Summer is usually a time for video game companies to demo their upcoming projects for the press, influencers, and other folks. The pandemic has made that difficult this year, but Ubisoft has found a way to get people trying their games from home without the need to download them.
Ubisoft is partnering with Parsec, which uses streaming technology to provide access to remote computers. For Ubisoft’s purposes, this means that anyone from anywhere can use Parsec to play a demo of a game installed on an Ubisoft PC. That’s just what the publisher did recently for two of its biggest holiday releases, Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, which it showed off today during its Forward online event.
“Ubisoft had been using Parsec for Teams for remote work, it has been their go-to solution for months within many of their departments, including development, design, and testing,” Parsec cofounder Benjy Boxer told GamesBeat. “It evolved from here into using our tech for their digital events. Specifically, as they explored ways to design a remote showcase, they chose Parsec’s technology because of its graphic fidelity, video performance, and the seamless experience of connecting to a game from anywhere.”
I was a part of the Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla preview, and it was amazing to be able to try a game months before its release without having to download anything aside from the streaming service itself. With more time and development, this could be the future of gaming industry previews, eliminating the need for costly real-world gatherings.
Tools like Parsec have helped gaming companies keep working while staffs are quarantined at home. Now their usefulness is extending into the promotional realm.