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   They still have a ways to go until they can challenge the absolute authority in the field of games publishing, which of course is Electronic Arts, but Ubi is very keen on rising to the second spot within the next five years. This is what Ubisoft Montreal boss Yannis Mallet told the press after a recent tour of the famed studio, at the end of which he also addressed the company's tensed relation with EA.

   Earlier this year, there was quite a ruckus caused by EA's aggressive staff hirings for their own studio in the city, after Alain Tascan left Ubi in order to head EA Montreal. But Mallet says that whatever problems there were (or "differences" as he would rather call them), they're behind them now, and their relationships are now "as fine as they could be". Well, considering that Electronic Arts is still their top competitor, anyway (not to mention a major pain the back shareholder).

   If Ubisoft are to succeed in their strategy to become the number #2 publisher in the world by 2012, they still need to take over Activision and, according to a ranking published by Game Developer Magazine in September 2005, the first-publishing trio Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. In order to get there, Mallet said that his company will continue to use the same strategy, "which is to put our creativity and innovation at the heart of our creations - making good quality games which surprise the market and consumers".

   Games that clearly match this description are some of Ubisoft's Wii launch titles - such as Rayman Raving Rabbits and Red Steel - and of course Assassin's Creed, which so far looks like a sure winner, and a worthy follower to their Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell series.