Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Ubisoft homepage adopts Nintendo layout



The German version of Ubisoft´s homepage has adopted the same layout as Nintendo´s Wii homepage. Take a look at these screens:



This is quite obviously a deliberate adoption of the same graphic layout. Consider the colours (a cyan blue against a white background), the font, the beveled frames and especially the hatched tabs.


What is going on? Why would Ubisoft want to copy Nintendo´s graphic layout? Google´s cache (retrieved on December 27th) already bears the design. So this has been online for a while already.

Obviously, Ubisoft and Nintendo have entered into a strong partnership since the Wii has been announced. But bringing their homepages in line is pretty weird a move in my opinion. I will try and contact Ubisoft tomorrow to see why they chose to copy the layout.

EDIT I just spoke to Ubisoft Germany´s head of PR and he was unaware of the new layout. He will ask the company´s webmaster about this when he returns next week.

EDIT I have just come across Ubisoft´s international Wii line up page, which also mirrors the design of Wii.Nintendo.com. So this appears to be a wider campaign to market Ubisoft´s Wii titles in Nintendo´s design and layout.


Sources: Ubisoft Germany, Nintendo Wii

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ZOMG NINTENO BUYING UBISOFT CONFERMED!!!11!

Falafelkid said...

Hey Anonymous.

Just what I was thinking ;)

RGB said...

I dont think that would justify a similar web layout. But I assume you dont honestly think that.

Are you still planning to post the interview with Sacha?

Falafelkid said...

Hey Grandmaster. Happy new year, mate. And sorry for not responding to your audio message. I had a hard time understanding it - the audio quality was quite poor at my end (might be my problem, though).

Anyway, to the topic at hand. Of course, I was joking about either company buying the other. It is quite a strange move, though, nevertheless.

And I apologize for not having had the time to upload the interview yet. I am still quite busy with that music video of mine. Will get round to it eventually, I promise.

RGB said...

Same to you, happy new year and to everyone else. Well nearly everyone.

No problems, I wasnt expecting a reply. It might be your end as I was using a high quality speakerphone. Blizz or someone else also could hear me. But it maybe my Aus accent.

Anyway no rush on the interview, just as long as I get to see it. Just thought I would remind you just in case.