Ubisoft shakes up E3 with post-apocalyptic survival game

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Ubisoft at E3 today demonstrated its knack for creating visually lush games with a slate of titles that included Tom Clancy’s EndWar, Farcry 2, Prince of Persia and I Am Alive.

The Paris-based company earned its place in recent years as the world’s third-largest game company with franchises such as Tom Clancy, which has sold more than 55 million copies worldwide over the last 10 years, and Rayman Raving Rabbids, with 22 million units sold since launching the offbeat title in 1995. Tom Clancy’s Endwar, its latest installment of the combat franchise set for release this fall, can be controlled entirely by voice commands. ‘Your voice is the ultimate weapon,’ said Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft’s operations in the U.S. Players can tell the game to ‘open fire,’ ‘drop in more troops’ or ‘send in the fighters.’

Farcry 2, a first-person shooter set for release in the fall on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, incorporates the open game-play style pioneered by the Grand Theft Auto franchise. ‘We set out to reinvent the shooter genre,’ said Clint Hocking, the game’s creative director. Players can either choose to go through the game with guns blazing or in a quieter stealth mode within 50 kilometers of an African jungle.

Ubisoft, which tends to build and nurture original intellectual property rather than license existing ones, also announced at the E3 Media & Business Summit a new franchise called ‘I Am Alive.’ Set in post-apocalyptic Chicago, the survival game is set for release in 2009. The company has a teaser trailer that you can check out above.

-- Alex Pham