forbes posts

Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia) is letting its gourmet franchises cook in the oven of public anticipation before releasing new titles, according to Forbes. The business publication said the publisher is "patient enough to allow its brands to grow slowly so gamers don't tire of them."

Forbes posited that Ubisoft is doing this because it has learned from past mistakes. When Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time became a best-selling hit, the company rolled out two sequels (Warrior Within, The Two Thrones) in rapid succession to capitalize on the brand. Neither follow-up achieved the smash success of the first game.

Ubisoft then decided to give customers a breather, and has waited three years to release the next Prince of Persia game. It plans to use the same strategy with Assassin's Creed, which was the industry's all-time best selling game from a totally new IP. The president of Ubisoft North America said:"When we bring it back, there will be more anticipation for it."

[Via Joystiq]

Cevat Yerli of Crytek says that Europeans look at first-person shooters and action/adventure games as "evil." During an interview with Forbes, Yerli -- who is the chief executive of a company that makes some of the best first person shooters in the world (Far Cry, Crysis, and the upcoming Crysis Warhead) -- stated that there is a great deal of difference between American and European gaming habits.

Apparently guns and gore don't sell in Europe like they do here. Europeans prefer short, casual games that they can play on trains and subways while on the way to work. The long, epic hours upon end type of games simply don't fit into the European lifestyle.

Interesting. We here at Big Download wonder what European gamers have to say about that wholesale generalization since we see packed EU servers on virtually every online FPS we play. So, we'd like to hear from our European readers about this. Is this true? Let us know!

[via CVG]

Sorry United States of America. You just got burned. Your cousin (you know, the one that set you up with the sweet kicks) apparently has it better than you for potential growth in the gaming market. It's okay. We can wait while you cry to your brothers Canada and Mexico, and maybe eat some of their ice cream.

Kidding aside, Forbes recently ran an article saying that Europe is an untapped source of gaming. Developers are too focused on the hardcore US market, they say, and not enough on the untapped casual gamers that dwell within the Old World. This is true, but they should add a single addendum to that analysis. It's not just the US that gets all the love. It's Japan too!

[Via Videogaming 24/7]