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More Far Cry 4 evidence emerges, this time from an Ubisoft resume
Ubisoft may not want to publicly acknowledge the existence of a new entry in the Far Cry series just yet, but that won't stop its employees from citing the game in their resumes. Xavier Plagnal currently serves as Studio Design Manager at Ubisoft Shanghai. A visit to his LinkedIn profile reveals that from September 2013 to the present Plagnal worked as Content Director on "the next Far Cry." It doesn't say what exactly he directed for the game, nor does it offer any word on the game's plot, setting or the platforms it may appear on. Though we can't say for certain that a new Far Cry game is in the works until Ubisoft officially confirms it, the claims made by Plagnal's resume line up with earlier indicators of its existence. In October, Cliff Martinez, a composer best known for his work on the film Drive, let slip in an interview that he was "working on a video game called Far Cry 4." Only a few months prior, Ubisoft Senior VP of Marketing and Sales Tony Key stated that "[Far Cry is] a great brand, and now it's got the recognition it deserves, so we're clearly going to make another one."
Ubisoft expects 'double the console installed base of previous generations'
Tony Key, senior VP of marketing and sales at Ubisoft, recently said the publisher's "feeling is the installed base of these machines will be much faster to take hold than previous generations" in regards to the PS4 and Xbox One an interview with Games Industry International. "In the first couple of years, we expect double the installed based of previous generations," he added, referring to the number of systems sold over the same period of time. "The reason why is: The last cycle was longer, so there's a lot of pent up demand." Key isn't alone in believing that the new systems will continue to sell well, as Sony's Jack Tretton projected that three million PS4 consoles would be sold by the end of the year. The PS4 is off to a good start; the next-generation console sold one million units within its first 24 hours at retail. Key also spoke to the delay of Ubisoft's Watch Dogs to spring 2014 in the interview, saying that "Watch Dogs is designed to be a long-term brand for Ubisoft. We won't launch it until we know it's equaling the vision it can achieve." Update: Clarified language regarding Key's expectation for next-generation console sales.
Far Cry 4 'clearly' going to happen, Ubisoft says
Ubisoft will pursue a sequel to Far Cry 3, Senior VP of Marketing and Sales Tony Key has announced plainly. "It's a great brand, and now it's got the recognition it deserves, so we're clearly going to make another one: more on that soon," Key told GameSpot. That recognition comes from combined retail and digital sales to the tune of 6 million as of May, making the game one of Ubisoft's top recent performers alongside Assassin's Creed 3 and Just Dance 4. A standalone spinoff to Far Cry 3, titled Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, was released back in April. It stars sergeant Rex "Power" Colt, a cyber-commando up against the Omega Force cyborg army in an alternate 2007, ravaged by nuclear war and '80s action movie references. Our review says it "broadens the appeal of its source, thanks to a hilarious, accessible dollop of nostalgia, coated in the mechanics that made Far Cry 3 great."
Ubisoft has no plans to offer downloadable Child of Eden, holding out hope it'll still catch on
Perhaps one of the saddest stories this year was the lack of commercial success for Child of Eden. The game was very well received critically -- our own review called it a "momentary masterpiece." And at a Kinect event being held at Ubisoft's San Francisco headquarters today, I once again cornered senior VP of sales and marketing, Tony Key, to talk about Miziguchi's latest. "Can you tell we like Kinect?" Tony joked at the outset of our interview. "Child of Eden went to retail, it got great reviews," he said, as I steered us back onto the subject at hand, "it's a great product, but we didn't sell as many copies as we hoped, obviously. And that's a shame, because the game is great and deserves recognition. I just think your more mainstream consumer -- a lot of the Kinect people are -- haven't quite figured out what that experience is, so we continue to get great reviews and not a lot of sales at retail, but Microsoft saw that as an opportunity, took it and put it in with Kinect." But that brings up an interesting question: the copy of Child of Eden included in the limited quantity Kinect bundle is a downloadable version, accessed via a code in the box. Could we see a downloadable version of Child of Eden offered via Xbox Live to all consumers? "Potentially," Tony said. "We don't use that model right now for any of our games -- we sell new retail games. It's not something we have in the plan at the moment, but if that model is coming, I don't see why Child of Eden couldn't fit in there." As for more Child of Eden games, don't hold your breath. While Tony says Ubisoft is "still holding out hope this game will find its audience," the potential for other games right now is hopeful at best. "We think the renewed interest generated from this new bundle could be a tipping point for Child of Eden to become a bigger brand for us. We would love to have that happen."
Ubisoft on becoming Kinect's 'top third-party publisher,' and on its history with 3D camera tech
Last night, Ubisoft held a Kinect-specific event in downtown San Francisco. There, president Laurent Detoc and senior VP of marketing and sales, Tony Key, talked about the company's strategy for Kinect and why it's investing so heavily to become the biggest third-party supporter of the device at launch. "I think today is a pretty good testament that we think Kinect will do well because this is an event only about Kinect, so that's our statement on how well we think it's going to do," said Detoc in his opening presentation. It's a technology the company believes is the future of gaming and it's not afraid to say it -- Detoc's next few minutes addressing attendees proved that.
