In an interview for The Tech Chronicles the president of Ubisoft’s North American branch, Laurent Detoc, about several topics of great importance such as mergers, like the case of Activison and Blizzard, or EA with it’s continued efforts to acquire Take-Two Interactive. Detoc said, however, that such things are not in Ubisoft’s collective mind at the moment. Detoc was quoted as saying that "I don’t think we will focus on acquisitions unless it makes sense for us. Mr. Detoci also added that "we’re not a reactive company, we’re builders."

What is on Ubisoft’s agenda, however, is continuing to ride the wave of casual gaming that has swept the country due to the unexpected but potent popularity of the Nintendo Wii.

According to Mr. Detoc the profits that have come from this sudden casual gaming revolution have been good for business at Ubisoft, and the merchandise produced for that purpose has accounted for 25% of Ubisoft’s sales figures. Said Mr. Detoc: "We feel that’s a good opportunity for us. People want games that are more accessible and less intimidating. We have been exploring a lot in that space and we think we will have an advantage as that group gets bigger."

One of the advantages for Ubisoft in dipping their toes into the spreading pool of the casual market is that they can develop those titles for less money. Mr. Detoc added, however, that the returns are not as large as might be expected due to the fact that money earned from the sale of casual games is spread about other areas of the company. These other departments include the marketing of other Ubisoft products, which in turn attract more casual gamers who need more in the way of persuasion then the more diehard members of the gaming community.

Mr. Detoc explained it in this way: "The margins on these games are good when you look at development, but it takes a lot of marketing dollars. It’s like packaged goods. You have to think about marketing, retail space, branding."

Despite this increased level of success, though, Mr. Detoc said that it is still
not an easy thing to make a success out of games for the Wii. Even though the Wii has been continually disappearing from store shelves as fast as Nintendo can put them out, Wii related sales for Ubisoft only resulted in 10 percent of the company’s 2007 sales figures. The next step for Ubisoft in the casual gaming market, according to Mr. Detoc, is for the company to put an increased amount of effort into developing titles that will sell as well or better than the current crop of Will games.

As Mr. Detoc himself said “"Nothing’s ever easy but our lineup is strong and the industry is healthy.”

Despite this lack, however, the interview ended with a positive note as
Detoc stated that this year would be a very profitable one for Ubisoft due to the seven franchise titles, five brand new titles including the Haze FPS for the PS3, scheduled for release this year.