At its UbiDays conference in Paris last week, the publisher threw the wraps off a new line-up that included casual games, new brands and key licensed titles (‘Ubisoft reveals its new ways to play’, MCV 25/05) – just one part in a fortnight of good news.

Earlier this week the publisher reported its fiscal 06/07 earnings, showing sales up 24 per cent against much slower market growth of five per cent, with profits up to €92m.

With its ascendant position in the publisher landscape now assured, the next step is to push forward and take on its rivals, Guillemot told MCV. “The goal is first to create new brands in new segments in order to push past the competition,” he explained.

With its new games brands such as Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s End Wars and Haze, its staple franchises such as Splinter Cell, Rayman and Brothers in Arms plus a busy line-up of casual games for the DS and Wii, the head of the publisher feels the firm is positioned with open arms to welcome ‘a new era’ of consumers. He said: “We are at the beginning of a new market – there are new customers coming into our market now and they just don’t care about franchises our industry used to make. They want games that are relevant to them.”

And when it comes to the strengths of rivals like EA and THQ, such as licensed games or sport titles, Guillemot is confident that Ubisoft can compete. The publisher has three licence-based titles out in the next fiscal year, adaptations of Beowulf, Surf’s Up, Naruto and TV hit Lost.

“We’re looking at every category to compete – if a good sports game came up with a developer then we’d sign it. And when it comes to licensed titles, our focus is really to spend the time on making a quality game for the licence – the more you do that, the better you get.”

- For the full in-depth interview with Yves Guillemot, read the current issue of MCV