Nintendo Europe has announced that Rayman for the Game Boy Colour will be arriving on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console next week. Rayman will arrive in Europe next Thursday for £4.50. Anyone considering picking this little gem up?
Ubisoft announced via press release that it will kick off the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 with an invitation-only press conference at the Los Angeles Theater at 3 p.m. PDT, June 4. The press conference will feature demonstrations and trailers of Ubisoft’s upcoming lineup of franchise hits, including games for the new Nintendo Wii U, as well as digital titles, special guests and surprise announcements.
Following the press conference, E3 attendees can visit Ubisoft’s booth #1023, located in the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center to see and play the company’s latest titles. Games available at the booth will include Assassin’s Creed III, Far Cry 3, Rayman Legends, Rocksmith and many more. The finale of the ShootMania Marathon, an e-sport competition based on Ubisoft’s ShootMania: Storm also will be broadcast from the booth on at 11 a.m. PDT, June 6.
“This year’s E3 promises to be one of our biggest and best yet. We’re showcasing the strongest, most competitive collection of core titles we’ve had in years, innovative new games for new platforms and a broad lineup that has something for everyone.”
- Yves Guillemot, Founder and CEO of Ubisoft.
A developer claiming to be from Ubisoft Milan has posted a batch of Wii U related information on an Italian message board. The developer believes that the price for Wii U will be between $350 – $450, and that the system will launch on November 23rd. Nintendo isn’t expected to reveal pricing or a release date until sometime after E3.
A fresh batch of Beyond Good & Evil 2 screenshots have leaked onto the web. The game was due to be developed for the current generations of consoles, but Ubisoft recently suggested that they were considering moving Beyond Good & Evil 2 to the next generation of home consoles. Let’s hope they decide to bring it to Wii U.
Ubisoft has reconfirmed that the previously delayed Rayman Origins for Nintendo 3DS will be arriving in North America on June 5th. Ubisoft stated in their press release that Rayman Origins will be available to purchase at retailers and online on June 5th. The interesting thing is that the game comes out the same day as Nintendo’s E3 press conference where they are expected to reveal more information about same day digital and retail releases.
“The full version of the game will be available at retailers and online on June 5, 2012.”
Ubisoft is confident that the next generation of video game consoles, including Wii U, will be profitable for the company. The company believes that initial development costs won’t go up primarily because developers can really leverage the capacity of the hardware and all the new features that come with the console to help bring a new experience to the consumer.
“So you need to invest less on the size of the those games to still give a great experience. So at the beginning of that generation we won’t have an increase – or a very small increase – of the cost of the games that will be launched.
“So that will make this [next] generation a very viable and profitable generation – like last time we had an increases of $10 in the price of different games.”
Ubisoft’s popular Just Dance series is heading to Wii U according to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. The company has revealed that it expects sales of the Just Dance franchise to dip this year, but they’re adamant that sales will bounce back when the game comes to Wii U, and also Japan. Ubisoft announced yesterday that it’s preparing to release seven games for Wii U.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO has told investors during a Q&A portion of the annual earnings call that Wii U will be a great success. Guillemot then went on to say that the publisher and development studio is extremely happy with the functionality of the console.
“What is really interesting is the fact that we have this tablet that allows us to bring totally new gameplay, and also brings the possibility to have a lot more social functionalities, because you can have now a screen to play asynchronously with your friends, to receive challenges and to really have a screen to communicate with your friends. That is going to help tremendously the experience in video games.
“We feel that the more we grow, the more use we will have for social functions in our games. And the new gameplays – a lot have been invented in other platforms, so there are lots of new ideas that will come to console. So that will help to bring new games with good functionalities, and be very good in turn at usage.
“So all this tells us,” he went on, “that the machine can have a great success, because it will bring to families a good machine. And this will be for gamers but also for all the social games that are generally sold on the Wii. Going after those two types of populations will give a good chance for that machine to have a great success.”
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has told attendees at todays investors meeting that the company is planning to release five casual and two core games for Wii U. It’s not apparently whether Ubisoft is releasing these titles this fiscal year. The two core games are most likely Assassin’s Creed 3 and Rayman Legends, both of which have already been confirmed for Wii U.
Part of Ubisoft’s success is expected to come from Nintendo’s Wii U, launching at the end of this year. Ubisoft is a very strong supporter and is quite bullish on Wii U. The company will have five casual titles and two core titles. Guillemot pointed to the Avengers game slated for Wii U (and Kinect) as a title that should do very well with the casual market.
Robert W Baird & Co analyst Colin Sebastian believes that Ubisoft is preparing a number of free to play titles for Wii U in the coming year. Sebastian comments come in response to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot’s remarks to investors on next-gen systems. He claims that the popular F2P model will broaden the content offerings on new platforms, including Wii U.
“It appears that new consoles from Microsoft and Sony will also allow more integration of item-based transactions within games, including a free-to-play option similar to the model used in social and mobile games,” he said. “Ubisoft expects this to drive better monetization than what is commonly available in the current generation”
“We believe the F2P model on consoles, as part of a broad multi-platform strategy (phones, tablets, connected TVs) could drive a higher level of profitability per franchise. In addition, developers of Facebook and Mobile/Tablet games may discover a new platform opportunity for their titles in the next console generation.”
