Ubisoft CEO: Next-gen Will Be "About the Connected Experience"

Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat was recently interviewed by The Guardian's game blog, and spoke about what the next-gen will mean for gamers, where the technology is going, and how Ubisoft is going to take on the coming challenges.

It's an interesting read, particularly considering the emphasis on "the way you play will be totally changed" isn't necessarily emphasized here. Mallat swings heavily for the nature of player connectivity, both to each other and through "companion games," such as Watch Dogs' upcoming mobile apps. This doesn't necessarily mean games from here on out will be all about team deathmatch, but that there will be a rise in games which "blur the lines between on and offline play and between single and multiplayer."

"Essentially," he said, "it will be possible for friends to jump in and out of each other's games without completely changing the experience or becoming an essential part of the storyline that players craft for themselves."

Going by what I'd like to play, this is actually an exciting way of looking at the future of multiplayer. The usual game types became tiresome for me a long time ago, and multiplayer experiences which are meaningful in relation to the single player actually makes for some exciting possibilities in regards to what this means for player interaction. It's not that drop-in, drop-out multiplayer has never been done before (Saints Row The Third and Fable 2 come to mind), but if players can become "essential" to each other's storylines, this may be worth keeping an eye on.