Wii U is pushing the Xbox 720 and PS4 to debut sooner, says Ubisoft CEO

By Jeffrey Van Camp July 19, 2011

ubisoft-ceo-yves-guillemot — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Ubisoft’s heavy presence on day 1 of the Wii in 2006 helped it become one of the console’s most successful publishers. Yves Guillemot hopes to repeat that success by heavily supporting the Wii U at launch, the CEO said in an interview with Gamasutra. More interesting, however, is Guillemot’s thoughts on the next generation. While it’s long been rumored that Sony and Microsoft hope to wait until 2014 to release new consoles, the Wii U may force their hand sooner.

Guillemot believes that the Wii U will push Sony and Microsoft to speed up the introduction of their next generation consoles, which we currently refer to as the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4. “I think [the Wii U is] sending the message that the new transition is going to happen – and we’re going to have new machines coming soon,” said the CEO.

And indeed, he could be right. Since Nintendo had such a successful E3, rumors have swirled about a 2012 unveiling for the next Xbox and a PlayStation 4 that is about to go into production (we’re not so sure about this one).

But will Ubisoft support these systems? Well, yes, but much of the company’s real profit has come from casual games like Dance Central and Raving Rabbids on the Wii. “You will see more high definition games this year and next, thanks to the fact that we’ve done well with casual games like Just Dance,” said Guillemot. “To make Just Dance, it’s just 1/10th the cost of Assassin’s Creed.” … “It’s a balance. It’s not that we changed the way we do things. We integrated the casual on top of the core. This is helping us spend more money on the high definition titles and is helping us come with more high-definition games.”

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