As reported earlier - In a deal some analysts are saying could be worth north of $100M, Ubisoft announced last Thursday that it had “concluded an agreement with Mr. Tom Clancy to acquire all intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name.” That means Ubisoft now has total control over the 61-year-old author's name regarding its use in video games and all related products, including movies, books, and merchandise.
This is a clear indication of the value Ubisoft places on its ever-growing roster of Tom Clancy branded titles. Over the past decade the military themed games have become the French publisher's most lucrative franchise, with dozens of titles now available on virtually all platforms—including Tom Clancy's Rainbox Six Vegas 2, which was released just two days prior to Ubisoft's announcement and is widely expected to be one of the best-selling console titles this spring.
But just what has Ubisoft purchased? Much like the majority of books that carry the Tom Clancy moniker, none of the Tom Clancy games have actually been penned by the American author. What's more, people don't normally buy Tom Clancy games for their characters, stories, or political concepts. The games' value to consumers derives primarily from their evolved play mechanics and polished presentation—things that have sprung entirely out of the minds of the hard working developers at Ubisoft, and which could easily be applied to a military game lacking the Tom Clancy name. Indeed, that which we call a Tom Clancy game by any other name would still play as sweet.
The question is, without the Tom Clancy logo, would people buy it?
Ubisoft seems to think not. The Tom Clancy brand is familiar. What's more, people who like realistic military games have come to trust anything with the Tom Clancy emblem; all of the most recent console entries in the Tom Clancy canon (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, and the Rainbow Six game mentioned above) have received rave reviews from critics and gamers alike.
Simply put, Tom Clancy games sell themselves, and Ubisoft knows it. Indeed, it seems entirely possible that their intention in buying the Tom Clancy name is not just to avoid paying royalties on their existing series, but also to stamp the Tom Clancy brand on newly conceived military themed games that have little or nothing to do with established Tom Clancy stories and characters. In other words, they're going to use it as a marketing device to sell otherwise unrelated games.
Ubisoft currently has at least three wholly new Tom Clancy franchises in the works, including a World War III real-time strategy game called EndWar, an as-yet unnamed air combat title, and a recently unveiled massively multiplayer online game. Little is known about these games yet, but from what I've been able to gather they appear to have next to nothing to do with anything Tom Clancy has ever written. (The book Tom Clancy's EndWar, which was published earlier this year—and which Ubisoft now owns outright—isn't the foundation for the upcoming game, but rather derived from it; a clever tool to drive publicity for the software.)
It would be easy to chalk up Ubisoft's acquisition of the Tom Clancy name as simply being a sly marketing manoeuvre—which it undoubtedly is. However, it may also be good news for gamers tired of finding the shelves of their local game shops lined with little more than sequels to existing blockbusters and games based on movies, comics, and television.
How so? The upcoming Tom Clancy games appear to feature new characters in fresh stories set in their own universes. Plus, Ubisoft has a track record of introducing some great new play concepts in each new Tom Clancy sub-franchise (the Splinter Cell games reinvented the stealth genre, and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter delivered a decidedly novel form of futuristic combat). In other words, despite the fact that they will be called Tom Clancy's this or that, Ubisoft's new crop of military games could end up being surprisingly original in both narrative and design.
Indeed, it seems possible that by purchasing the ability to use the Tom Clancy name however it wishes, Ubisoft has, in effect, freed its designers to create any kind of military games they can think of while letting the company's suits rest assured that the familiar logo on the package will help these titles earn mountains of cash. And now that they own Tom Clancy's name, they'll get to keep every last penny.
Source: The Globe and Mail
