Despite a cancelled flight, we still managed to make it to Paris, via a (thankfully uneventful) trip through London’s infamous Terminal 5, with plenty of time to spare. After chilling out in the afternoon, we then set off for dinner and a cabaret show. Despite some wonderful sights and sounds, the jet lag proved to be a rather menacing foe when we tried to stay awake.
With several hours to kill before the conference the next day, we ventured off into the city to check out some famous sites. We only actually got to one, the Eiffel Tower. While some decided to wait in a ridiculously long queue for a lift to the top, others decided to check out how well their Wii Fit training was going by walking up. The advantage of the walk was that the walkers then had time for a crepe and got see souvenir vendors be chased off by police. A well earned lunch then consisted of steak, beer, snails and frog legs. Yum.
Just in case we forgot why we were here.
Following these daring escapades, some got dressed for the evenings formalities, while the rest, the terrible slobs that they are, didn’t bother. After a long walk through the Louvre’s many passages, we were seated in a makeshift but lovely conference hall. The conference started with a British fellow named Vernon coming on to host. Apparently he’s well known, though we couldn't tell you who he was.
Ubisoft’s European director was called on stage and he spoke of how Ubisoft have been throwing events at the Louvre for some time now, which has been bringing together the motif ‘Games as art’. He gave the usual spiel on growing industries. A brief but interesting discussion with a panel of four developers followed. The four included the Creative Director for Far Cry 2, the Producer of Prince of Persia, as well as an ex-US colonel and President from Gear Box.
Each panel member brought up some interesting points regarding the state of visual immersion and interaction within the games. However, they all believed that gaming has begun to reach new heights, particularly in terms of emotion and realism. After this brief plugging section, we were treated to a Far Cry demo and trailer, Prince of Persia trailer (albeit in CG) and a Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway trailer.
Waiting to start.
With a lot of the ’hardcore’ stuff out of the way, one of the Ubisoft executive producers gave her insights into some of the casual offerings that have been coming from Ubisoft. As one may have expected, there was a lot of talk about how casual gaming is still only scratching the surface of its true potential. Again, the issue of emotion in games was revisited, but on a different level.
Getting away from the casual stuff, Ubisoft used the occasion to reaffirm their commitment to the Tom Clancy franchise. Apart from some impressive demonstrations of HAWX and End War, they also reiterated their intentions to set up a whole Tom Clancy gaming universe. Unfortunately, the latest Splinter Cell was nowhere to be seen. Going back to some of the casual stuff now, and the whole audience got to join in the Rayman Raving Rabbids TV demonstration, though they were oddly focused on how a person’s backside can be used in conjunction with the Wii Balance board to play.
One of the few surprises of the night was the chance to see Ubisoft’s first action/sports title, called Shaun White Snowboarding. Finally, a new trailer for Soul Calibur IV was shown, which showed off both Darth Vader and Yoda in action, as well as several favourites. To wrap things up, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot came and gave some of the usual spiel, but finished it off with a trailer of Michel Ancel’s latest project. While it wasn’t given a title, it was very obvious that the game was a follow up to the cult hit, Beyond Good & Evil
The Rabbids are catching on.
The next day had a roundtable discussion between Yannis Mallat from Ubisoft, Zeno Colaco from Sony, Michael Gartenburg from Jupiter research and Mark Masiowicz from Microsoft. Interestingly, the Sony and Microsoft representatives didn’t break out into a fight. The discussion was surrounding cross-media development, and while no one really strayed into being insightful, there were some refreshingly candid comments, particularly when Yannis was asked why Ubisoft had no movie license titles on show.
The conference overall was quite entertaining, though we were surprised when there wasn’t an announcement for the inevitable Assassin’s Creed follow up. While nowhere near as long, the conference would have done well at E3. Stay tuned to PALGN as we’ll have previews for all of the titles mentioned above. PALGN would like to extend their thanks to the great guys at Ubisoft for organising this event and giving us a chance to take part in it.
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