Jan 06 2009
Zero Punctuation: Prince of Persia
From escapistmagazine.com:
Funny review of Ubisoft Montreal’s Prince of Persia, from Zero Punctuation’s Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw:
Jan 06 2009
From escapistmagazine.com:
Funny review of Ubisoft Montreal’s Prince of Persia, from Zero Punctuation’s Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw:
Dec 31 2008
From joystiq.com (and xbox360.ign.com):
Prince of Persia series producer, Ben Mattes, tells IGN that he was "expecting a few more virtual pats-on-the-back" for exploring some unbeaten paths in the Prince’s latest outing, but said pats (virtual or otherwise) have yet to be felt.
"We set out to keep a few core fundamentals but to re-imagine everything else, discarding some very well entrenched ideas not only about the brand but also about videogames in general," Mattes said. "What surprises me is how little these high level risks seem to be noticed and appreciated as attempts to shake up the industry and push things forward."
Dec 19 2008
From gamasutra.com:
With the number of titles produced by this ever-growing studio, it admittedly becomes harder and harder to single it out as one developer in the same sense as some of the other entries on this list — and some of its 2008 releases, like Lost: Via Domus didn’t exactly make the biggest splash.
But over the last decade, Ubisoft Montreal has become the crown jewel in Ubisoft’s extensive development stable, and it consistently manages to turn out innovative, risky titles alongside its safer bets.
Like last year’s Assassin’s Creed (released this year for PC), Far Cry 2 generated strong discussion (and disagreement) among gamers due to often interesting and unusual design choices.
Dec 19 2008
From reuters.com (via joystiq.com):
White, who’s a mainstream brand thanks to his exploits in both skateboarding and snowboarding in the X-Games, has spent the past two years working with Ubisoft’s acclaimed Montreal development studio on his new snowboarding game.
…
John Taylor, videogame analyst, Arcadia Research, said "Shaun White Snowboarding" sold 259,000 copies in the U.S. in November and generated $13.6 million for Ubisoft with 40 percent of those sales for the Wii console.
With the success of the first game, White said he’s already started working on the sequel.
"Now that I have the knowledge and I can speak to programmers better and I understand a lot more about what’s possible and what’s not possible, this will all help with the next game," said White.
Dec 15 2008
From gametrailers.com:
Check out your own questions, answered by the producer and developers behind the game.
Dec 15 2008
From gamesindustry.biz (via joystiq.com):
French publisher Ubisoft could lose up to EUR 1.5 million due to the collapse of Woolworth and its distribution business EUK.
Chief financial officer Alain Martinez told the UBS Annual Global Media Conference that payment problems with Woolworths follows partners defaulting in other European regions.
“Before the Woolworths incident we had two defaults, one in Germany and one in France, for about EUR 3 million, but since we were covered by about 90 per cent the impact for us should be about EUR 300,000,” said Martinez.
Dec 09 2008
From multiplayerblog.mtv.com:
I had a Ubisoft Montreal weekend, investing several hours in that studio’s “Prince of Persia” and “Far Cry 2” games.
I approached “Prince of Persia” apprehensively. At E3 in July, I had been impressed with the game’s graphics and acrobatic gameplay, but I had heard little of the game since. I suspected that the title’s December release and lack of media exposure was a warning of a flawed production.
What I played this weekend, however, is an impressive and satisfying remix of a recent favorite. It has what 2003’s “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” had: lovely graphics, fluid animation, lots of climbing, wall-running, and a gameplay-driven romance between the playable lead character and his female companion. The new “Prince of Persia” is, like that heralded predecessor, a game about people clinging to each other emotionally as they clamber up a gymnasium of fantastic cliffs and towers.
Dec 01 2008
From dailymail.co.uk:
SCi Entertainment, the owner of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider computer games franchise, is in bid talks once again.
It follows a nightmare year for the firm in which its losses have quadrupled and the share price has slumped 92 per cent.
A source familiar with matter said discussions are at an ‘early- stage’ and that SCi received approaches from two separate firms within the past few weeks.
The first is understood to have come from America’s Electronic Arts, the world’s second biggest computer games company.
It has always featured strongly in bid chatter that has surrounded SCi.
But it faces competition for SCi from France’s Ubisoft, which the source says has also made an approach.
Nov 27 2008
From news.deviantart.com (via examiner.com):
To celebrate the release of the exciting new Prince of Persia
game, Ubisoft has teamed with the creative brilliance of deviantART’s Community to blow the walls off this amazing contest. Your challenge is to create stunning, innovative, and original art as inspired by the fantastic new game!
…
Not only will winners receive the respect of their entire community, they’re also entitled to an Xbox 360 as well as a Wacom tablet. Invaluable to any budding graphic artist and gamer. Besides the fact that the entire UBISOFT Montreal team are big fans of deviantART, they’ve also got a special place in their hearts for a community that pushes artistic boundaries as they feel they have with the forthcoming Prince of Persia. Long story short, they’re looking for inspired submissions, as they believe the artistic direction behind the title was inspired as well.
Nov 26 2008
From joystiq.com:
During its first-half fiscal 2008-09 conference call today, Ubisoft parried a question regarding the Assassin’s Creed sequel. While an Ubisoft executive would not confirm the game’s release for fiscal 2010 (more specifically, holiday 2009), le exec did concede that “we are working hard on the product” — the first real confirmation of its assumed development.