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Ubisoft’s Christine Burgess-Quémard says she isn’t worried by the huge studio operation that Activision Blizzard will boast once the two are merged and that her company will compete head on with the firm.
Her comments came in the second part of our Q&A with the executive director of worldwide studios at Ubisoft.
The French publisher has aggressively expanded its development empire in recent months, opening new studios in a variety of emerging markets.
But fellow French firm Vivendi’s acquisition of Activision, and the resulting entity Activision Blizzard, will create a huge publishing and development resource.
We asked Burgess-Quémard if she planned build a bigger worldwide operation than EA or Activision-Blizzard for Ubisoft – and how long that could take.
Her answer: "We want to expand our business. We want to continue our strategy of innovation, and in order to do that, we need to have more people and generate more business. Every blockbuster we work on, we invest in new studios, new teams and new projects. So, to your question, yes. We are in the race, definitely – and we’re not in it to come last."
She also added that she isn’t concerned by other areas of consolidation in the games industry, such as the potential merger of EA and Take Two, which would also double up the studio resources of two major publishers.
"We’re watching [EA & Take Two] like the rest of the industry is, because obviously there’s been a few marriages before that have had an effect," she said. "We’re always happy to see newlyweds, but it won’t affect our studio strategy in terms of what we want to bring to consumers."
Read the second part of the Q&A here.
