Ubisoft: “We Won’t Start a Game If We Can’t Build a Franchise Out of It”

Tony Key discusses how it's currently too expensive to just "fire and forget".


Watch_Dogs created an enormous stir when it was first revealed at E3 2012, and has only gained in momentum since. Even though it’s a novel concept, don’t count on moving on from it too soon once it releases this November – Ubisoft senior vice president of sales and marketing Tony Key has outlined how it will form the foundation for a big franchise.

Speaking to Games Industry International, Key stated that, “That’s what all our games are about; we won’t even start if we don’t think we can build a franchise out of it. There’s no more fire and forget – it’s too expensive. We feel like we’re in a really good place with Watch_Dogs, but until we’re the biggest game of the year we’re not going to be satisfied.

“Last year we cleaned up at E3 because we were pretty much the only next-gen game around. Watch_Dogs for us is really a franchise because we’re tapping into something people really care about, never more than when the NSA PRISM scandal broke.”

Watch_Dogs is due out on November 19th for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC in North America with next gen releases on PS4 and Xbox One due for Q4 2013.

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