(Ubisoft) Concept Art

[SpiderMonkey]

Ubisoft screwed up and released a whole bunch of concept art that they didn't mean to. This forum post has some of it. (Please feel free to remove the link if you guys would rather it wasn't spread around.)

Either way, most of it is really awesome. Concept art is something I normally look past - "show me the real screenshots", etc. But something about a few pieces in this batch really sparked my imagination, and I realised that my previous attitude is rather myopic. So rather than dedicate this thread to laughing at Ubi's misfortune, I wanted to ask people if they had any favourite pieces of game concept art that they wanted to share?

[Roderick]

We should at least consider the possibility that they released it accidentally on purpose, though it's completely irrelevant.

[Thrik]

A Ubisoft texture artist has sworn that it was not an intentional marketing stunt and seemed rather pissed off about it. Also it'd be a really shitty business move. I doubt it was a marketing stunt.

[vimes]

I must be stupid but I can't seem to see how this can be a bad thing for UbiSoft : the stuff is leaked, they get a free market research and it's not like it is material other studios can use to screw them.

I mean, look at the far worst case of the HL² leaked code. Even that didn't profit anyone, did it ?

[Thrik]

Many of the games weren't actually announced yet vimes.

[SpiderMonkey]

Even that didn't profit anyone, did it ?

Aside from every other developer on the planet getting Valve's R&D work on physics and character animation, for free? That was 4 years of tech development other developers suddenly didn't have to do anymore.

Announcing a new Splinter Cell or a new PoP is a pretty major event that they want to manage carefully (so that they can go "this is the focus"/"this is the exciting new stuff"/etc rather than going "hey guys! this year's update!") and that they want to separate out so that each gets major attention. Look at how this stuff has been handled, e.g. http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=71170. It's just a list of names. I'd call that pretty damaging, especially to have Splinter Cell 5 revealed before they've even got 4 out of the door.

No one has any pretty pictures to share?

[vimes]

I don't know... the thing that changed between a week ago and now is that a bunch of gamers are gathering around to talk about UbiSoft saying that

a/ they screwed up a bit

b/ but they 've got tons of exciting stuff coming up about which you we still know nothing.

Alpha or Beta version screenshots, I would have find that a real problem, because they tend to get stuck in people's head. but artworks, they just tell everybody how gorgeous the game would look if it was a graphic novel. It is really unfrequent to see people get angry at artworks.

As for HL², I know what it could have potentially done but I don't remember any game being released before or shortly after HL² and offering clones of any of the HL² features unveiled in the leak.

[Marek]

It is not in Ubisoft's interest at all to have this leaked. My gut says it is absolutely not an intentional leak. Actually, I would say it's a 99,99% certainty that this was an actual fuck-up.

[Duncan]

Yeah, no way was this a leak. You'd think if they did want to leak something like this it'd be more reasonable than 2gb.

Did anyone see the PoP art? I am morbidly curious.

[Kolzig]

I did, and I don't like it. It's going further and further away from the Prince of Persia series in my opinion.

Well, at least the prince doesn't seem have tribal tattoos and he doesn't seem like he is filled with generic rage either, but it's kind of impossible to know that from a couple of concept art pieces of course...

[Marek]

BTW, while I think Ubi is doing a great job production-wise with most titles (read: their games are usually good), I am really worried about their old IP / new IP ratio. Is Assasin's Creed the only next-gen brand they are working on?

The Splinter Cell, PoP and Rainbow Six franchises are going to get saturated very soon. Far Cry will be good for another few years but is also weakening. I am not sure Ubi is doing a good job with their portfolio management. You need to phase brands in and out once in a while, even EA knows that (hi Command & Conquer).

[SpiderMonkey]

I'm sure they are taking that Lost game really seriously. You could kinda count that as pseudo-new IP, in that I expect they will build something with its own presence, rather than "play a generic platform game with Jack and Locke!". But yeah, I agree. At this stage, I would be expecting them to rest their premiere IPs for a year or two and do what they did early last generation - hit the market with a whole spectrum of new IPs and see which ones stick. </armchair>

[Roderick]

I'd like that! Give a new line-up of IP's a chance! Experiment a bit maybe. They did it earlier indeed, with PoP, XIII and BG&E. I'd like for them to have the guts for it again!

[Marek]

Yeah exactly. XIII and BG&E may have bombed (and PoP:SoT may have underperformed initially), but seen from the big perspective they were all incredibly important for the company. PoP's sales picked up and then became a big franchise, BG&E led to King Kong, and XIII led to Red Steel (which could be a bit shit but will doubtlessly sell quite well).

Basically, Ubisoft's "failures" in 2003 made the company very succesful in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Ubisoft needs a new 2003 soon in order to sustain itself.

[Roderick]

Fortunately, the Idle Thumbs forums are known to have great impact on the industry due to our awesome insights!

[Marek]

Thumb is everywhere, whispering dirty sexy things in the game industry's ears.

It's proven fairly succesful in several cases.

[miffy495]

If by successful you mean mildly arousing game developers, then yes. Yes it has.

[BigJKO]

The TMNT GBA game looks pretty fucking awesome! It's like the already awesome looking SNES Turtles beat-em-up's with even nicer graphics and on a system that you can have in your pocket. Fortunately looks nothing like the shitty 3D Turtles games.

EDIT: (linky) Last one for screenshot, the rest is just some hilarious concept art featuring possible moves.

[Aussie Ben]

Typical. The concept art looks way more fun than the in-game screenshot. Why can't they make the game look like the concept art, with all the kooky expressions on the rather simple-looking characters? I'd play that.

...I'd probably be the only person who would. But look at those crowbar dudes! Their expressions are priceless.

[BigJKO]

You just have to complain..

I'd agree with you if the screenshot looked like some shitty rush job. But it looks awesome.

[Aussie Ben]

There's still no Krang, of course I'm going to complain! (I'm sorry, my TMNT standards are unreachable, because there will never be any more games based on the cartoon I grew up with.)

[BigJKO]

True. I guess my standards were just lowered quite considerably when they released the fiasco that was the Turtles games based on the new animated series.

[brkl]

Looks nice. Based on the coming movie, apparently, which also looks nice.