Ubisoft CEO: work on franchises until 'it needs a break'

As one of the largest third-party publishers in the biz, Ubisoft has quite the portfolio of IP to draw from. Some franchises have been long-dormant, which begs the question: what is Ubisoft's strategy with maintaining their brands?

CEO Yves Guillemot explains that Ubisoft's approach is to iterate on a franchise until they can no longer innovate. "Our goal is to work on each franchise until we see that it needs a break, and then down the line we'll bring it back with a team that can make it shine once again," he said.

"When we get to a point where we don't think we can improve enough or bring something that fans haven't seen before, we prefer to wait until we can identify a breakthrough--a fresh new angle that allows us to reinvigorate the franchise," Guillemot said in a community Q&A. "So a lot of the time it's about waiting for the right moment and the right team."

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will be available later this year, with two other Assassin's Creed games already in the works.