Ubisoft CEO Chris Early suspects that physical discs for games will not disappear completely. According to the man, the share of physical games will decline, but there will always be customers who want a physical copy of a game.
Senior Vice President Early shared his thoughts during an interview with the editors of Ubisoft itself. He stated that physical discs allow consumers to give games to each other as gifts and he also mentioned the market for collector’s editions of games. Early suspects that sales of physical games will decrease in the future, but that physical discs will never disappear completely. However, the man did not provide exact figures or forecasts.
Early also discussed the future of cloud gaming. “We believe game streaming will continue to grow,” it said. “Fifteen years ago there were already companies trying to make this possible, but the infrastructure was not yet what it should be.” Today, the speed of the average internet connection is much better, according to the man. “I think this progress will continue and that will benefit game streaming.”
The Ubisoft CEO also addressed the CMA’s recently approved acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. Microsoft and Ubisoft announced in August that Ubisoft had acquired the cloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzard games outside the European Economic Area for the next 15 years. According to Early, Ubisoft is well placed to offer cloud streaming services. The French company has reportedly previously collaborated with the Google Stadia team and the teams behind cloud gaming services Amazon Luna and Nvidia GeForce Now.
Ubisoft will only receive the rights to Activision Blizzard games outside the European Economic Area. Within the European Economic Area, every cloud gaming company should be able to access the streaming rights of Activision Blizzard games for free. The European Commission has imposed this on Microsoft.
All studios owned by Microsoft Xbox, including Activision Blizzard. Source: Klobrille