Ubisoft had a pretty impressive showing at their press conference today.  They have quite a slate of games coming out over the next few months and into next year.  This includes long-anticipated games like Watch Dogs and the delayed Rayman Legends, new installments of old favorites like Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell, and some cool new games as well.  Overall, it was a solid showing.

With this, there seemed to be a fairly heavy emphasis on online, interactive play.  In fact, more than one game trailer today ended by zooming out to reveal that the game is actually a multiplayer online persistent world.

Their first example of this was The Crew, a racing game that puts you on the streets of the USA.  It has a lot of customization and RPG elements, and you work with a crew of friends to complete missions and level up.  But the world you’re playing in is populated by other players doing the same thing.  Honestly, I think that The Crew is a fresh look at the genre of racing games, and I hope that it turns out to be as fun as I think it has the potential to be.

Similar to this is The Division, a tactical RPG shooter that takes place in a world where disease is rampant and society is beginning to collapse.  You play The Division in an open world game environment with other players, all apparently trying to salvage what’s left of the decaying world.

We also had the chance to look at The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, an RPG/Tower Defense game.  In this game you build your own castle, complete with traps to protect your loot.  Then you go around and try to navigate your friends’ and others’ castles, leaving them taunting messages if you’re able to get through their traps.  It looks light, cartoony, and possibly a whole lot of fun.

Ultimately, it looks like there’s quite a bit of emphasis on social, interactive gaming coming from this Ubisoft press conference.  I’m really interested to see how these games play out and how effective and entertaining they’ll be.