Ubisoft Grabs Shaun White For Snowboarding Title

Ubisoft, the French game publisher responsible for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and the Prince of Persia series, has announced a forthcoming game "for current and next-generation consoles" based on Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, one of the publisher's first moves into the 'extreme sports' genre. White, who took the 2006 Olympic gold medal in halfpipe after several wins in both halfpipe and slope-style snowboarding at ESPN's X Games, will work with Ubisoft to develop a snowboarding title based on his personal style. "I'm stoked to be working with Ubisoft to develop a video game that captures the thrill of snowboarding like no game has done before," said White. "I'm a huge fan of Ubisoft games like Prince of Persia, so I'm excited to be able to combine what I love about snowboarding and gaming into an experience for everyone to enjoy." The game will be different from most "traditional" snowboarding games such as EA Sports Big's SSX series and Microsoft's Amped games, in that it will have a halfpipe focus as opposed to the other titles' downhill snowboarding. White's halfpipe performance at the Olympic games included two back-to-back 1080-degree spins while holding the board, in an event similar to the half-pipe skateboarding depicted in the Tony Hawk franchise. "Ubisoft is thrilled to be working on a video game inspired by and created with one of the top athletes in action sports today," said Ubisoft director of worldwide licensing Christian Salomon. "As the sport continues to grow in popularity, Ubisoft is looking forward to bringing the groundbreaking innovation and high-quality game play we are famous for in other genres to snowboarding."