IG: With the transition that the industry might be making from disc-based, or even full downloads, to streaming, and you look at OnLive or what David Perry’s doing with the team at Gaikai; are you excited about that? Do you think that really is going to be transformative? How do you see that evolution taking place?
CE: I think that the streaming technologies have the potential of opening the market further, bringing this content to new audiences that may not have made the investment in a console or may not have used other technologies to get there. As I mentioned at the very beginning, we’re innovative on new technologies and platforms. You can see we’re a launch partner of OnLive with a number of our games being part of their initial launch mix. We hope they’ll be very successful from a standpoint of bringing more of the video game entertainment to more players.
IG: Do you see this as a way to combat the whole used games sales problem? Obviously, if you’re doing digital, you’re bypassing retail altogether. It seems like everybody in this industry is going crazy about all the used games.
CE: Yeah, and I don’t recall ever having seen a used digital game. [laughter]
IG: In terms of your background, to come from Microsoft doing Games for Windows and the casual games side, what can you leverage from that experience? What have you learned from all the years at Microsoft and doing digital things there that you can now apply to what you’re doing for Ubisoft?
CE: Well, I think actually it extends a bit beyond Microsoft because I’ve been doing online games services for the last fourteen or fifteen years with Mplayer in the beginning, and then Gamespy after that... It’s been all about, “how do I help bring the online experience, play experience, to millions of people?” That’s the part that gets me all fired up. Now, I have the opportunity to do that with a publisher that makes great brands and great content, as well as the moxie to go out and try a bunch of new stuff.
I think it’s a great synthesis of background, from my standpoint, to bring to bear, and I get to help them, the organization. I’m not making all these games. Our studios all over the world are making these games. I’m not even doing all the management of all the digital stuff around the world; there’s a team in France that does this too. My focus is on the Americas. I hope what I’m able to do with this is to bring some of the knowledge of what works and what has worked with millions of people before to play within Ubisoft; and then, over time, a year from now, two years from now, you’ll look back and say, “wow, you guys have been really innovative in how you’re approaching the market,” and what people can do with their game experience and how it really is something they can engage in wherever they are and whenever they want to.
IG: So, are you actively hiring for this new division in San Francisco now?
CE: Yep. Sure are.
IG: Is there a certain figure in mind, in terms of what kind of team size you’re looking at?
CE: I’ll leave that back to my evil laugh. [Laughter]
IG: We talked about the technologies in general, but more specifically when you look at the 3D gaming push from Sony and the new 3DS from Nintendo, do you see 3D as a big trend for the future of gaming, or is it going to be something that people just get tired of?
CE: Well I think, from a company perspective, it’s something you can see that Ubisoft is very involved with, the whole three-dimensional or motion side of the business. We think it’s very additive to what we can bring to players as an entertainment experience. From a personal perspective, talking as a player, I’m glad that Nintendo is evolving the DS platform. I think this is one clever way to do it. I look forward to playing it, personally. I’m loathe to buy another 65’’ TV, but I’m sure it’ll have to happen. If you write that, that’ll be great, because I can show my wife. “Look, I said it, [so] you have to.” [Laughter]
IG: That does seem to be one of the major drawbacks is the outlay of cash for the average consumer for another 3D TV, and then you need the shutter glasses, which are like $150 or something.
CE: You know, it actually reminds me a little bit of the early days of the PC, where games were driving the PC hardware cycles. As new games came out, Intel was forced to really step up the game to come up with a new chip that did more, so people were upgrading their PCs in many cases for gaming purposes. Now, I wonder if that’s shifted to television, that gaming is driving the television market.
IG: Sony sure hopes so. [Laughter]
CE: I noticed that over the years, probably four or five years ago, it was proclaimed to be the year of 3D. The change between then and now is significant. The change between the next four to five years, I’m sure, will be significant again.
IG: Getting back to your digital focus, I mentioned Gaikai and OnLive, but another big player out there is Lou Castle with the browser-based platform InstantAction. Are you looking at trying to get Ubisoft’s games onto the InstantAction platform?
CE: We look at all the platforms as a method of distribution of our content. We are, at heart, a content creator. Our mission in life is to create great entertainment experience for players however they want to get to them. Whether it’s on InstantAction, or through OnLive, or through their Xbox, or your iPhone, or whatever, our business is content. We’re going to go and we’re going to continue to do that, hopefully both in a very innovative and aggressive way in new technologies, and in what you would imagine from a traditional market sense in going where there’s lots of eyeballs.
IG: Finally, looking at online, does the MMO market fall into your category as well? Since it is online and digital, I guess that could be a new focus. I haven’t seen many MMOs really from Ubisoft.
CE: In both parts of your question, the operation of MMOs that Ubisoft might come out with in the Americas will fall into my group. We are doing Might and Magic Heroes Kingdoms, which is a strategy MMO. It’s going to be a light and casual MMO based on the Might and Magic franchise that is a somewhat turn-based but real-time strategy game. That is operated out of Paris in the E&A territories and operated out of San Francisco for the American territories by my group here.
IG: Thanks Chris, and good luck.
