Ubisoft’s nice name for transmedia? “Confluence”
by Nicolas Bry, published on 5.08.2009
Lyon has its own confluence where the Rhône and Saône rivers meet. Ubisoft is talking about another kind of confluence. Listen to the interviews from early and late June 2009 with Geoffroy Sardin, Ubisoft’s general manager a few key lines there about universes and transversality resonate with the spirit of transmedia.
Re Ubisoft’s transition from video games to comics:
“Our idea isn’t simply a transfer, it’s more a transfer of experience. We’re not going to “cut and paste”, but we are now going to offer our readers a chance to discover the before and after of what they have discovered in a given video game. It will be the same universe, but not the same story.”
“So it’s not simply considered a vector of communication. The primary objective is to embark on an editorial adventure on other platforms with a very clear-cut financial goal, which is to turn a profit.”
Re the confluence between movies and video games:
“We have experienced a change of direction in video games: it lies in the confluence – I mean the coming-together – of creators from cinema and from video games. It is not an idea any more at all, it’s a reality. […] James Cameron is working with Ubisoft to make a movie and a video game based on his Avatar universe. With Spielberg we’re working on the video game and special effects for Tintin. Spielberg has grasped that the emotion and immersion can be in his cinematographic productions, but also in the video games. […] We have entered into global entertainment and what is now called confluence.”
