Ubisoft could work on an Assassin’s Creed for Kids

Comments from an Ubisoft staffer have suggested that the Assassin’s Creed franchise might continue branching out to children, in the very least in the form of toys, but perhaps even games.

From GamesIndustry.biz:

Spagna actually manages the Splinter Cell brand and an unannounced project for the publisher, but he used Assassin’s Creed as an example during a panel discussion on branding at the GameON Finance conference in Toronto. When asked about the revenue share branded activities bring in for Ubisoft, Spagna said in many cases, the publisher enters into branding deals not to pad the bottom line so much as to expand its reach to new audiences.

“On a big IP, like Assassin’s Creed or that type of game, I think now the idea is to reach a maximum of people, so it’s not about needing advertisement to get additional revenue,” Spagna said. “Plus I’m not sure this is the right business model to do that. When you think about it, would you like to have, while playing Assassin’s Creed, shaving cream advertising every five minutes when you spent $70 to buy the game? I’m not sure this is what you want. For big IPs, smart brands are the best partners. They do a line with Mega Bloks together. On their side, it’s nice because toys are looking for the hype around video games. And we are looking for a new audience: kids, children, it’s more like that.“

“This quote is not about Assassin’s Creed the game,” Spagna said. “It’s about Assassin’s Creed the brand. It’s the same way you have The Lord of the Rings brand, the books, Shadow of Mordor, the Lego. It’s a huge franchise, a brand, and within that you have different experiences that are tailored to specific audiences.”

“If you think about it, we could even do an Assassin’s Creed game tailored for kids,” Spagna said. “Imagine a Lego game. It would mean changing a lot of things… I played hours and hours of Lego Lord of the Rings, and you kill people but not kill people, because they’re Lego characters.”

With the release of Unity garnering little but bad attitude from people who had until recently been fans, perhaps it might be best for Ubisoft to focus their efforts on impressing their adult buyers first and foremost.

It must be said that Spagna has little known involvement with Assassin’s Creed and that this isn’t confirmation of anything beyond apparent spitballing, but it shows an attitude that has been rife through Ubisoft in the last few years.

“How do we get more?”

By delaying an already finished game on a desperately struggling console to go multi-platform. By hyping an underwhelming title for years. By releasing semi-finished titles and then fixing them after release, hoping it doesn’t affect next year’s bottom line. And now branching out while putting in less overall effort.

Forget that these games are specifically tailored to adults, and that gruesome deaths are part and parcel of the experience. Those are things that are easily got around, and the majority of parents don’t really care. Not if the queue in GAME on Call of Duty release day is anything to go by.

No, this is a problem of priorities, and this quote, if nothing else, shows where Ubisoft’s priorities lie.