Assassin's Creed will score over 90; multi-platform development is fine-tuned
While some developers have been outspoken about the difficulties with multi-platform development, particularly problems with the PS3 hardware, Guillemot said that Ubisoft now creates games for PS3 and Xbox 360 simultaneously.
"We consider those two machines close in what we can do with them," he said.
"...It doesn't cost more than 10 percent extra to develop for the other machine. So you start [development] on either 360 or you start on PS3."
He added, "Before, it was costing us more like 20 percent, just because it was difficult to learn the PS3 hardware, but now our engines are done, and we can easily develop for both machines."
One major multi-platform release is Assassin's Creed, which is arriving for Xbox 360 and PS3. Consumer buzz around the product remains high, and Ubisoft expects the game to live up to expectations from a critical and commercial standpoint.
"The indication that we have on Assassin's Creed is that at the moment it's looking to [have an average critical score] of over 90 percent," Guillemot said.
He also said that the PC is a "growing" market, and Ubisoft will be delivering Far Cry 2 on PC first, as well as launching casual MMOs at the end of next year and in 2009. "We are looking at [PC] to create more brands that will also be on console, but we'll also create specific brands just for PC."
