Considering the overflow of Tom Clancy games released by Ubisoft in the past decade, along with the impressive commercial success and critical acclaim associated with nearly each one of them, it certainly comes as no surprise to learn that the French publisher has acquired all intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name. As a consequence of this deal, Ubisoft has revealed that a Tom Clancy massive multiplayer online game is a go.

The acquisition of all Tom Clancy rights does not only mean that the multi-franchise product is now Ubisoft’s cash cow for many, many years to come, but also that the publisher is now free of any future royalty payments.

Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer at Ubisoft, has ambitious plans in store for the franchise:

“Acquiring the perpetual property rights of the Tom Clancy name for video games and related projects is a major event. The future of our industry lies in our capacity to create and develop brands that captivate consumers and that present a myriad of opportunities for the full spectrum of entertainment, be it video games, books, movies or other media. The Tom Clancy brand is recognized around the world for offering exciting video games, films and books. Capitalizing on the strong franchises that we’ve built over the past 10 years, we will take the Tom Clancy game brand to the next level of the global entertainment industry.”

Tom Clancy’s EndWar

With no future royalties to bother it, Ubisoft can now finally get to develop the Tom Clancy-branded MMO that it’s been considering for quite some time. Said Guillemot on the MMO matter:

“On the MMO, the investment is generally high, so you need to maximize the revenue. And with the royalties we had [been paying], it was another barrier not to create the game, because the return on investment was diminished by that. Having no royalties, it’s going to help us to have a full return, so we are ready and decide now to go for an MMO on the Clancy name — which is big, because you have on one side Splinter Cell, Sam Fisher, the Rainbow [Sixes] the GRAW and all the other new creations that we have. So this will make that product [a] really big product.”

While Ubisoft already possesses all the assets needed to make an MMO, the problem lies in the fact that the publisher is rather short on manpower:

“We have the technology to create MMOs, and we have lots of our games that are on the Clancy franchise that are already multiplayer. So to create an MMO, we need to have larger teams to actually spend the time and to create it. So it’s more a question of decisions and teams, and now ,because we have the knowhow so we can go for it now.”

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2

The Ubisoft CEO refused to give an estimated release date for the Tom Clancy MMO. However, he did reveal that such an undertaking would cost the company between $40 and $50 million.

Let us know what you think of the possibility of a Tom Clancy MMO in the comments below.

Source: Gamasutra