – and they are really going after what’s best.

This coming November marks the seventh year of the the seventh generation of gaming - a feat that publishers are not too happy about.

“At the end of a console generation, they want new stuff, but they don’t buy new stuff as much. They know their friends will play Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed so they go for that. So the end of a cycle is very difficult.”

Guillemot joins Square Enix’s worldwide technology director Julien Merceron as the second person to blast this generation. Earlier this month Merceron hit out saying that “We have Sony and Microsoft talking about this generation lasting seven, eight, nine or even ten years and it’s the biggest mistake they’ve ever made.”

As the past dictates, a console generation normally lasts around five years. An ample amount of time for consoles to still be held in the same regard as their PC counterparts. The issue here comes from how far ahead the PC market is becoming. Graphically, and in terms of processing power, the consoles are lagging behind. Developers now wish to create faster, more powerful games, but can’t because console hardware is holding them back.