Ubisoft Have High Hopes For Driver: San Francisco

Let’s play a game real quick: What five games series do you least care about? Was Driver any one of them? That’s probably because you forgot it even exists.

The Driver series, though initially an arguable success, has recently hit what is gaming’s form of rock bottom in that nobody really plays it any more and those that do are left with a sour after-taste.

Ubisoft, one of gaming’s recent powerhouse publishing houses, has however attempted to change Driver’s fortunes and bring it back to the days when it was an arguable success.

Their attempt to do that begins with Driver: San Francisco, on September 22nd, and they’ve wasted no time in firing up the hype machine this week, starting with trade demos and on to E3 activity and a promotional launch. Three cheers for over-compensation!

UK marketing chief, Murray Pannell had this to say: “Driver as a brand has been massive in the past, and there is no reason to suggest that it couldn’t be just as great in the future.”

Ubisoft bought off the Driver franchise as well as Newcastle-based UK creator Reflections Intereactive, back in 2006, from Atari, but have not since released a fully-fledged sequel to previous entries in the series.

“Despite the fact there’s not been a Driver game for over five years, it is still in the top five Ubisoft brands in terms of awareness,” Pannell added.

Well Driv3r was awful, so it bloody well better be.

“Ubisoft wants to build on that and turn the game into the driving genre’s equivalent of Creed,” said Pannell.

Lolwut.

“Of course Driver and Assassin’s Creed are two very different types of game, but they both have mainstream appeal and the ability to capture the imagination of a wide spectrum of core and casual gamers. The ambition for all our studios is to make games that have the scope, depth, lasting appeal, enjoyment factor and sales potential of games like Assassin’s Creed.”

Yes but Assassin’s Creed has badass assassins and the Animus, what could Driver possibly offer? Badass drivers and an Aston Martin? Oh wait, that’s Driv3r.

“From an investment point of view we are treating both franchises like true blockbuster titles, so the ambition is there.”

While the marketing plan is still to be finalised, the firm have said that E3 will play a bit part in raising trade awareness as well as a mass market push.

“We have a real opportunity to take this mainstream due to the broad appeal of the franchise,” brand manager Jan Sanghera said.

“Driver is most definitely back and the marketing campaign will make sure it stays firmly on the map for this year.”

I’ve played the Driver games and been sorely disappointed in the past and so I can’t really see Driver: San Francisco doing anything differently, but I do trust in Ubisoft and their abilities so I will be most ecstatic to have them prove me wrong.

Time will tell…

Name: Caveshen Rajman
Location: Durban
Position: Former Managing Editor

Caveshen has published 2176 posts. Read all of Caveshen's posts.

• Email Me
• My RSS Feed
• Follow Me On Twitter