Ubisoft sees 25 percent growth in market

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 30th May 2008
Comments (2) Stumble
Ubisoft attributes much of it's growth recently to the boom in the casual games market.

Ubisoft attributes much of it's growth recently to the boom in the casual games market.

That last year was for games was no real secret. We had classics like The Orange Box, Call of Duty 4 and Mass Effect steadily flowing in towards the end of 2007 and we exhausted ourselves trying to cover them all.

And now it seems we weren't the only ones after Ubisoft Executive Director in Europe and the Middle East Alain Corr revealed at UbiDays 2008 today just how the French publisher had grown over the last 365 days.

“Last year we saw the market grow by a fantastic 25 percent” said Alain as he shared the stage with Vernon Kay in a presentation to journalists from across Europe.

“We believe we're set for more this year – with growths of 15 to 20 percent over the next year,” continued Alain.

The Ubisoft bossman seemed to think that much of the growth over the last 12 months had come as a result of the Games for Everyone brand that the company had launched. The brand focuses on providing casual and less hardcore game experiences to people who would normally be considered non-gamers and the brand includes titles like the Petz and Imagine series.

“Now people can play everywhere…We're happy to provide this quality entertainment to let everyone enjoy new games.”

Is the growth of casual and midcore games a good thing, or is the Nintendo bubble about to burst? Let us know what you think in the forums.
Asus EeePC now at Misco
Quote Zurechial 30th May 2008, 15:08
Whether the Nintendo bubble bursts or not, I'm not enthused about the growth of casual gaming.
If it turns out to be more profitable overall for the companies, what's to stop them from abandoning 'hardcore' games altogether and drowning the market in repetitive dross that lasts for only 15 minutes of gametime before being forgotten about?

Obviously that's a doomsday scenario and we've heard them all before, but when did we last get a true, hardcore classic?
We've had great games in the past few years, but they've all felt a little watered-down compared to their classic predecessors.
The rising profitability of casual games means an ever-decreasing likelihood of getting more truly-classic 'hardcore' games such as Planescape Torment.
Even modern iterations of past classics have been made 'more casual' to appeal to a wider market (Fallout 3, BioShock, Oblivion, UT3).

The worst thing about it is knowing that you're in a minority on the issue, because the masses just don't care about what a literary masterpiece Planescape Torment was, or how groundbreaking System Shock was - They just want their 10-minute romp on a Wii before everyone passes out at the party, or a 30-minute brodudefest in Halo 3.
Quote seveneleven 30th May 2008, 18:45
@Zurechial, I hear you, man.Although I'm not from the generation that had the oppurtunity to see gaming "grow up", but I know a fair bit about it and I can safely say that I tottaly agree with you.
Gone are the days, when a game studio consisted of 3-4 people who made hardcore games at home or the the full-time developers who listened to their demographic not just formally.
Most of this is happening because of the rapid popularity of consoles and multi-platform releases.Hell, even good old Valve went the multi-platform route.
Another thing is that studios are know known as "companies" which means they depend on the # of sales in order to secure the budget for the next tittle from the investors.
All in all it's not so gloomy - with the release of Steam we're seeing a massive help for indie games which is doing PC gaming a great favour.
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