Crispy Gamer News

Ubisoft was upbeat about the video game industry, and about future plans for the company today, as CEO Yves Guillemot addressed an audience of potential investors at BMO Capital Markets’ 16th Annual Interactive Entertainment Conference.

Guillemot opened up the discussion talking up Ubi’s video game adaptation of James Cameron’s upcoming epic, Avatar. While no release date was given, or even hinted at, Guillemot was extremely high on the property, calling the film “the best movie ever and, and we expect it to be one of the most impressive box office” for 2009.

Moving onto a general outlook of the industry as a while, Guillemot stated, “If we look at this industry, one thing to consider is that when hardware sales are peaking, software sales are peaking 18 months later. So when hardware sales are going up fast, you know that you will have 18 months of increase in software sales following that.” Guillemot pointed to the fact that hardware sales increased by 40 percent in 2007, leading Ubi to a total software market growth for 2008 to be up by more than 20 percent. With hardware sales expected to grown in 2008 across the board by a total of around 78 percent, Ubi is optimistic that 2009 will continue the trend of increased sales.

According to Guillemot, Ubisoft plans to create at least one new brand every year for the video game market. By creating its own IPs in-house, Ubisoft doesn’t have to rely on licenses, though Guillemot pointed out that the company can pick up other licenses should it choose (as evidenced by games such as Avatar, CSI, and Lost). By focusing on original IPs, the company saves money by not having to shell out royalty fees and has the potential for the IPs to outlast a potential license’s shelf life.

Addressing recent retailer troubles, Guillemot commented that “Wal-Mart is increasing its sales in the U.S. We see GameStop that is doing extremely well. We see Toys R Us, also, who is doing well also on the software side. Those guys keep the traffic. Because they have the traffic, they actually sell lots of software. So they are doing more than other players that probably have less traffic at the moment.”

Tags: Avatar, Industry, Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot