nullnullnull (1463) on 10/6/2006 5:43 PM · Permalink · Report

Reuters reports that Laurent Detoc, who leads Ubisoft's North America business, is planning to beat EA by making a big early bet on Nintendo's Wii console. Detoc is quoted as saying, "Our goal is not to sell to EA but to beat EA". According to Joystiq, Ubisoft has eight titles ready for Wii launch on November 19 in comparison to EA's two games.

I love Ubisoft. I think the company makes great original titles and does a wonderful job with it's franchises. G.R.A.W. was a great early Next-Gen title and Assassin's Creed looks really promising. However Ubisoft will eventually fail for one reason and one reason only. Sports!

EA owns sports as as long as they do EA will have more money, more resources and better developed retail channels than Ubisoft. Ubisoft has to take risks to keep moving ahead and the problem with risks is no matter how good or smart you are eventually you make the wrong decision. EA on the other hand can churn out Madden and FIFA each year and collect the dough. EA can takes risks as well. Some will hit like The Sims and some won't. The big difference is EA can put out a big budget flop and who really notices. If Ubisoft makes the same type of mistake they will have to start selling assets like Atari.