In a change of pace from its usual drawn-out interview segments and big-name hosts, French game publisher Ubisoft has kicked off its presence at the E3 expo in LA by showing a string of new games in action and focusing a lot more on the men and women who actually craft these games at its many global studios.

Various studio heads showed off new footage of previously announced games including Assassin's Creed Origins, which takes the stealthy series back to ancient Egypt, Far Cry 5, in which a violent religious cult take over a rural American town, and The Crew 2, which expands the large-scale racing game beyond cars to boats and planes.

But the two highest points of the conference came at the beginning and the end, with the confirmation of a pair of games that have been repeatedly leaked for a long time but which Ubisoft has kept quiet about.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle sees the company's manic and extraordinarily French mascots team up with Nintendo's Mario series for a game in an unlikely genre: turn-based strategic shooter. Ubisoft founder Yves Guillemot was joined on stage by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who brandished a colourful mock gun from the game.

 "These are a little bit different to the weapons you see in Ghost Recon", Miyamoto said via translator, taking a dig at Ubisoft's popular military franchise. Footage showed Mario characters, and Rabbids dressed like Mario characters, moving strategically around the battlefield to eliminate some very colourful foes. The game, set for release in August, is being developed for the Nintendo Switch by Ubisoft.

The other big reveal was for Beyond Good and Evil 2, the sequel to a 14-year-old fan favourite. Taking place before the events of the original in a multi-ethnic future human space colony, the four-minute trailer following foul-mouthed human-animal hybrids was met with a thunderous reception from those in attendance. No release plans were announced, but it was described as featuring a "seamless online playground" for players to explore.

Along the way the company also featured:

• A trailer for Transference — an intriguing psychological horror VR game — featuring Elijah Wood, whose company Spectrevision is involved in the production.
• Skull & Bones, an online multiplayer pirate game that takes the naval combat previously featured in Assassin's Creed to a new level.
• Starlink, a space exploration game you play by fitting pieces on actual toy spaceships.
• Just Dance 2018, a new entry in the cash cow series that nobody was surprised to see. It was introduced on-stage by singer Bebe Rexha.

As always Ubisoft's announcements were characterised by a commitment to getting games on every platform imaginable, and this time around it even announced one for mobile. South Park: Phone Destroyer is releasing in October and looks very much like a stripped-back version of the franchise's console role-playing games.

The author travelled to E3 as a guest of Ubisoft.