Interview: Ubisoft's Detoc on Turning 'Gamers' into 'Players'

IG: In terms of new IP creation at Ubisoft, is their a certain goal in mind for how many new properties you introduce each year? How do you balance it with your existing successful franchises?

LD: We love new IPs, because new IP is a way for people to express their creative talent. If we can create a couple new IPs every year or every two years, it's part of how we can grow the company over the long-term. But we can also use our existing IPs and bring new things to it, like how Splinter Cell has been reinvented this year in a very meaningful way.  Creating IPs is in our blood, though... we've been doing well at creating new IPs over the years. 

IG: It's always a bit risky for a publisher to push out a new IP, not knowing how the market will react to it. Luckily for Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed did well so now it's a franchise...

LD: Yes, that worked out, but it doesn't work out every time, and sometimes you come back to an IP that didn't work because you still think it could have – like Beyond Good and Evil, which was leaked, so now people know we're working on a new one. Whether or not it comes out remains to be seen anyway, but we didn't want to abandon that IP because it has a cache and authenticity about it. There's something very pure about that game and it's too bad that we were not able to build it as an IP at the time. 

IG: Most publishers make decisions based on sales, so what made Ubisoft decide to pursue Beyond Good and Evil again?

LD: Well, I didn't say there's definitely going to be another game. I said something had leaked, which means we've been working on some Beyond Good and Evil stuff, but whether there's going to be another game or not, that's something for the future. But getting to your question as to why there's work on the IP again, it's a creative people business; the creative talent is interested in it and possibly exploring how to do it from a new angle. 

IG: So regarding that leaked Beyond Good and Evil trailer, when things like that happen, people sometimes suspect that it's a deliberate leak as a way to do some viral marketing for the product. 

LD: For this, that was definitely not the case. I'll tell you, I didn't know about the leak and neither did my boss. The problem when you do stuff like [intentional leaks] is if you get caught it's really bad. Looking back at our history, I don't remember anything we've done of that nature. 

IG: I know we're short on time, so before we wrap up, considering the poor economy what's your take on how the industry will do in 2009?

LD: I still think we can do better than last year. The last couple of months have been disappointing but not surprising [because of the tough comps]. You can't comp without the content. I think there's a lot of really good product [coming this year], so I believe we're going to grow the business again in 2009, and I think we can take a significant share of that ourselves... but we'll know for sure in January.  

IG: Thanks for your time.