Natal development mandatory for all Ubisoft studios; not so much Sony’s wand

Games compatible with Natal and the Magic Wand of the PS3 will obviously be in the program in 2010 at Ubisoft, but can we get an idea of the number of shares provided for each of these devices?
In Natal, all the studios of Ubisoft have or have had, an SDK. That means we invest heavily on this technology, we also mastered even before Natal is unveiled. Even before Microsoft filed a patent for this technology Natal and recognition of gestures, we had the technology embedded in Ubisoft studios in our R & D. So we had already mastered all this, and we think we have a sizeable lead over the rest of the market. Hence the decision to Yves Guillemot to mandate all the studios to work on this technology since we had development kits from Microsoft. Whenever there is a new application is our strategy, we want to be the first to have a good learning curve and continue to offer each time the better. Microsoft announced at CES that will be released in Natal year end, we, we think it will be for mid-November and Thanksgiving, and we should have a dozen titles ready.
Have you already an idea of the price of the machine?
Not at all.
And for the Magic Wand? Where are you?
I have less information on development. Sony was later than Microsoft.

Motion control will be meeting all of the current generation of consoles this year and Ubisoft is ready to support them. Already a keen publisher of Wii motion controlled games, Natal and Sony’s Wand are sure to take a significant role in Ubisoft’s upcoming release schedule.

However, it looks like there’s a little bit of bias between the two technologies. In an interview with Gamekult, which revealed that Beyond Good and Evil 2 was still in development, Ubisoft France’s CEO Geoffory Sardi revealed that not only has Ubisoft had Natal development kits for some time, it’s mandatory for all studios to develop with the technology.

In Natal, all the studios of Ubisoft have or have had, an SDK. That means we invest heavily on this technology, we also mastered even before Natal is unveiled. Even before Microsoft filed a patent for this technology Natal and recognition of gestures, we had the technology embedded in Ubisoft studios in our R & D. So we had already mastered all this, and we think we have a sizeable lead over the rest of the market. Hence the decision to Yves Guillemot to mandate all the studios to work on this technology since we had development kits from Microsoft.

Whenever there is a new application is our strategy, we want to be the first to have a good learning curve and continue to offer each time the better. Microsoft announced at CES that will be released in Natal year end, we think it will be for mid-November and Thanksgiving, and we should have a dozen titles ready.

A dozen titles ready for Natal from Ubisoft alone? Now that’s a line-up. What about Sony’s Wand; what does Ubisoft have in store for the PS3? Sardi comments:

I have less information on development. Sony was later than Microsoft.

So despite Sony’s motion controller being out first, this Spring, the company sent the technology to developers after Microsoft. Like Microsoft wanted to be first with the Xbox 360, Sony’s wants to throw motion control out to public before Natal and perhaps with less immediate support than they would have hoped.

Readers Comments (11)

  1. it’s going to be a bunch of casual games that no-one will buy

  2. I hope you’re right BlinkyEC, the same was said about the Wii and look at it now. It doesn’t matter if 90% of the games are thrash, its what sells that matters and the Wii is selling.

    I think this was poor judgment on Sony’s part again, they still don’t get the whole support your 3rd party studios mandate.

    In all honesty though, I’m not big on the motion control thing, Natal is cool but I don’t see myself using it in the near future, same for the PS wand.

  3. I don’t even care about this. Games aren’t about motion controls. Microsoft can go play with their toy. I want real games on the PS3.

  4. “I think this was poor judgment on Sony’s part again, they still don’t get the whole support your 3rd party studios mandate.”

    Say what? Sure Sony gets it. They’ve been making game consoles longer than Microsoft. Sony was supporting third parties on the PlayStation. Microsoft isn’t going anywhere with Natal. Isn’t it going to require over 30% of the processing power from the 360 to work too? I’d rather see resources like that used for things that matter.

  5. Natal = Nothing AT ALL
    Just another SONY EYETOY CLONE

  6. well… wand is supposed to launch in like two months ind we didn’t see any actual game that is supposed to be announced
    so, it might just flop

  7. I think MS is doing the right thing here. Because even though I like the PS3 MoControl better, as it seemed way more accurate and responsive with SONY claiming 1:1 tracking, Natal will have a bunch of games when it’s out and that is always the biggest factor. Natal will have a lots of games for the casuals and it will sell like hotcakes, but I bet SONY will give us some epic games that will make very good use of its MoContoller (though they will be released much later, as delays are imminent when it comes to SONY). Lets face it, SONY’s first party developers are the best.

  8. David Macphail January 15, 2010 @ 14:18

    I’m sure many of Sony’s first – party studios are already hard at work on Wand games. They’re not going to release a motion controller without any games available for it. The important thing is, the Wand is coming out about 6 months before Natal, plenty of time for Sony to soak up what’s left of the casual market and leave Microsoft with no interested customers.

  9. Mandatory for devs to work with Natal!? Microsoft must be pissing off alot of 3rd party companies right now… They are the only 1st party company that “demands” so much out of 3rd party devs.

  10. Chatham…it’s Ubisoft’s head who is demanding it, not Microsoft.

  11. Patrick, Chatham is just another one of those fanboys that blame Microsoft for everything that is negative. He can’t help himself, if was inplanted with his fanboy upgrade… 😉

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