The fact that Electronic Arts has been owning around 20% of Ubisoft, for nearly two years now, does not seem to stop the French publisher from aiming for the top. And the way they're planning to get there is by making an early - and rather bold - investment in the Nintendo Wii system. As reported by Reuters over the weekend, Laurent Detoc, who leads Ubisoft's North America business, said in an interview that "[Ubisoft's] goal is not to sell to EA but to beat EA".

Detoc continued by predicting that "the Wii is unlikely not to succeed, the curiosity factor is going to help [Nintendo] and it's an impulse buy for most people". That's why Ubisoft placed their bet on the Wii from early on, when most of the industry was still reluctant about Nintendo's revolutionary console. Now, things look great not only for Wii's future, but also for Ubisoft's, as they are currently the leading third-party developer for this system.

"Ubisoft expects to have eight games available within a month of the Wii's mid-November launch, a move Detoc said will give the company a competitive advantage on the console that is predicted to be an immediate mass-market hit this holiday season."

But it's not going to be as easy as they make it seem, because winning the battle for one single platform is hardly going to be enough to win the entire next-gen war. And considering that the video games market is reportedly worth $30 billion, the stakes are higher than ever.

Also, the outcome of this war might have looked better for Ubisoft if they were ranked close behind Electronic Arts, when in fact the French company currently occupies a distant 4th place in the gaming industry. Nevertheless, they remain committed to staying independent, and so far they managed to keep the rest of their shares out of EA's reach. Though I wonder where Electronic Arts will strike next, now that DICE is practically out of the picture...

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)