Ubisoft

Ubisoft Entertainment S.A.

Type	Public
Founded	1986
Headquarters	Montreuil-sous-Bois, France Bucharest, Romania Montreal, Canada
Key people	Yves Guillemot, CEO Yannis Mallat, CEO of Montreal Studio Michel Ancel, Game designer
Industry	Interactive entertainment
Products	Rayman Assassin's Creed 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
Revenue	▲ € 1,058 billion sales (2009) ▲$1.4 billion[1]
Operating income	▲ €155 million
Net income	▲ €109.8 million
Employees	▲ 4,500 [2]
Website	www.ubi.com www.ubisoftgroup.com

Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. (Euronext: UBI) (pronounced /ˈjuːbisɒft/ EW-bee-soft^[3]) is a French computer and video game publisher and developer with headquarters in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. The company has facilities in over 20 countries, with studios in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City, Canada; Bucharest, Romania; Barcelona, Spain; Shanghai, Chengdu, China; Singapore; Cary, North Carolina, USA; Düsseldorf, Germany; Sofia, Bulgaria; Casablanca, Morocco; Sydney, Australia; Milan, Italy; Pune, India and São Paulo, Brazil; amongst other locations.

As of 2004, it was the third-largest independent video game publisher in Europe, and the seventh largest in the United States. Ubisoft's revenue for 2002-2003 was €453 million; for fiscal year 2003-2004, this grew to €508 million. As of 2005, Ubisoft employed more than 3,500 people, of which over 1,700 are classed as working in production. 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.

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 acquires Red Storm Entertainment.^[5]

In February 2001, they acquire Düsseldorf, Germany based Blue Byte Software.^[6]

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.^[7]

In October 2001, they acquire Gamebusters and move them to the German Offices.^[8]

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.^[9]

In March 2005, Ubisoft acquired part of MC2-Microïds (Microïds Canada) and integrated it into Ubisoft Montreal.^[10]

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,^[11] followed by an acquisition of Japanese developer Digital Kids that November.^[12]

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 November 10, 2008, Ubisoft acquired Massive Entertainment from Activision.[1]

Studios

As one of the largest video game companies in the world, Ubisoft has several divisions and offices throughout the world. While some were founded by Ubisoft, others have been acquired over time. Some of these studios are:

• Digital Kids in Japan, acquired November 2007.
• Red Storm Entertainment in Morrisville, North Carolina,U.S, founded in 1996 and acquired in August 2000.
• Sinister Games, acquired in April 2000. ^[13]
• Ubisoft Australia, distributes Square Enix's games, due to Square Enix not having an Australian presence
• Ubisoft Chengdu, started on September 17, 2007.^[14]
• Ubisoft Germany in Düsseldorf, Germany, started in 2005, acquired Gamebusters in October 2001 and merged employees. ^[15]
  • Blue Byte Software in Düsseldorf, Germany, founded in 1988, acquired February 2001.
  • Related Designs Software GmbH, founded in January 1995 ^[16], acquired a 30% stake in the company on April 11, 2007. ^[17]
  • Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software GmbH in Heusenstamm, Germany, founded in 1993, acquired on April 11, 2007.
• Ubisoft India, started in 2008 after acquiring the Pune Gameloft studio. Will focus on porting games to the current generation of handhelds.^[18] 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 April 29, 2008.^[19]
• Ubisoft Massive in Malmö, Sweden, founded as Massive Entertainment in 1997, acquired from Vivendi Games on November 10, 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.^[20], acquired the Canadian division of Microids on March 2, 2005, eventually merged into this division.
  • Hybride Technologies, acquired July 8, 2008.^[21]
• Nadeo in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris, France, founded in 2000. Acquired in October 5, 2009.^[22]
• 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, will open in 2009.^[23]
• Ubisoft Quebec, started June 1st, 2005, based in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada^[24]
• Ubisoft Reflections in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, founded in 1984 as Reflections Interactive and acquired in August 26, 2006, from Atari.
• Ubisoft Romania in Bucharest, Romania, started in October 1992.
• Ubisoft São Paulo, started on June 24, 2008 and on January 20, 2009 they acquired Southlogic Studios and integrated it into this studio.^[25]
• 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.^[26]
• Ubisoft Toronto, will open in 2009. It will employ over 800 people.
• Ubisoft Ukraine, took part in porting Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII and ported Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. on PC and are currently working on unannounced project.
• Ubisoft Vancouver, started on February 3, 2009 after acquiring Action Pants Inc.. They are currently working on Academy of Champions for the Wii. ^[27]
• Wolfpack Studios in Austin, Texas, U.S, founded in 1999 and acquired on March 1, 2004.

Games

Upcoming games

2009 + 2010

• Avatar (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii)
• I Am Alive (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Red Steel 2 (Wii)
• R.U.S.E. (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Rabbids Go Home (Wii)
• Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (Nintendo DS)
• Ghost Recon 4
• Academy of Champions (Wii)
• Your Shape (Wii)
• The Price is Right (PC, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS)
• Press Your Luck (PC, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (PC, Xbox 360)
• Silent Hunter 5 (PC)
• The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom (PC)

Unknown date

• Beyond Good & Evil 2
• Driver
• Harvest Moon Online (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Imagine series

Upcoming motion pictures

• Citizen Siege
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• Assassin's Creed: Lineage

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).

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]

When Ubisoft software is installed, a product registration application called "PRegScheduler MFC Application" is copied as "PowerReg Scheduler.exe" outside of its specified installation directories. It is placed directly in the Startup folder, rather than linking to the Ubisoft folder. "PowerReg Scheduler.exe" may show up as "PowerREGISTER" in your task list. Examination of the programs properties shows the "Company Name" to be blank, even though the rest of the property information is available. The inability to identify this application by installation directory or by company information has resulted in reports of alarm from certain users that an unknown program by an unidentified company has been placed in their startup folder for unknown purpose.^[32]

In July 2008 it was revealed that a patch for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, which allowed users to play without a CD, used code stolen from a third-party hack.^[33][34]

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."^[35]

Lawsuits

In 2008, Ubisoft sued Optical Experts Manufacturing (OEM), a DVD Duplication company for $20 million+ 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

• List of Ubisoft games
• Ubisoft Entertainment games
• Ubidays
• Frag Dolls

References

External links

Companies portal

• Ubisoft's public site
• Ubisoft's corporate site
• Red Storm Entertainment, subsidiary developer of Ubi Soft
• Wolfpack Studios, subsidiary developer of Ubi Soft
• List of Atari ST520 games published by UBI Soft
• Interview with Ubisoft's Alain Corre, GamesIndustry.biz, 31 October 2006