At Gamescom yesterday, several developers from across Ubisoft sat down for a lengthy and frank discussion on how the growing world of online gaming affects the creation of games.
Whatever you may think of the controversial DRM solutions Ubisoft puts in place on some of its titles or its UPlay Passport program, there's little denying that the publisher is both willing and able to explore the growing world of online gaming in as many ways as possible. That might mean a few missteps along the way as certain experiments don't work out too well -- but that's how you find out what is a good idea and what isn't.
Ubisoft hosted a round table discussion at Gamescom yesterday, during which a cross-section of developers from across Ubi-land gave their thoughts on how online gaming was changing the way games were created -- or indeed if it was changing the process at all.
Speaking at the event were Anne Blondel, managing director of Nadeo Live, responsible for TrackMania 2's substantial online offering; Benedikt Grindel, head of live operations at Settlers developer BlueByte; Yves Jacquier, executive director of production services at Ubisoft Montreal; Erwan Le Breton, creative director of the Might & Magic brand; Theo Sanders, creative director and producer of Ghost Recon Online; and Ibrahim Mazari, director of public relations for the Electronic Sports League.
The panel was moderated by Thomas Lindemann, an editor at German newspaper Die Welt. He started off by pointing out that at both Sony and EA's press conferences yesterday, every single game on show had some form of online or social component. Was this the shape of things to come?
Blondel kicked off the discussion by announcing that TrackMania 2's prepurchase program was up and running, and that the multiplayer beta was already available for anyone who preordered. She referred to the digital-only release of TrackMania 2 as "Publishing 2.0" -- an attempt to be as close as possible to the community and collaborate with them.
Grindel took over by noting that the growing world of online ensures continued development and refinement of existing games. He believes online has been around for a while, but has shot to particular prominence in the last few years.
"The boxed game is evolving," he said. "We're not necessarily moving boxed games to online games, but we are adding an extra layer."
The Settlers 7 offers a different enough experience to Settlers Online that fans can enjoy both.
Grindel compared the experiences of Settlers 7 vs Settlers Online: one offers an experience with which you sit down for an hour or two and actively engage with, the other offers a quick "lunch break" game with the basic style from the mainline series. He was keen to note that the existence of the quick to play Settlers Online didn't mean that there would be no new full scale Settlers games, however.
Sanders noted that the growth of online, digital distribution and free to play added a particularly important element to the mix: accessibility.
"With Ghost Recon Online [which is free to play], I don't have to convince friends to buy the game," he explained. "They don't have to have a high end machine. I can just tell them about the game and they can join in." Blondel agreed, and this was part of the reason TrackMania 2 is an online-only release.
Le Breton took over and described some of the upcoming changes to Heroes of Might & Magic VI -- specifically the addition of an in-game social network and a sense of persistence.
"Heroes VI is very immersive and deep," he said. "We wanted to reward our community -- they were proud to play our game. They wanted persistency in their gameplay rather than having to start over with each campaign -- we gave them our new 'Dynasty' system, but for that to work, it has to be online. We want to carry it across to future games -- if you play Might & Magic for 10-20 years, all that progress you make will be persistent."
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