March 01, 2005
Ubisoft to Enter Sports Games
In a strange move, Ubisoft has decided to get into the sports games category dominated by Ubisoft shareholder Electronic Arts and Take-Two. The company announced today it signed Vijay Singh for a golf game and has acquired the sports development assets from Microsoft Game Studios. These assets include the technology, tools, and source code from NHL Rivals, NFL Fever, NBA Inside Drive, and MLB Inside Pitch.Remember that EA has bought the exclusive rights for football and Take-Two bought the rights for baseball. That leaves hockey, which doesn't even play now due to the lockout and basketball. Slim pickings, but I'm very curious on what Ubisoft has planned. Midway style over the top stuff? Anyone have any ideas? Or is this just a way to attempt to put a needle in the eye of "hostile takeover" EA?
"There is still room for innovation in the sports genre and Ubisoft has some great ideas that we're looking forward to implementing," said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer of Ubisoft. "We hope to not only offer sports fans games that have a unique flair and character, but also something that will take advantage of the fabulous capacities of current and next-generation consoles." [Discuss]