Splinter Cell Conviction’s creative director, Ubisoft Montreal’s Max Beland, has told us that future series outings could appear on multiple console platforms.
Ubisoft currently has a Splinter Cell exclusivity deal with Microsoft that ends with SC Conviction, which is due to launch in mid-April for Xbox 360 and PC.
Asked whether the Splinter Cell franchise has a future on PS3 considering the publisher’s increased focus on Sony’s platform, Beland said:
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I’m not involved in the business deals. I joined Splinter Cell after the exclusivity deal with Microsoft had already been signed, but there’s no reason why Splinter Cell couldn’t be on the PS3. Conviction? No because of the exclusivity deal. I know people keep talking about maybe, maybe not, [but] at Ubisoft Montreal I haven’t seen anyone working on PS3 for Conviction.
“[The next game] is open to new deals,” he added. “If Microsoft wants an exclusivity deal, they don’t call me, it’s Yves [Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO] dealing with the business people. But yeah, I guess we could even be a PS3 exclusive if there’s a deal that makes people happy there.”
The chances of Sony entering a bidding war for exclusive rights to a third party title appear slim, however. Rob Dyer, senior vice president of publisher relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America, recently spoke about the platform holders’ first-party development strategies and their different methods of securing exclusive content.
"They have very few first-party studios at Microsoft,” he said. “Bungie's next Halo is the last one, Rare rarely puts out anything, you've got Peter Molyneux with his Fable stuff... but they don't have first-party development studios inside at Redmond or anywhere for that matter. We do. So rather than putting their money behind that, they've been going to Epic or Valve or BioWare to do what they did with Mass Effect, and that's where they throw their dollars. Candidly, we're not going to compete with Microsoft on that front.”
While he refused to comment directly on whether plans for a Conviction follow up were already in motion, Beland did suggest that there’ll be more series outings in the not too distant future, in line with Ubisoft’s goal of releasing core franchise updates on a 12-18 month basis. Despite Conviction’s protracted four year development period, Splinter Cell is no special case.
“I think that that direction is for every game at Ubisoft,” Beland said. “This is a long-term vision, so I’m not telling you that yes, in a year you’ll have another Splinter Cell, but right now the direction Yves gave us and where the company is going to go is, at one point, if the direction doesn’t change, yes you’re going to be seeing Splinter Cell games, just like Assassin’s Creed games, just like anything else, released a little bit more often.”
Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/news/splinter-cell-may-have-a-future-on-ps3
