Ubisoft
Ubisoft (Ubisoft Entertainment SA) is a video game company established in France, but now has studios and offices across the world. They were established in 1986 and as of March 2018, is the fifth biggest publicly traded game company. Their growth has been established from the production of franchises including Rayman, the Tom Clancy series, Assassin Creed and Just Dance.
Between 1986-1996 Ubisoft was based in France, originating as a family business selling CDs, later expanding to video games. Their original breakthrough in gaming was selling physical copies of games by other companies, being the largest video gaming distributor in France in 1993, before attracting developers and expanding their offices into other countries such as Shanghai and Milan in the later 90s.
2000s Era
Rayman was one of the first games produced by Ubisoft and originally did well in Europe but not internationally. With the growth of the internet in 1999, Ubisoft expanded into free online gaming, and with the company expansion that followed this, purchased Red Storm entertainment in 2000. This was a tactical move by Ubisoft as they gained the rights to the Tom Clancy series, which was doing well in the US, and would allow the company to grow internationally where Rayman had not succeeded.
In 2007 Ubisoft launched Assassins Creed as a standalone game, despite it originally being created as a sequel in its Prince of Persia series. Assassins Creed is an open world action-adventure game, focusing on a story line on the struggle between Assassins, fighting for free will and peace, and the Templars, who desire peace through their own order and control.
Assassins creed is generally presented from third person perspective, while actions focus on navigating the open world using discretion and parkour style movement. There is a main plot storyline for players to follow as well as side missions and world interactions. The first game switches between the 12th and 21st century, following a main protagonist called Desmond, while he is forced to relive is Assassin ancestors memory’s.
2018 onwards
Despite producing 5-6 AAA releases compared to the 2-3 by its rivals (EA, Activision etc), Ubisoft was still bringing in less net revenue per employee due to poor game sales. As of January 2020, Ubisoft is reorganising its board of editors and overviewing its whole game portfolio, in an attempt to diversify the games it develops and raise its currently weak sales.
The assassins creed series has now 12 editions, the most recent being Assassins Creed Valhalla, released in 2020. Valhalla was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and is based on a Viking raider in 873 AD.
Dunia Engine
Dunia Engine is software originally developed by Crytek, modified by Ubisoft Montreal. Originally Crytek produced the CryEngine, software able to render large outdoor environments, and was commissioned by Ubisoft to build the full version of the Engine, developing their first Far Cry game (2004).
Modifications of the CryEngine included destructible environments, better weather systems and a more realistic physics engine between 2004-2009, and was eventually renamed as Dunia Engine. Dunia Engine 2 was announced in 2012, now capable of global illumination. Remi Quenin, one of the engine’s architects, states that it includes “vegetation, fire simulation, destruction, vehicles, systemic AI, wildlife, weather, day/night cycles, and non linear storytelling” as of 2017.
Company News (December 2020)
- Still focusing on open world, action-adventure gaming, stand alone game, no connection to the series
- Loosely based on the history of Cuba
- Pushed back from August 2020 to February 2021 due to covid
- Full PC and Next Gen console release
