Ubisoft scraps UbiDays 2009 event

Ubisoft has decided not to hold its UbiDays event this year, and focus its efforts on E3, GamesCom and the Tokyo Game Show, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

For the past two years Ubisoft has shepherded press and retail into flashy Paris venues (it was the Louvre in 2008) to showcase its portfolio of titles, offering hands-on play time and interview opportunities with developers and top-level suits.

"With regards to UbiDays: with the E3 event in the US, the GamesCom in Europe and Tokyo Games Show in Japan, we think that we'll have great outlets to present our creativity and innovation to a worldwide audience and will therefore reconsider our plans," said a spokesperson for Ubisoft.

"There won't be a UbiDays this year."

UbiDays sprung up in part due to the downsizing of E3, with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stating in 2007 that the company wanted to hold its own show for Europe

"E3 is now only for the US, so we wanted to do something to help everybody see our products. So we decided to do E3 but in France and call it UbiDays," he said at the time.

But with E3 promising to return to the glamour and glitz of old, and the GamesCom in Cologne event promising a much more accessible venue for travelling media, publishers are returning to the convenience of mass-organised events.