Ubisoft Europe's Alain Corre has spoken to CVG about Watch_Dogs, Assassin's Creed 4, Prince of Persia, and their stance on used games.
Asked if uPlay, which has been confirmed for next-gen Ubisoft titles, will feature more blocks on pre-owned games he said:
"We don't want to control, we want consumers to have the freedom to play games the way they want. uPlay is a Ubisoft service, so obviously we can provide extras to consumers; information, sometimes advantages and other rewards, if they wish they can come to uPlay for that. But it really is their choice, we don't want to block anyone."
Corre says that Ubisoft has been involved since the early stages of the PS4 and Xbox One's creation and this has allowed them to make much better launch titles than for previous system releases.
"What we see today is that, for the very first time, the first generation of games on [PS4 and Xbox One] will be miles, miles better than the first generation of games we used to have at the launch of previous consoles. That's why there's an appetite for next-gen, it's been many years without a new console and also because the quality of the products proposed at launch are second to none. There are super good games that can give you hours of gameplay and take immersion to the next level, which is really a fantastic way of showing what the technology can do.
"Assassin's Creed and Watch_Dogs are exploiting a good amount of the capacity of the machines already. Of course, over the years it will improve and our engineers will find some tricks to better create in the future, but at launch there are very good games."
Despite this, he says that PS3 and Xbox 360 owners not looking to upgrade straight away will be able to look forward to Ubisoft's games on current-gen systems for some years to come.
Corre added that the Prince of Persia series will see a return and that Ubisoft aims to "impress" when it does.
"Prince of Persia is and has always been a very important brand for Ubisoft. We are iterating on all our games and we are analysing when the best moment is to bring a new game in the franchise out and see what is comeback that is best suited for it. But, definitely, Prince of Persia is one our best brands. We want to protect it and want it to impress when it comes back."
In June, Corre said a new Prince of Persia "will happen when we are ready."
Ubisoft is set to launch Assassin's Creed 4 on October 31st in North America and November 1st in Europe for current-gen systems. Watch_Dogs is scheduled for release on November 22nd. Both games will be next-gen launch titles and are set to release on PC as well.
