Late Night Consoling

Greg Canessa, who recently served as general manager of Xbox Live Arcade, has been taken on as PopCap Games' vice president of video game platforms, PopCap announced today. In his role, a newly created position at PopCap, Canessa will help expand the reach of the leading casual game publisher and developer to as many systems as possible, as well as overseeing development of games to ensure they are as suitable as possible to their given platforms. Among these platforms are home and portable consoles, and various online and mobile platforms. PopCap also plans to stake out a claim in retail distribution, in addition to its currently dominant online models.

Canessa was crucial to the establishment of Xbox Live Arcade on the original Xbox, its feasibility as a business model for developers and publishers, and the high priority and system integration seen by the service on Xbox 360. Prior to joining PopCap, he had been employed by Microsoft for seven years, and in total boasts fifteen years of industry experience.

Interestingly, in an interview published on Chris Kohler's Game|Life, Canessa includes in a list of target platforms "Apple TV," suggesting that Apple's recently announced video streaming set-top box may have some kind of interactive entertainment functionality. Canessa did not go into any further detail on the subject.

Tdoday, Ubisoft issued a brief media advisory stating that tomorrow morning its Ubisoft Montreal studio will announce "an important growth plan for the company in Quebec." No details were given as to the nature of the announcement or plan, which will be presented by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat, with a variety of government officials in attendance.

It seems Canadian publication La Presse may have the scoop, however. According to GameSpot citing a report from the newspaper today, Ubisoft will receive a government grant from Canada to assist in the creation of a computer animation studio. Apparently, the division will be opened by Ubisoft Montreal, one of the publisher's largest and most prolific development houses. The list of Ubisoft executives and Canadian officials included in Ubisoft's media note lines up with La Presse's claims of who will be present.

Ubisoft will receive a grant of CA$8 million (US$6.8 million) as part of a larger continuing CA$454 ($383.7 million) grant for the company to boost Quebec's job market. As far as what the studio will produce, it will apparently start off with "short films for the general public," though its longer term plans were not specified.

Several game-related plans were revealed during Activision's quarterly financial conference call yesterday, but it looks like we missed one--sort of. GameSpot points out that during the call, in addition to mentioning that Activision plans to double its Wii and Nintendo DS output as reported yesterday, publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith also specifically noted that major franchises such as Spider-Man, Shrek, Transformers, and Guitar Hero will be making it to Nintendo's current home console.

The first three come as little surprise, as they are all external licensed properties that were already likely to end up on all supported platforms. The Guitar Hero revelation actually comes as more of a confirmation than a new announcement. Last September, CEO Bobby Kotick stated that Guitar Hero, which became an Activision property after the company acquired RedOctane, would come to "every significant new format." Given Activision's boosted development plans for Wii, it is clear the publisher considers the system "significant," but this week's comments solidify those expectations.

Buena Vista Games, Disney's video game publishing arm, was renamed today to the more buzzwordy Disney Interactive Studios. The company maintains both first and third party publishing operations. "This change reflects our focus on creativity, the weight of Disney content in our portfolio, and the enormous value consumers see in the Disney brand," said senior VP and general manager Graham Hopper on the new identity.

According to statements made by Nintendo of America marketing VP Perrin Kaplan to IGN, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has sold over one million units on Wii in the Americas. IGN's report did not have figures for the game's sales on GameCube, or its performance in other territories worldwide. Kaplan did also note, however, that Nintendo is on track to meet its hardware sales goals for Wii of selling six million systems to consumers worldwide by the end of March.