Ubisoft says there's no money in hardcore FPS games
- March 17, 2008 07:09 AM PST
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Ubisoft will begin to distance itself from hardcore shooters from this point forward because it no longer sees the genre as a moneymaker.
Is this the future of Ubisoft?
Ubisoft game designer Phil Therien said his company would limit the amount of development time given to hardcore FPS games in the future because they no longer make enough money to be a viable business practice.
This isn't to say Ubisoft will completely eliminate the genre from its portfolio, but Therien did admit that the market for shooters was "too narrow" to pursue as vehemently as it had been in the past.
Therein made the admonition during a LiveText Interview with Eurogamer.net late last week. He said Ubisoft would like to be able to please both sides but "compromises have to be made" (he possibly meant hardcore and their cousins the "casual gamers," but this isn't made clear in the interview).
"We have some ideas to improve on the situation though - keep in mind however that we want our games to be accessible to as many people as possible, otherwise we just couldn't keep making games," he said.
The remarks aren't a total surprise coming from Ubisoft. Keep in mind that 2006-2007 were banner years for the developer thanks in part to the success of its software on the Wii.
It would appear as though the bunnies have bested bloodshed at Ubisoft. The profit generated with casual titles on the Wii was too much to ignore, and their business model has shifted to reflect that fact. Remember that these developers are in the business of making games, not friends, and that they will always need to turn a profit first and frag you in an online match second.
