by John Constantine
The problem with most press conferences in the gaming industry is that, with a few notable exceptions, there just aren’t many entertaining personalities. The marketing executives, the publisher presidents, the developers, everyone. The vast majority of them are pretty dull. It’s not their job to keep a crowd entertained for two plus hours. They make games. So, at first blush, you can understand the logic behind Ubisoft’s hiring of “The Soup” host Joel McHale as the host for their E3 press conference. McHale’s an entertainer. He also entertained, but the man’s scripted humor didn’t do much to save Ubisoft’s big-on-talk, low-on-games show.
Most of the first hour was devoted to talking up Ubi’s new multimedia initiative. With their acquisition of special effects studio Hybride Technologies, the French publisher has slowly but surely built towards their dream of making more than video games. Ubi started collaborating directly with filmmakers when developer Michel Ancel worked with Peter Jackson on 2005’s “King Kong”.
Today, Ubisoft Montreal’s Yannis Mallot discussed his studio’s collaboration with James Cameron on “Avatar”. Cameron himself came out to talk to the crowd about how both the “Avatar” game and movie share a metric ton of three-dimensional art assets. Ubi themselves have produced one-hundred shots for the film. They also revealed that the “Avatar” game is the first stereoscopic three-dimensional game. Even though the game’s on the E3 show floor, we didn’t get a demo from Mr. Cameron.
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Vin Diesel's other 2009 game, "Wheelman," will not fade away because of Midway's financial troubles; instead, Ubisoft and Midway have announced a unique partnership where Midway will continue development, while Ubisoft handles publishing. 
Tucked into the announcement of a new Ubisoft Vancouver studio is information that Ubisoft has more sports gaming plans to follow up the company's "Shaun White Snowboarding" game of last year. It's not the first time I heard Ubi wanted to get into sports. 
A morning full of announcements from Ubisoft, as the company revealed new "Assassin's Creed," "Splinter Cell," "Red Steel" and "Ghost Recon" games releasing by the end of March 2010, in addition to introducing a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" fighter from some of the "Super Smash Bros." team. 
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