Ubisoft just held their E3 press conference and fans got their dose of Assassin’s Creed, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway and… Petz?
First, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot spoke to the crowd about how the gaming market is expected to grow by 40-50% during the next 4 years. Tony Key, vice president of marketing, stated that Ubisoft experienced a lot of success over the past few years and is definitely pumped for their upcoming products.
The first games shown are from the Petz series. Ubisoft recently launched additions to the Petz series: Horsez, Dogz, Hamsterz and Catz (geez, these names with Z’s catch-on). They’ll be launching more animals next year (Tigerz and Dolphinz), expanding the games to more platforms (to Wii, PS2, DS and PC) and mentioned that the series is #2 in sales behind Nintendo’s Nintendogs. Apparently the Petz series is 10% of Ubisoft’s business; they’re hoping to expand that to 20% next year.
Various new games for the DS aimed for younger girls: Fashion Designer, Master Chef, Animal Doctor and Figure Skater.
MyCoach games for the DS – a series of games to help build vocabulary and foreign language speaking skills.
Ubisoft is jumping into the music gaming craze with Jam Sessions for the DS. Dubbed "a guitar in your pocket", you pick chords and can immediately start playing songs. When the developer was playing "Roxanne" from The Police, they took a jab at Peter Moore’s performance of Rock Band during Microsoft’s press conference, (which was less than stellar.)
Video montage of various Ubisoft games: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii, DS), Naruto: Rise of the Ninja (Xbox 360), Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction (Xbox 360, PC), EndWar (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), CSI: Hard Evidence (PC, Wii, Xbox 360), Beowulf The Game and Lost The Video Game (PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii, PSP).
Folks from Gearbox Software took the stage next to showcase Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Your squad AI has been enhanced; they’ll go in stealth and whisper automatically when they spot the enemy and enemy squads will shout insults at you. The usual squad flanking and cover-fire system return. During "neat" moments (like an enemy getting blown up by a grenade), the game will zoom-in and slow-down to catch the awesomeness. The game will have multi in-game paths to take and each in-game battle have been recreated from real events.
A new Wii exclusive title was announced called Nitro Bikes. It’s controlled like Excite Truck, will feature 20 tracks and online play with up to 6 players. Holiday 2007 release date.
FPS Haze is a PS3 exclusive.
Last game is Assassin’s Creed. The video shown is somewhat different than what Microsoft showed. Sandbox gameplay, dynamic chase system, robust combat system and players can control the camera at all times — especially during cinematic moments.
[Via Shacknews]
Here’s the brief E3 video of Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway
