Ubisoft has confirmed that it intends to carry on developing games for last-gen consoles the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 for years to come.
According to Creative VP, Lionel Raynaud, Ubisoft has no plans to leave the PS3 or Xbox 360 behind now the next-generation PS4 and Xbox One consoles are available.
The news should be welcomed by PS3 and Xbox 360 fans who feared their consoles might be shelved now that the new iterations (which are not backwards compatible) have hit the shops.
Ubisoft has already released Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag across both console generations and will do the same again with Watch Dogs in May. And perhaps its decision will encourage other game developers to follow suit, allowing for a longer lifespan for the two devices.
“We will have games for PS3 and 360 for this year and probably the years after,” said Raynaud. “We want to be able to provide games to people who are playing on these consoles.”
“Black Flag was the first Assassin’s Creed game of this new generation but it was designed with that in mind, but I wouldn’t say it was a cross-generation game, as it has features that could only be for this generation.”
Ubisoft recently confirmed Assassin’s Creed Unity, the first Xbox One, PS4 and PC exclusive title. However, it is rumoured that the developer will also release another version for 360 and PS3 called Comet.
Some critics have suggested that developing across both console generations will become restrictive for the Xbox One and PS4 versions, but Raynaud said it depends on how development studios tackle it.
“It’s a choice ‘ even when you do a game that has old-gen and new-gen versions, we decide which one is lead. So if you decide that new gen is lead for all of your games, then you have no restrictions at all ‘ you’re just saying that the other generation will maybe not be able to have everything but still be a better game than we’re used to having on this generation.”
“We never made choices on Assassin’s Creed or Watch Dogs where because we have this other generation we couldn’t put something in this game. It would be a very bad call from a company and brand perspective.”
Assassin’s Creed Unity will be available sometime in the Holiday 2014 period.