Ubisoft Admits The ASSASSIN'S CREED Movie is "A Marketing Thing" To Sell More Video Games
Earlier this morning, I wrote about how 20th Century Fox released two new images from the Assassin's Creed movie, but here's something far more interesting about the film: in an interview with MCV, Ubisoft's European boss Alaine Corre admitted that the movie is just a way to sell more video games:
“We are not going to earn a lot of money from [the movie]. It is a lot more a marketing thing, it is also good for the image of the brand. Although we will make some money, it is not the purpose of this movie. The purpose is to bring Assassin’s Creed to more people. We have our core fans, but what we would like is to put this franchise in front of a lot more people who, maybe, will then pick up future Assassin’s Creed games.”
Hey, that's...actually refreshingly honest! You'd never hear Bob Iger say in an interview that Disney is willing to take the tradeoff of a Star Wars movie performing poorly because it increases brand awareness. Corre's quote almost suggests a lack of care about the film, and it looks like someone at Ubisoft's corporate office got worried about that perception, because they quickly issued a follow-up statement to the outlet:
"Ubisoft's core vision is to create top quality entertainment and experiences. For the Assassin’s Creed film, we have worked closely with our partners at New Regency and 20th Century Fox as well as the talented cast and production team from the very beginning to ensure we deliver a quality experience to ours fans. We strongly believe the Assassin’s Creed brand has this cross-over appeal that will please both video games fans and movie goers."
When it all comes down to it, though, Corre's right: their company is built on video game sales, and they can make a hell of a lot more money selling games than making movies. It's OK that Michael Fassbender's Assassin's Creed is just a $100+ commercial for their product, because as Phil Lord and Chris Miller showed us in The LEGO Movie, just because a movie's main reason for existence is to pimp something else doesn't mean it can't also stand on its own as a solid piece of entertainment.
Via: Uproxx