Ubisoft on next gen costs, current gen motion control

Speaking to CNBC, Ubisoft big cheese Yves Guillemot says that development costs on the next generation of games are going to be huge. With large games currently costing up to $30 million to develop, Guillemot believes that cost could rise to $60 million by the time the next hardware cycle arrives.

Regarding Natal, which Microsoft is treating like a new console, Guillemot says that consumers will soon "take the other step - pushed by the environment." Guillemot is happy to keep working with current hardware, saying, "I'd like to stay with this generation as long as possible, but my customers will want the best machine possible."

One thing that might push the next generation of games out sooner than expected, according to Guillemot, is the potential of new online consoles like OnLive. "If OnLive manages to make this work," said Guillemot, "we will have a next generation of systems sooner than currently planned."

Still, Ubisoft is in no hurry and plans to develop motion controlled games for all the current consoles -- up to 80 percent of Ubi's lineup will likely be motion controlled, actually. That's a lot of Rabbids.

Ubisoft on next gen costs, current gen motion control originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.