INTERVIEW: 'softly spoken

How do you see the casual market growing over the next 18 months?
I believe that the distinction between casual players and hardcore players will not make sense in a few years. We have to name on this audience that wasn’t exposed to games, but I don’t like the term of ‘casual gaming’, because it makes the games seem cheap and made quickly. That’s not what people want. We won’t talk about hardcore gamers and casual gamers as such, we’ll just talk about genre – like we see in the movie industry. We’ll find the right terms and lexicon in time.

Are casual games becoming harder to develop as the audience begins demanding a more in-depth gaming experience?
When you’re reaching out to somebody who plays one or two games a year, it’s very easy. You don’t need to follow the rules of previous markets. But as they play more and competitors emerge, you have to rethink the way you do the games. The casual audience is becoming more demanding, for sure, and we need to make sure we’re proving more than what they’re anticipating.

Are the younger casual audience demanding more than older players?
Seniors have no benchmark, so yes. Young girls, for instance, are now used to games that are made just for them – and have started thinking they want something better.

In terms of finance and time, will you be investing more in the development stage of these games than you did in the first generation of Games For Everyone titles?
For sure. Actually, creating a game for a senior citizen on DS like Nintendo did with Brain Training is not easy, but it’s not costly. You have to get rid of all the lessons we’d learn from a major strategy game or whatever and concentrate on the addiction. Our aim is to beat Nintendogs on the Wii with our new Dogz title – the lead animator of Assassin’s Creed has come on the project and joined the team, just because it’s a big challenge. We want it to look as good as possible.

Are you looking at Apple products as potential Games For Everyone platforms?
At the minute, we’re only showing DS and Wii games, but we’ll be working on all other platforms. We don’t want to keep it too narrow. We’ll be making games not only on PC, PS3 and 360, but on iPhone and iPod touch as well. When it comes to the mobile industry, Ubisoft sister company Gameloft looks after that and I’m not in charge of it. They will be borrowing more from the Games For Everyone range.

Are you going to have a dedicated Ubisoft online casual portal on PC – following the likes of EA and Midway down that route?
I can’t say anything on that at this stage.

Can you secure your position as the most successful third-party casual publisher on Nintendo formats this year?
Yes, of course. That’s the aim. We not very original in terms of strategy, we tend to follow what Nintendo’s doing. I shouldn’t say that, but it’s true so I am saying it. What we have that maybe Nintendo doesn’t is like a crazy touch that you find in Rayman Raving Rabbids and those type of games.

Does the High Street understand casual's potential?
Their agenda is different to mine. It’s a matter of trust. The only thing they can refer to is what’s been successful in the last year. They’re happy when you make a game that’s like another game – you just have to look at Brain Age games to know that. There are so many games with ‘brain in the title’. But on the other hand, they actually make money, so it’s a good bet on the short term. But eventually it will make the whole segment crash. They need to take more risks and recognise quality.

Will we be seeing more innovation on Nintendo hardware from Ubisoft?
Yes. We have great inside information from Nintendo on the future of the console – information we’ve got very, very early relating to the man-machine interface.

Microsoft is very keen to make 360 a family console. Do you think they’ll succeed?
It did happen with the PS2 at the end of its lifecycle, but at that time there was no Wii. I guess that the market has widely changed. I believe the PS3 could be become a real family console – particularly in the US. I don’t believe that the 360 will do so. I might be wrong – it of course depends on the kind of content they bring out or the peripherals. If they have a SingStar, it could change stuff. I just think the shape of the market is not the same when PS2 became mass market.