Reuters interviewed Ubisoft chief exec, Laurent Detoc, yesterday discussing the company's desire to overtake EA as the world's No. 1 game publisher. Their strategy? Take an early risk along with Nintendo on unproven motion-controls. Ubisoft has eight (confirmed) titles ready for Wii launch on November 19 in comparison to EA's two games. "Our goal is not to sell to EA but to beat EA," said Detoc. He continues by saying that consumers get the hang of Nintendo's Wiimote "right away," and that the console is "unlikely not to succeed" because of the curiosity factor and the console's much lower price point of $250 which is more of an impulse buy for some.
Ubisoft is currently the fourth largest game publisher and is small in comparison to EA ($700M as compared to EA's $3B in most recent fiscal earnings). Assuming Wii takes the console industry by storm, who's to say EA won't sweep in later to exploit the opportunity?
