BIZ: Ubisoft has been one of the big supporters of Wii since the start. Do you feel that Nintendo's really expanding the audience and having as big an impact on this industry as everyone keeps saying?

YG: The impact they've had is really wonderful. Nintendo is really managed by creative guys. They invent new things and new ways to play and this is going to influence all of the industry. It's going to influence Sony, Microsoft and it's influencing Ubisoft and all the other publishers. I think the influence is huge because what they are saying is we need to continue to look more at gameplay and fun; and they are not only saying it but they are doing it. We have to make sure that fun remains the major element.

BIZ: In addition to a strong focus on the Wii, Ubisoft earlier this year launched a new internal development structure specifically to boost the company's casual games offerings. How exactly do you define casual, and what kind of opportunity does the casual market represent? How big will the market get?

YG: Nintendo and Microsoft, with Xbox Live, have been able to bring in more customers. And for Ubisoft we also have more customers and we don't know how many more we will get; there's no limit to the growth really. Initially, I thought we would see 40 to 50 percent growth in the next four years, but when I saw the innovation from Nintendo I realized that maybe it could even be 20 percent more than what I had expected – just because all those new customers who will come into this business... will play, and when you play you learn to play. You understand that it can be good to play. Then you will start buying more games because there will be games for you [the casual gamer] in this industry.

Even before this [casual boom] we had a very organized structure [for growth] – we would gain new customers where the current customers get older and the new ones continue to come in. Because the new machines are better graphically, more customers automatically come, but now Nintendo comes and says, "We can have products for everybody. And by the way, we will put them on the market and take risks with hardware." So what we see now is that some women who came in with Brain Age now play Zelda. The new people playing don't buy as much to start with, but there's no reason they will not buy a game from time to time.

BIZ: Speaking of women playing games, you recently introduced your Imagine line of games for girls. I'm sort of wondering about the approach with this because people in this industry have said that if you just make great games, girls will want to play them too – no need to cater to girl stereotypes, like Barbie dolls and cooking. But it seems these games in the Imagine line do follow those types of stereotypes...

YG: What we did is very simple. We made a survey and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "I want to be a veterinarian, I want to ride a horse, I would love to ice skate, I like fashion design, etc." We took the list of what they expected and created those products. What you have to do, though, is in the product itself, you have to treat it differently than the stereotype. And we have to focus on the subjects people like. Guys tend to like to play first-person shooter (FPS) games, and it's the same for the new consumers... you have to bring them what they want.

BIZ: I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if you look at a game like Beyond Good and Evil, which unfortunately didn't sell as well as Ubisoft would have liked, it's a well designed game that has a lead female character that isn't a typical scantily clad game babe, and it's the kind of game that can attract women because of it's more realistic protagonist.

YG: Beyond Good and Evil is interesting because it was good but we needed a broader audience; at that time, the audience didn't exist. Now with new games coming from Nintendo and with new people coming to play, a game like this in a couple of years actually could be in the top ten. And that would signal that everyone could then make games like this. What is very important for us is that the [gaming] population changes, because if that happens then we can have top ten games that are more dedicated to men or women who want something different than an FPS. The population is really what determines the business because publishers have to produce content that's in demand.

BIZ: Any thoughts on continuing Beyond Good and Evil or is that not an option?

YG: We can't say anything about that now. [smiles]