Games

[Texas]

http://www.vg247.com/2014/07/02/assassi ... -montreal/

Ubisoft has elected to spread responsibility for the Assassin’s Creed franchise around, with the Quebec team taking on lead development duties for at least one future release.

Assassin’s Creed has always been a multi-studio franchise, with as many as eight teams from all around the world contributing to Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.

Nevertheless Ubisoft Montreal, one of the largest development teams in the world, has remained in charge of all core Assassin’s Creed releases to date, in addition to Far Cry, Watch Dogs and numerous other smaller projects.

That’s about to change, with Ubisoft announcing that its relatively new Quebec team will lead development on the next Assassin’s Creed game after Unity.

Ubisoft Montreal will remain lead developer on other Assassin’s Creed projects, the publisher assured GamesIndustry.

“Montreal will continue to be a lead studio for other AC titles. And Montreal and Quebec will continue to collaborate with each other and with other Ubisoft studios – that’s been key for making sure each Assassin’s Creed title offers something new and creative for players,” a representative said.

“We are one of Ubisoft’s flagship studios in the creation of the highest quality online, connected, and mobile gaming worlds. We have many years of experience on major Ubisoft franchises such as Prince of Persia, Heroes of Might & Magic, Watch Dogs, and Assassin’s Creed. We are thrilled that we will be heading up one of the next episodes of this major Ubisoft brand,” Ubisoft Quebec managing director Nicolas Rioux said.

Ubisoft recently invested $28 million in the Quebec team, and will be using $4 million of this money to move it into new premises, along with a $500,000 grant from Quebec City itself. Ubisoft also reaffirmed its commitment to increasing the Quebec City studio staff, having already made about half of the 100 hires it had promised to bring the current total to around 350.

The next Assassin’s Creed game, Unity, is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One in October. It adds four-player co-op and is set in Paris during the French Revolution.

[shubn]

http://www.develop-online.net/news/far- ... ft/0210657

Far Cry 2 creative director Clint Hocking returns to Ubisoft

'I realised I had not shipped a game in seven years, I started to become anxious and depressed'

Former Far Cry 2 creative director Clint Hocking has returned to Ubisoft five years after leaving the publisher.

Hocking has gone on to join companies such as LucasArts, Valve and Amazon Game Studios, working on numerous unreleased projects.

In that time however, he has yet to ship a new game. In a blog post, he said the realisation started to make him “anxious and depressed”.

“But, as the five year mark approached, and I realised I had not shipped a game in seven years, I started to become anxious and depressed,” he wrote. “I am not a patient person, by nature.”

Hocking has now returned to Canada and will take up a position at Ubisoft’s Toronto office. He had previously worked at the Montreal studio during his last stint at the company.

Speaking on the Ubisoft Blog, Hocking said he would not be returning to the Splinter Cell series, having previously been lead designer on Chaos Theory. He is currently working on an unannounced project.

[icycalm]

I miss the old Ubisoft :(
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1353360

I miss the old Ubi
Straight from Paris Ubi

I hate the new Ubi
The DLC fan Ubi
I miss the sweet Ubi, make BG&E Ubi
I gotta say, at that time I'd like to meet Ubi

I miss the old Ubi, straight from the Go Ubi
Chop up the soul Ubi, set on their goals Ubi
I hate the new Ubi, the bad mood Ubi
The always rude Ubi, spaz in the news Ubi
I miss the sweet Ubi, chop up the beats Ubi
I gotta say, at that time I'd like to meet Ubi
See, they invented Ubi, it wasn't any Ubis
And now I look and look around and there's so many Ubis
I used to love Ubi, I used to love Ubi
I even had the logo polo, I thought I was Ubi
What if Ubi made a game about Ubi
Called "I Miss The Old Ubi"? Man, that'd be so Ubi!
That's all it was Ubi, we still love Ubi
And I love you like Ubi loves Ubi

[icycalm]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1374954

Ghost Recon 2017's best selling game, 40% digital, 73% players co-op, For Honor

Announced in the Ubisoft call:
- Ghost Recon is the best selling game in 2017 so far, with For Honor being #2.
- Approximately 40% of sales were digital for both games.
- 73% of people played Ghost Recon in co-op, which is a record for Ubisoft.
- "Recurring investment" (season passes, DLC, microtransactions) are above expectations on the games as well.
- For Honor's first two months is going better than Rainbow Six's first two months.
- For the curious, Resident Evil 7 shipped 3.5 million, so both these games are above that. You could pretty safely guess 4-5+ million units.

Edit:

From the press release:

Solid performance in the fourth fiscal quarter:
- Number one publisher worldwide3 since the beginning of calendar 2017
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Wildlands, the industry’s best-selling3 game since the
beginning of the year: the Ghost Recon community grew approximately 60%
- For Honor® – the industry’s second best-selling game3

https://ubistatic19-a.akamaihd.net/coms ... 733-32.pdf

[icycalm]

Say Hello to the new Ubisoft swirl
https://blog.ubi.com/en-GB/say-hello-new-ubisoft-swirl/

Our new logo: These are just, like, your opinions, man
https://blog.ubi.com/en-GB/our-new-logo ... nions-man/

ubilogo-_nitriss_-e1496325563111.jpg (52.79 KiB) Viewed 56193 times

New Ubisoft 3D model GIF
https://gfycat.com/FrighteningMedicalKoi

[icycalm]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1407780

Ubisoft interested in adding PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds-esque modes to their games

An analyst asked Ubisoft on their call about PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, if it had been eating into the audience for games like Rainbow Six, and if Ubisoft was interested in making something like this.

Ubisoft said they were interested in launching modes like this for their existing games as DLC (presumably free DLC given their direction).

It's worth noting that Ubisoft was surveying about this type of mode for The Division back before PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds came out based on H1Z1's astronomical success, so that's one of them, assuredly.

Make a dedicated game and crush everyone, Ubi. Show those amateurs how arthouse developers roll.

[icycalm]

Finally some exciting VR news, if true!

Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed to Reportedly Get New VR Games Exclusive to Oculus
https://www.neogaf.com/threads/splinter ... s.1492210/

In a new report from The Information, it was said that Facebook, the owner of Oculus, is looking to boost its library of exclusive games that the platform has at its disposal. As such, they have reportedly netted some exclusive deals with Ubisoft that would bring new VR games based on both Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed to Oculus in the future. Mark Zuckerberg himself has been said to be personally pushing for this and that new exclusives will lead to more sales for Oculus devices.

As of now, it’s hard to know whether or not this could be true since we’ve only heard it from one source. Furthermore, if a deal like this has been struck recently, then it might be awhile until we actually see what these Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creedtitles would look like. So while this all could be true, it might take a bit until we learn more directly from Oculus or Ubisoft.

By the way, he's wrong about this necessarily taking "awhile". SC and AC games might have been in the works for months or even years, and just retooled very recently to be VR-exclusive. In fact, there's no reason for them to be VR-exclusive any more than there is for ex-Steam games to be Epic Store exclusives aside from the fact someone paid money for it to be so. Read this for a more detailed analysis:

VR Is Stalling For No Reason
https://www.patreon.com/posts/19143421

[icycalm]

Ubisoft is closing down studios...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBT0zRoGMmQ



browns can bring down cultural titans just by looking at them. Incredible destructive power. Obviously it's not really their fault, it's the fault of those who hired them. But still. You have to be disgusted also with those that delivered the killing blow.

In fact the browns don't even have to be employed to destroy art companies. They can do it just by the inclusion of their likeness. But I'll deal with that at length elsewhere. For now let's just pour one out for Ubi and all the incredible games they have given us. Splinter Cell was MGS done right, Far Cry 2 was first-person GTA3, Rainbow Six Siege was Counter-Strike 2 (or Counter-Strike done right, if you prefer), For Honor was third-person sword-fighting done right, Wildlands was 4P FC2. Did I forget anything? I didn't like the one AssCreed I played, the original one. Ditto for The Division. Anno was cool but not enough war for my tastes. I also tried old-school Ghost Recon once, back in the OG Xbox era, and wasn't a fan. Too slow and too milsim for me. Let us know if I forgot anything.

We've put A LOT of time into Ubi games, as a clan, and also in their SP games individually.

I am sure they aren't gone and they'll be back with something. But it won't be a metaverse. So it won't matter much. They have completely lost the plot of the gaming scene, but then again so has practically every studio. Let us at least appreciate their sacrifice in showing us what happens when you hire/represent too many browns in your work. In art, as in practically every advanced cultural pursuit, it is a death sentence. I will explain why in great detail in my upcoming philosophical essay, "Intelligence, Wisdom & Charisma", to be published exclusively on Orgy of the Will: A Philosophy of the Future.