Hey guys! We’re here at the Ubisoft Press Conference, and we’ll begin the live blog shortly. Feel free to continue reading, and refresh the page for updates as we go!
2:30 – Scheduled start time
2:42 – Laurent Detoc, President of Ubisoft in North America comes on the stage.
2:44 – Demonstration of Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party, using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to perform tricks and actions, while sitting and leaning on the Wii Balance Board to steer.
2:45 – TV Party coming out in November for Wii and DS.
2:46 – Gameplay trailer for Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party.
2:48 – Brother in Arms: Hell’s Highway from Gearbox shown in trailer form for PS3, PC, and 360.
2:52 – Tom Clancy franchise’s 10-year anniversary coming up, with over 55 million games sold.
2:52 – Tom Clancy’s End War will be playable by voice. You will talk to your TV to play the game.
2:54 – Trailer for End War, the “first video game controlled entirely by your voice,” shown.
2:55 – End War coming for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but trailer says Xbox Live and Nintendo DS.
2:56 – Far Cry 2 trailer shown for 360, PS3, and PC.
2:58 – Clint Hocking, Creative Director on Far Cry 2, and Jonathan Morin, the game’s Level Designer, come on stage to talk about their goals of an immersive game while demonstrating the game for 360.
3:00 – Live demonstration of Far Cry 2, showing off use of maps, sniper targetters, a compass, and more stealth equipment.
3:05 – Tony Key, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing, comes on stage to talk about the tween girl market. Games for Girls market is booming, growing 63% in 2008. Imagine franchise has made $22.1 million through May 2008.
3:06 – Imagine has the #1 third party game franchise in 2008.
3:07 – Petz franchise trailer shown. Live action cats and dogs speaking about their families in a new Petz commercial make up the whole trailer. Oh wait, there are monkies, too.
3:08 – You can cross breed in Petz games to create your own family. Monkeyz House, Catz Clan, Dogz Pack, and Horseshoe Ranch coming to Nintendo DS.
3:09 – Petz Plushies will be available at retail this year. Each will come with a code that can unlock that animal in your video games as a playable animal.
3:10 – Trailer shows more Imagine games coming (Hilary Duff’s “Why Not” is playing!! Yay!!). Imagine Rock Star and Imagine Movie Star shown. Imagine Fashion Designer, Teacher, and Wedding Designer also coming to Nintendo DS this year.
3:12 – Ubisoft will be releasing a new brand in the Games for Girls lineup this year. Detoc talks about some facts: 1972, only 1 in 27 girls played sports. Now, half play a sport. 50% of high-school athletes are girls. A new trailer is shown (to Avril Lavigne’s “Best Damn Thing”).
3:14 – New Ener-G brand announced, brining Dance Squad, Gym Rockets, and Adventure Riders to the Nintendo DS.
3:15 – Shaun White Snowboarding introducted. Louis Lamarche, the game’s producer, Philippe Morin, and Scott Mitchell come on stage to show off Shaun White Snowboarding.
3:17 – Shaun White demonstrated for Xbox 360. Online play with friends is all on the same mountain, and gameplay on both screens (each with a separate player) is seamless.
3:20 – You can create your own game challenges to compete with your friends at whatever you want. You can send the challenge messages to your friends even while playing, and continue playing while you wait for them to come to your mountain.
3:21 – Shaun White comes on stage to talk about the game. He says Scott and Philippe are terrible at snowboarding in the game. Jokingly, of course.
3:22 – Shaun loves that you can choose your own paths down the mountain instead of being kept to a restricted track.
3:23 – Laurent Detoc comes back to talk about Prince of Persia, with a new gaming using the Assassin’s Creed engine. A new trailer is shown for the game.
3:24 – Trailer shows the game using a cel-shaded art design. It’s still the usual, gritty Prince style – but with a hand-drawn look.
3:26 – Ben Mattes, Prince of Persia producer, and Thomas Delbuguet, lead combat designer, come on stage to talk about Prince of Persia. They’re keeping the basic premise of the franchise, but have creative freedom with every other aspect of the game.
3:28 – Eleka flies behind Prince and helps him when he’s in need. She never gets in the way.
3:29 – Prince of Persia is no longer a linear game, and multiple paths can be taken. The game unfolds differently depending on which paths are taken.
3:30 – New combat system shown. A dynamic camera often moves in close to give some excellent cinematic shots, shown in the fight with the Hunter.
3:32 – Rather than “dying,” the team has eliminated failure by implementing the safety feature. Before dying, Eleka reaches for the Prince, saves him, and brings him to a safe platform. It’s intended that you’ll still feel the frustration, but you no longer have to feel absolute failture, nor are taken out of the action.
3:35 – Prince of Persia announced for the Xbox 360 this holiday season.
3:36 – Detoc announces a new brand, and thanks everyone for coming.
3:37 – Trailer shown, with very gritty realism. A man comes of some ruins of a destroyed city (is that LA? that building looks like I saw it yesterday).
3:38 – City was torn apart by an earthquake, and the man is alone. I Am Alive announced.
3:39 – Conference ends.
