E3 2012: ZombiU Could Go Multiplatform

joshuaboy

Ubisoft interested in SmartGlass and PS3’s Vita connectivity.

Ubisoft tells IGN that Wii U exclusive ZombiU could eventually come to other platforms.

In an interview today, senior vice president of sales and marketing Tony Key discussed how recently-announced technology from Microsoft and Sony could allow the game to be ported to additional platforms after it’s released on Wii U. According to Key, if the title does expand, it wouldn’t be any time soon.

“ZombiU at its core was designed to be a great Wii U game and in order to make that work on other platforms they would have to change a lot of what makes the game cool," he said. "And I’m not saying that can’t be done, but not in the next six months, you know?”

This wouldn’t be the first time Ubisoft has discussed a similar strategy. Key referenced Wii launch title Red Steel as an example of a Nintendo-exclusive franchise that Ubisoft eventually considered bringing to multiple systems.

“We’ve done this before,” Key said. “When we launched the Wii we had a game called Red Steel that was exclusive to the Wii and it was designed for the Wii. We talked about bringing that to other platforms, and we always kept coming back to ‘what makes the game cool isn’t what would make it cool on those other systems.’ The brand itself we generally try to exploit everywhere we can, but I think for now it’s going to be a really, really good Wii U game.”

When asked how the game would work if it came to Microsoft or Sony’s consoles, Key discussed technologies shown by each company at their E3 press conferences this week.

“There’s definitely going to be knowledge that we gain from developing for Wii U that we’ll be able to transfer not only to SmartGlass technology but also to even the cross-talk on PlayStation 3 and Vita,” Key told us.

“The whole industry is evolving towards this multiple screen mentality. We love that. We showed interactivity between Assassin’s Creed III on PS3 and Assassin’s Creed III on the Vita. We’re learning how to do that on the Wii U right now with two screens, and now Microsoft’s talking about SmartGlass.”

Key noted that gaming on two screens is an emerging trend in the industry and that Ubisoft is already experimenting with ways to have its games appear on multiple platforms.

“We’ve already been trying to do things with companion gaming,” he said, “where we have different versions of Ghost Recon on mobile and on Facebook and online, so our philosophy ultimately -- you know, the industry’s -- is you should be able to play some form of that game no matter where you are and no matter what screen you’re in front of.”

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unspoken_respect

I think that it wouldn't hurt Nintendo seeing that the other consoles don't have the same features.