Ubisoft to tackle skate and football

Ubisoft has announced that it'll be making its entry into two more sports game genres this year with Shaun White Skateboarding and Pure Football.

Pure Football (also known as Pure Futbol in some countries) will be released worldwide in May. Developed at the French publisher's Vancouver studio, it takes famous professional players and international stars and puts them in the park for rough-and-tumble five-a-side matches with no rules and no ref.

It has an over-the-shoulder third-person camera to put you in the heart of the action ("as opposed to the feeling of watching a TV broadcast", says the press release). You'll also be able to create your own customised player. There's local four-player multiplayer as well as two-player online matches. Sounds different, at least: check out the screens.

Meanwhile, lanky-haired snowboarding Olympian Shaun White extends his digital range to the skate park with Shaun White Skateboarding, due at the end of the year. The 23-year-old has won X Games gold medals in both sports, conveniently for Ubisoft's marketing department.

Coming out of Ubisoft's Montreal games factory, Shaun White Skateboarding also promises "an innovative twist and fresh take" on a well-established sports game genre, but there are no details on what that take might be yet.

"We've been working on it for a while now and it's ready to melt minds," said White. Not quite, apparently.

There's no official confirmation of formats for either game yet, but we expect Wii, PS3 and 360 for Shaun, in the vein of his snowboarding games, and at least PS3 and 360 for Pure Football.