In an interesting interview with executive VP of creative, Lionel Raynaud, the Ubisoft man has outlined the potential thinking at the company as we move further into the world of "games as a service."
Most interesting is Raynaud's thinking about how this might impact on big franchises like Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs, particularly when we move into the next console generation thanks to the improved technology that new-gen hardware will bring.
"We would be able to - in the same world - have several historical periods, for instance, in Assassin's Creed, and use the Animus to travel from one to the other," he said over on the Ubi Blog. "Or have different areas of the world linked by travel systems, so that a Far Cry game or a Watch Dogs game could happen in different countries in the same experience, seamlessly."
As games enjoy increasing post-launch support with content updates, public events, free and paid-DLC, it makes sense that publishers look at maximising value from what can be extremely expensive periods of development.
"Creatively, how does Ubisoft decide how long to keep creating new content for a live game after launch, as opposed to moving on to a sequel? Where does that line get drawn?"
"This line gets fuzzier every year," Raynaud continued. "We have bigger post-launch periods, longer lives for each of our games. Even the ones that used to be solo-oriented games, like action adventures, they now have a very strong post-launch, and people are staying in our worlds for a long time. So this line is absolutely fuzzier and fuzzier."
"We all see a future where a game will stay [post-launch], and new experiences will come in the games. But we will have technology that will break the [current] limits of memory, for instance, because of new technologies that are arriving."
Raynaud also explained that the move to expand the post-launch period is a reaction to the "finite experiences" of old, whereby players would drift from the game once the main conflict had been resolved. Clearly, this is something the publisher wants to move away from: "if you get rid of a dictator or an oppressor, something else is going to happen in the world, and you will have a new goal," Raynaud said.
"This is why I talk about having several fantasies; not only being the hero who's going to free a region, but maybe also the fantasy of having an economic impact, of being the best at business in this freed country, or even having a say in how it should be governed, now that you've gotten rid of the dictator. And I think we can have several different experiences with different game systems in the same world, if the world is rich enough and the systems are robust enough."