Ubisoft
Ubisoft logo | |
Company type | Public |
---|---|
Industry | Interactive entertainment |
Founded | 1986 |
Headquarters | Original Headquaters Montreuil-sous-Bois, France International Headquarters Bucharest, Romania Montreal, Quebec, Canada Fusionopolis, Singapore Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan |
Key people | Yves Guillemot, CEO Yannis Mallat, CEO of Montreal Studio Michel Ancel, Game designer |
Products | Rayman Assassin's Creed series Beyond Good & Evil Blazing Angels Brothers in Arms Far Cry series Might and Magic Myst Prince of Persia Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. |
Revenue | ![]() ![]() |
![]() | |
![]() | |
Total assets | 3,604,841,000 Euro (2020) ![]() |
Number of employees | ![]() |
Website | www.ubi.com www.ubisoftgroup.com |
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. (Euronext: UBI) (Template:Pron-en EW-bee-soft[3]) is a French computer and video game publisher and developer with headquarters in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. The company has a worldwide presence with studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 28 countries.[2]
As of 2008, it was the third-largest independent video game publisher in Europe, and the fourth largest in the United States.[2] Ubisoft's revenue for 2002-2003 was €453 million; for fiscal year 2003-2004, this grew to €508 million. As of 2009, Ubisoft employed more than 5,750 people, of which over 4,800 are classed as working in production.[2] The company's largest development studio is Ubisoft Montreal, which in 2004 employed approximately 1,600 people.[4] Yves Guillemot, a founding brother, was the chairman and CEO. As for 2008-2009, Ubisoft's revenue was €1,058 million, reaching the 1 billion euro milestone for the first time in its history.
History
The five brothers of the Guillemot family founded Ubisoft as a computer game publisher in 1986 in France (Brittany). Yves Guillemot soon made deals with Electronic Arts, Sierra On-Line, and MicroProse to distribute their games in France. By the end of the decade, Ubisoft began expanding to other markets, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.[5]
In the early 1990s, Ubisoft initiated its in-house game development program which led to the 1994 opening of a studio in Montreuil, France, which later became their headquarters. Ubisoft became a publicly traded company in 1996 and continued to expand to offices around the globe, opening locations in Shanghai and Montreal.
In 2000, Ubisoft had acquired Red Storm Entertainment.[6]
In February 2001, they acquired Düsseldorf, Germany based Blue Byte Software.[7]
In March 2001, Gores Technology Group sold The Learning Company's entertainment division (which includes games originally published by Brøderbund Software, Mattel, Mindscape and Strategic Simulations, Inc.) to them. The sale included the rights to IPs such as the Myst and Prince of Persia series.[8]
In October 2001, they acquired Gamebusters and move them to the German Offices.[9]
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ubisoft committed itself to online games by getting behind Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, The Matrix Online, and the European and Chinese operation of EverQuest. The publisher established ubi.com as its online division. However, in February 2004, Ubisoft cancelled the online portion of Uru and backed out of the publishing deal on The Matrix Online. Nevertheless, a mere week later, the company announced its acquisition of Wolfpack Studios, developer of Shadowbane.
In December 2004, a rival game corporation Electronic Arts purchased a 19.9% stake in the firm, an action Ubisoft referred to as "hostile" on EA's part.[10]
In March 2005, Ubisoft acquired part of MC2-Microïds (Microïds Canada) and integrated it into Ubisoft Montreal.[11]
In July 2006 Ubisoft also bought the Driver franchise from Atari for a sum of €19 million (USD$24 million) in cash for the franchise, technology rights, and most asset. Additionally, though Ubisoft is not acquiring the studio outright, the members of Driver developer Reflections Interactive became employees of Ubisoft. As a result, Reflections Interactive was subsequently renamed Ubisoft Reflections.
On 11 April 2007, Ubisoft announced that it had acquired German game developer Sunflowers,[12] followed by an acquisition of Japanese developer Digital Kids that November.[13]
Ubisoft is also responsible for publishing famous franchises produced by other important studios for some specific platforms, such as Resident Evil 4 for PC, which is a Capcom production, and Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon for PlayStation 2 and Harvest Moon Online, which are Marvelous Interactive productions.
On 10 November 2008, Ubisoft acquired Massive Entertainment from Activision.[14]
Studios
As one of the largest video game companies in the world, Ubisoft studios employs the second largest amount of in-house development staff in the world and has several divisions and offices throughout the world.[2] While some were founded by Ubisoft, others have been acquired over time. Some of these studios are:
Current
- Sinister Games, acquired in April 2000.[9]
- Ubisoft Chengdu, started on 17 September 2007.[9]
- Ubisoft Germany in Düsseldorf, Germany, started in 2005, acquired Gamebusters in October 2001 and merged employees.[9]
- Blue Byte Software in Düsseldorf, Germany, founded in 1988, acquired February 2001.[9]
- Related Designs Software GmbH, founded in January 1995 [15], acquired a 30% stake in the company on 11 April 2007.
- Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software GmbH in Heusenstamm, Germany, founded in 1993, acquired on 11 April 2007.[16]
- Ubisoft India, started in 2008 after acquiring the Pune Gameloft studio. Will focus on porting games to the current generation of handhelds.[17] In Times Animage 2009 held at Pune it was disclosed by Ubisoft officials that the Pune Studio was developing its own games on DS, Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.
- Ubisoft Kiev, started 29 April 2008.[9]
- Ubisoft Massive in Malmö, Sweden, founded as Massive Entertainment in 1997, acquired from Vivendi Games on 10 November 2008.
- Ubisoft Montpellier, current projects include Rabbids Go Home, Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. Michel Ancel is a developer for this division.
- Ubisoft Montreal, started in 1997 as Ubisoft Divertissements Inc.[18], acquired the Canadian division of Microids on 2 March 2005, eventually merged into this division.
- Hybride Technologies, acquired 8 July 2008.[9]
- Nadeo in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris, France, founded in 2000. Acquired in 5 October 2009.
- Ubisoft Paris, made games such as Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Red Steel and XIII. They are currently developing Red Steel 2 for Q1 2010.
- Ubisoft Poland, opened in 2009.[9]
- Ubisoft Quebec, started 1 June 2005, based in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada[19]
- Red Storm Entertainment in Morrisville, North Carolina,U.S, founded in 1996 and acquired in August 2000.[9]
- Ubisoft Reflections in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, founded in 1984 as Reflections Interactive and acquired in 26 August 2006, from Atari.
- Ubisoft Romania in Bucharest, Romania, started in October 1992.
- Ubisoft São Paulo, started on 24 June 2008 and on 20 January 2009 they acquired Southlogic Studios and integrated it into this studio.[20]
- Ubisoft Shanghai, announced in early 2009 that their new, Shanghai studio would develop the upcoming Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title, I Am Alive, instead of the originally expected Darkworks.
- Ubisoft Singapore, started on August 2008. Ubisoft cited the Singapore government's demonstrated interest and support for the video game industry, together with other factors such as the quality of Singapore's universities and training institutions, as reasons for opening a studio there. Ubisoft Singapore is focused on developing their own game titles.[21]
- Ubisoft Vancouver, started on 3 February 2009 after acquiring Action Pants Inc.[22]
Defunct
- Wolfpack Studios in Austin, Texas, U.S, founded in 1999 and acquired on 1 March 2004 and closed on 2006.[23]
Games
Upcoming games
2010
- Assassins Creed II Episodes (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
- Battle of Giants: Mutant Insects (DS)
- Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS)
- Pure Football (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
- Red Steel 2 (Wii)
- R.U.S.E. (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom (PC)
- Silent Hunter V: Battle of the Atlantic (PC)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (PC, Xbox 360)
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)[24]
- TrackMania Wii (Wii)
2011
- I Am Alive (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- TrackMania 2 (PC)
Unknown date
- Tom Clancy's EndWar 2
- Beyond Good & Evil 2
- Driver[25]
- Imagine series
- Far Cry 3
- Assassin's Creed III (Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
- QuestMania
- ShootMania
Upcoming motion pictures
Game engines
Ubisoft utilizes a multitude of engines. In the current generation, it has licensed third party engines like Epic's Games' Unreal Engine 2.5 (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction), Unreal Engine 3.0 (Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway), GRIN's Diesel Engine (Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (PC), Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (PC)), and the CryEngine (Far Cry Instincts) Onyx Engine was used in several 2007 DS and PSP releases; Cranium Kabookii, Chessmaster: The Art of Learning (DS), Surf's Up (DS and PSP), and TMNT (DS and PSP).[citation needed]
In addition, it has utilized proprietary and first party technology, including: the Anvil engine (Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, Shaun White Snowboarding, Assassin's Creed 2), the YETI engine (Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter,Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, America's Army: True Soldiers, Beowulf, Lost: Via Domus), the Jade engine (Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, Beyond Good & Evil, Rayman Raving Rabbids, TMNT, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, Naruto: The Broken Bond), the LyN engine (Rabbids Go Home, Red Steel 2), and the Dunia engine (Far Cry 2).
Uplay
With the release of Assassin's Creed II in 2009, Ubisoft launched the Uplay network, which is activated either in-game or via the Uplay website.[26] Uplay allows players to connect with other gamers, and to earn rewards based on achievements in Uplay enabled games, with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stating that "the more you play, the more free goods you will be able to have".[27]
Controversies
Ubisoft had, for a time, used the controversial StarForce copy protection technology that installs hidden drivers on a system and is known to cause some hardware problems and compatibility issues with certain operating systems, starting with the game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which was not compatible with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition for quite some time, until a patch was released by the makers of StarForce.[28] On 14 April 2006, Ubisoft confirmed that they would stop using StarForce on their games, citing complaints from customers.[29]
In the February 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Editor-in-Chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu asserted that Ubisoft had ceased to provide all Ubisoft titles to the EGM for any coverage purposes as a result of prior critical previews and negative reviews.[30][31]
Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, was quoted in the company's third-quarter 2008-09 sales report as saying "as some of our games did not meet the required quality levels to achieve their full potential, they need more sales promotions than anticipated."[32]
In January 2010, Ubisoft has announced the Online Services Platform, which forces customers to not only authenticate on the first game launch, but to remain online continually while playing, with the game even pausing if network connection is lost. This makes it impossible to play the game offline, to resell it, and means that should Ubisoft's servers go down, the game will be unplayable.[33] In February 2010, review versions of Assassin's Creed II and Settlers 7 for PC contained this new DRM scheme, comfirming that it is already in use, and that instead of pausing the game, it would discard all progress since the last checkpoint or save game.[34] A way around the unpopular DRM was found by hacker group "Skid-Row" the day Silent Hunter 5 was released [35].
Lawsuits
In 2008, Ubisoft sued Optical Experts Manufacturing (OEM), a DVD Duplication company for $25 million plus damages for the leak and distribution of its Assassins Creed PC game. The lawsuit claims that OEM did not take proper measures to protect its product as stated in its contract with Ubisoft. The complaint also alleges that OEM admitted to all the problems in the complaint.[36]
See also
References
- ^ Nunneley, Stephany (2009-04-29). "Ubisoft sales for Q4 show increase of 14% to $1.4 billion". videogaming247. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ a b c d e "At a glance". Ubisoft. 2009-04. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Stephen Totilo (publisher), Alexandre Amancio, Clint Hocking, and Louis-Pierre Pharand (2007-09-17). How To Pronounce… “Ubisoft” (The Official Explanation) (Video). MTV Networks. Event occurs at 0:22. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
- ^ French, Michael (2007-02-07). "Ubisoft Montreal to become world's biggest studio". Develop Magazine. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
- ^ "History". Ubisoft. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "Ubi Soft Acquires Red Storm Entertainment". Blue's News. 2000-08-29. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ Ho, Jennifer (2001-02-09). "Ubi Soft acquires Blue Byte Software". Gamespot. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "Ubi Soft Acquires The Learning Company's Entertainment Division". GameZone. 2001-03-07. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "History for Ubisoft Entertainment SA". MobyGames. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ Feldman, Curt (2004-12-20). "Electronic Arts buys stake in Ubisoft in "hostile" act". Gamespot. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
- ^ "Ubisoft Montreal enters into an agreement to acquire Microids Canada's development operations". Ubisoft. 2005-03-02. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
- ^ "Ubisoft Acquires SunFlowers, Anno Franchise". Gamasutra. 11 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ "Ubisoft Buys Japanese Studio". GameTab. 2007-11-05. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
- ^ "Ubisoft acquires the assets of Massive Entertainment" (Press release). Ubisoft. 2008-11-10. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
- ^ "Related Designs Software GmbH". MobyGames. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "Ubisoft acquires Sunflowers, takes stake in Related Designs". Spong. 2007-04-12. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ Boyes, Emma (April 15, 2008). "Ubisoft orders Indian takeaway". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
- ^ "Ubisoft Divertissements Inc". MobyGames. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "UBISOFT OUVRE OFFICIELLEMENT SES PORTES À QUÉBEC" (in French). Ubisoft. 2005-06-01. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "Ubisoft São Paulo". MobyGames. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ Sharma, Money (2008-06-17). "Q & A with Ubisoft Singapore Managing Director Olivier de Rotalier". Animation Xpress. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "Academy of Champions Announced". Gaming Union. May 20, 2009.
- ^ Sinclair, Brendan (2006-03-30). "Wolfpack Studios being shut down". GameSpot. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "Ghost Recon Future Soldier teaser". Retrieved 10 February 2010.
- ^ Kietzmann, Ludwig (13 January 2010). "Raving Rabbids 4, new Driver planned for Ubisoft's fiscal 2010-11". Joystiq. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ "Assassin's Creed II and Splinter Cell to feature Uplay system". 21 November 2009.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ "Ubisoft: All Our Games Will Do This UPlay Thing". Retrieved 26 November 2009.
- ^ "StarForce website page about patch".[dead link]
- ^ Thorsen, Tor (2006-04-14). "Ubisoft officially dumps Starforce". Gamespot. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ Plunkett, Luke (2008-01-08). "3 Companies Bar EGM From Coverage Following Poor Reviews". Kotaku. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ Hsu, Dan (2008-01-09). "Banned". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "Ubisoft 3rd-quarter 2008-09 sales report" (pdf). Ubisoft. 2009-01-22. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ "Online Services Platform Q&A". Ubisoft. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ Francis, Tom (2010-02-17). "Constant net connection required to play Assassin's Creed 2 on PC". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Assassin%27s_Creed_II&action=edit§ion=12
- ^ "Ubisoft vs OEM".[dead link]