Ubisoft had a very eventful E3 2018 recently as it officially revealed new looks at highly-anticipated games like Beyond Good and Evil 2, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. The French company is also one of the biggest games developer and publisher in the world, with a whopping 14,000 employees. That’s a lot of manpower, but it’s necessary for Ubisoft’s strategy in developing and publishing more games.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Ubisoft North America head Laurent Detoc spoke about the company’s strategy and the position of single-player games in today’s changing industry. He said that the next big trend in the games industry is going to be streaming, especially as “more modern games continue to take up more space.”
On the subject of single-player games, Detoc said that they can still survive in the current climate of thriving multiplayer games, partly because of accessibility. When players find multiplayer too hard, the single-player mode will be there for them. That accessibility is what “engages single-player gamers more than just throwing them to the wolves in multiplayer.”
Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Why It’s Not Over For Single-Player Games
However, Detoc added that accessibility is only “part of the equation,” and that we still have enough “narrative and storytelling” in games. He mentioned God of War, as well as Ubisoft’s own Far Cry 5 and Assassin’s Creed Origins as prime examples of games that have strong narratives and still sold well despite the ongoing popularity of battle royale games like Fortnite and PUBG.
Detoc continued: “I don’t think it’s (single-player games) quite over. A lot of people still want to have their hands held and be taken through those types of experiences, like with Odyssey later this year.” Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will offer a gameplay experience similar to Origins, albeit with improvements like the addition of romance options and the choice between a male or female protagonist.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will also employ a games-as-a-service model. Ubisoft plans to create new content every week after the game launches. Ubisoft EMEA executive director Alain Corre states the reason for this is “so there’s always something new, something fresh and something they can discover and appreciate. We want this Odyssey to be living, to always be fresh, so it’s a different way to create games this way.”
