Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has commented on recent reports claiming Microsoft is considering bringing high-profile Xbox games to PS5, arguing that Activision Blizzard's history as a multiplatform publisher proves the switch wouldn't have a big impact on competition in the industry.
In a recent financial call, Guillemot was asked to address the Microsoft multiplatform rumors, and although he declined to comment on them directly, he did share his brief thoughts about the implications should the rumors turn out to be true.
"They are going to decide what is best for them," he said. "What you have to look at is that Activision Blizzard used to be multiplatform, so it would have an impact, but not a huge impact on the industry."
What Guillemot is saying, if I'm reading him right, is that ever since Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard was first announced, it's been assumed that many of the publisher's games would be at the very least partially exclusive to Xbox, but if Microsoft indeed reveals plans to go multiplatform, it wouldn't be a seismic shift since the company's biggest publisher has been making games for Xbox competitors for decades. (And we may have that reveal soon, as "the future of Xbox" will be revealed next week.)
Long before rumors began circulating that games like Starfield and Bethesda's Indiana Jones adaptation could be coming to PS5, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said he was open to bringing Game Pass to PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. And just within the last few weeks, rumors have suggested that Tango Gameworks - another Xbox-owned studio - is releasing the acclaimed rhythm beat-em-up Hi-Fi Rush on Nintendo Switch and PS5.
Ubisoft, for its part, said in a report accompanying Thursday's earnings call that the return-to-roots Assassin's Creed Mirage and other recent releases mark "the beginning of our turnaround to consistently creating and delivering" good games. Meanwhile, the feudal Japan take on the studio's flagship stealth-turned-open-world series, Assassin's Creed Red, is due to launch within the next fiscal year.
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