Ubisoft's senior vice president of sales and marketing, Tony Key, has told GamesIndustry that the Assassin's Creed and Watch_Dogs publisher believes that within the first few years of the PS4 and Xbox One life-cycle the new consoles will double their install base over previous systems.
"Our feeling is the installed base of these machines will be much faster to take hold than previous generations. In the first couple of years, we expect double the installed based of previous generations. … The reason why is: the last cycle was longer, so there's a lot of pent up demand."
His comments would seem to suggest Ubisoft expects the new platforms to sell at least as well as Microsoft's own predictions – Yusuf Mehdi revealed in May that Redmond expects sales of next-gen platforms to be at least 400 million and possibly as high as one billion.
The PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii have achieved combined sales to date of over 280 million indicating a rise of at least 33 per cent is envisioned for the new consoles.
So far, the PS4 has managed to start strongly with the best launch in console history – one million sold in North America on the first day.
Key also commented on the decision to delay Watch_Dogs, which was due to be released this Friday alongside the Xbox One, to Spring 2014.
"It's heartbreaking to be so coveted for launch and not be able to deliver it at launch, but from a business perspective, it's not a difficult decision to make. Watch_Dogs is designed to be a long-term brand for Ubisoft. We won't launch it until we know it's equaling the vision it can achieve. … We're playing the long game – and as a company, we know how important it is to get it right."
He went on to say that ultimately Ubisoft will sell more copies as a result of the delay thanks to releasing a better product.
Key does not believe that the PS4's $100 price advantage will matter in the long-run which also seems to concur with the results of a recent survey which suggests gamers choose exclusive games over price and other considerations when selecting a console.
Sony expects to sell five million PS4s by March, 31st while EA predicts combined sales of 10 million for both PS4 and Xbox One by that date – how well do you think the new consoles will do?
