Founder and CEO of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot, believes his company has the ability to jump ahead of Activision and Electronic Arts to take number one spot in the worldwide video games market. Ubisoft – the publisher behind some of gaming's most iconic and recognizable titles, such as the outstanding Assassin's Creed series – currently sit in third spot behind giants Activision and EA in terms of worldwide revenue, but CEO Guillemot has them firmly in his sights, and his goal is for Ubisoft to take the coveted number one spot in the future.

Guillemot was speaking with gaming site MCV after watching Ubisoft win two gongs at MCV's industry award ceremony in London, which could go some way to explaining his new found confidence. Ubisoft has some way to go before it can call itself number one, as revenue for it's fiscal year is expected to be around the $1.4 billion mark – a figure somewhat dwarfed by Activison and EA's huge $4.5 billion and $3.5 billion in annual revenue.

Guillemot is also happy about the fact that Electronic Arts decided to sell it's stake in Ubisoft last year, a decision which has led to Ubisoft having full independence, and removing the worry that EA could have decided to acquire Ubisoft.

Here's what he had to say:

“When they [EA] left it changed lots of things for us. We had a competitor owning a share of the company and we were always wary that they could decide they would go for the company — and that wouldn’t have been welcome."

“So now we are totally independent again, we feel a lot better, we are number three and our goal is to beat those guys, EA and Activision, at some point.”

“We got from number 25 to number three, so we think that we can continue and that it is possible to be number one. It’s not certain, but we are taking the steps that we think will get us there."

Ubisoft is taking steps alright, but whether they will be enough to topple Activision and EA, who have hugely successful franchises such as Call of Duty and Need for Speed that are showing no signs of slowing up, remains to be seen. Ubisoft would need to string together several big-hitting franchises over the next few years to get anywhere near the dizzy heights of Activision. Just one hugely successful franchise is a mammoth task in today's market, but if any publisher is going to beat Activision and EA, Ubisoft seem best placed and equipped to do so. Well, that's just as long we don't see another Asphalt 3D title anytime soon.

Do you think Ubisoft has what it takes to become the number one publisher of video games in the world? Or are Activision and EA too strong to be out-muscled by the competition? Let us know in the comments.

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Source: MCV