Not a fan of streaming video games over the cloud? Too bad, as that’s something gamers should start getting used to, according to Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s chief executive, who was recently interviewed by Financial Times (alternative link) and told the publication that streaming is set to transform the video games industry just like Netflix did for television and cinema. Guillemot, who helped co-found Ubisoft with his brothers way back in 1986, shared his belief that most games will be streamed and produced in the cloud within the next 5 to 10 years—an idea that has prompted Ubisoft to take on recent deals that include acquiring Activision Blizzard games for streaming on Ubisoft+ as part of an agreement with Microsoft. Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Skull and Bones are just a few of the Ubisoft games that will be available to play over the cloud, via Amazon’s Luna platform.
“When Netflix first said it was going to go into streaming, their shares fell a lot and they were widely criticised,” Guillemot told the Financial Times. “Today we see what they have become. It’s going to be the same with video games but it will take time. But when it takes off, it will happen very quickly.”
“We strongly believe in the next five to 10 years, many games will be streamed and will also be produced in the cloud,” Guillemot added. “That’s what pushed us to go forward with the [Microsoft] deal.”
Microsoft’s move to hand off a large portion of Activision’s cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft won its $75bn deal an initial nod from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority last week. Approval would pave the way for the gaming industry’s biggest-ever acquisition to be finalised next month. A final decision from the UK regulator is pending.
Guillemot said those streaming rights — plus the launch of more powerful mobile technology such as Apple’s latest iPhone 15 — will be key to increasing Ubisoft’s market penetration in fast-growing regions outside Europe and the US, where console gaming is not as entrenched.