Ubisoft’s Yannis Mallat, head of the publisher and developer’s Montreal studio, said today in an interview with The Guardian that "a lot of people are already always online through other devices. I would suspect that the audience is ready [for always-online consoles]."
This statement follows speculation that Microsoft’s yet-to-be-revealed console, codenamed Durango, would require an internet connection for even the most basic functions. Such rumors, fueled by recently resigned Microsoft Creative Director Adam Orth, drew considerable ire from gamers who argue that "always online" functionality was neither necessary or feasible in the present. Moreover, Electronic Arts recently endured its own "always online" fiasco with their early-March release of SimCity, a launch that was wrought with errors and dysfunction.
In the interview, Mallat recognized the need for publishers and hardware manufacturers to be ready for "always online" functionality, saying that "as soon as players don’t have to worry, then they will only take into account the benefits that those services bring," said Mallat. "These services need to provide clear benefits. It’s important to be able to provide direct connections between us and our consumers, whether that’s extra content or online services, a lot of successful games have that."
Despite Ubisoft’s own troubled forays into "always online" functionality with PC titles The Settlers 7 and Assassin’s Creed II, Mallat theorizes that "always online" is the unavoidable direction that gaming is headed in:
"We have to craft our experiences around the way people are now consuming entertainment. For example, with the online multiplayer aspects of a game, we can say — and this is true already of Watch Dogs — that the next generation will help us to blur the lines between on and offline play and between single and multiplayer."
"We will have companion games that let you stay immersed in the universe even when you’re not in your living room. In the future, all those fantastic universes, Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, Far Cry — they’ll stay alive thanks to those devices, within our players’ minds," said Mallat, considering how video games will evolve in an "always online" world. "I think it’s obvious now why Ubisoft decided to go open-world games . . . It’s just the beginning, though, not only because of the successes we’re experiencing thanks to those games, but also to understand how those kinds of games lend themselves very well to what the next-generation will bring."
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