The Analogue Super Nt is an FPGA -based home video game console designed and manufactured by Analogue . It is designed to be compatible with games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
111-464: The Super Nt uses an Altera Cyclone V processor, and features 1080p HDMI output, digital audio (48 kHz 16-bit). Phil Fish , the designer of Fez , designed the Super Nt's user interface. Squarepusher composed the audio to the system's startup. Super Turrican Director's Cut and the original Super Turrican 2 are included pre-installed with the Super Nt. Super Turrican - Director's Cut
222-409: A cult following . Around 2001, Ubi Soft established its editorial department headed by Hascoët, initially named as editor in chief and later known as the company's Chief Content Officer. Hascoët had worked alongside Ancel on Rayman in 1995 to help refine the game, and saw the opportunity to apply that across all of Ubi Soft's games. Until 2019, most games published by Ubisoft were reviewed through
333-529: A "player-centric approach", and opted to delay its next major flagship game, Assassin's Creed Shadows , from November 2024 to February 2025. At the same time, one of its shareholders, AJ Investments, stated they were seeking to have the company purchased by a private equity firm and would push out the Guillemot family and Tencent from ownership of the company. Bloomberg News reported in October 2024 that
444-545: A 10.4% stake in Ubisoft, an action that Yves Guillemot considered "unwelcome" and feared a hostile takeover . In a presentation during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 , Yves Guillemot stressed the importance that Ubisoft remain an independent company to maintain its creative freedom. Guillemot later described the need to fight off the takeover: "...when you're attacked with a company that has
555-664: A 9/10 and a Wired Recommends Award. Phil Fish Philippe Poisson (born 1984), better known as Phil Fish , is a French Canadian former indie game designer best known for the 2012 platform game Fez . He was born and raised in Quebec, where his experiences with Nintendo games in his youth would later influence his game design. He studied game design at the Montreal National Animation and Design Centre, and worked at Ubisoft and Artificial Mind and Movement before starting Polytron in 2008. Fish
666-597: A better way to manage expectations of their developers. The company hired Nathalie Saloud as manager, Sylvie Hugonnier as director of marketing and public relations , and programmers, though Hugonnier had left the company by May 1986 to join Elite Software. Games published by Ubi Soft in 1986 include Zombi , Ciné Clap , Fer et Flamme , Masque , and Graphic City, a sprite editing program. As their first game, Zombi had sold 5,000 copies by January 1987. Ubi Soft also entered into distribution partnerships for
777-455: A capital gain of over 1 billion euros. On 20 March 2018, Ubisoft and Vivendi struck a deal ending any potential takeover, with Vivendi agreeing to sell all of its shares, over 30 million, to other parties and agreeing to not buy any Ubisoft shares for 5 years. Some of those shares were sold to Tencent , which after the transaction held about 5.6 million shares of Ubisoft (approximately 5% of all shares). The same day, Ubisoft announced
888-572: A cartridge port compatible with Super NES and Super Famicom cartridges, and controller ports compatible with accessories designed for the Super NES, including the original controllers. The console does not include a controller, requiring a separate purchase. Unlike previous Analogue products, the Super Nt's enclosure is manufactured from ABS plastic to streamline manufacturing and reduce costs. The console measures 6.6 by 5.2 by 1.6 inches (168 mm × 132 mm × 41 mm). The Super Nt
999-496: A case of workplace concerns at French developer Quantic Dream . At the trial in May 2021, Le Télégramme reported that very little had changed within the company, as many of the HR staff that were part of the problem remained in their positions within the company, both in its France headquarters and its Canadian divisions. Employees reported to the newspaper that nothing had changed despite
1110-720: A company-wide letter in October 2020 summarizing their investigation, finding that nearly 25% of the employees had experienced or witnessed misconduct in the last 2 years, and that the company was implementing a 4-point plan to correct these problems, with a focus to "guarantee a working environment where everyone feels respected and safe". The company hired Raashi Sikka, Uber 's former head of diversity and inclusion in Europe and Asia, as vice president of global diversity and inclusion for Ubisoft in December 2020 to follow on to this commitment. In September 2020 Michel Ancel left Ubisoft and
1221-590: A competitive market, and employees had feared that an EA takeover would drastically alter the environment within Ubisoft. EA's CEO at the time, John Riccitiello , assured Ubisoft the purchase was not meant as a hostile manoeuvre, and EA ended up selling the shares in 2010. In February 2005, Ubisoft acquired the NHL Rivals , NFL Fever , NBA Inside Drive and MLB Inside Pitch franchises from Microsoft Game Studios . Ubisoft established another IP, Assassin's Creed , first launched in 2007; Assassin's Creed
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#17327973796061332-619: A demo of its engine called X-Isle: Dinosaur Island which it had demonstrated at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 1999 . Ubisoft saw the demo and had Crytek build out the demo into a full title, becoming the first Far Cry , released in 2004. That year, Electronic Arts established a deal with Crytek to build a wholly different title with an improved version of the CryEngine, leaving them unable to continue work on Far Cry . Ubisoft assigned Ubisoft Montreal to develop console versions of Far Cry , and arranging with Crytek to have all rights to
1443-484: A desktop client and storefront for Windows machine alongside other features. Ubisoft then separated the rewards program out as its Ubisoft Club program, integrated with Uplay. Ubisoft Connect was announced in October 2020 as a replacement for UPlay and its Ubisoft Club to launch on 29 October 2020 alongside Watch Dogs: Legion . Connect replaces UPlay and the club's previous functions while adding support for cross-platform play and save progression for some games. It includes
1554-451: A different philosophy, you know it can affect what you've been creating from scratch. So you fight with a lot of energy to make sure it can't be destroyed." Vice-president of Live Operations, Anne Blondel-Jouin, expressed similar sentiment in an interview with PCGamesN , stating that Ubisoft's success was partly due to "...being super independent, being very autonomous." Vivendi acquired stake in mobile game publisher Gameloft , owned by
1665-729: A foothold in the United States when it worked with Microsoft to develop Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell , an Xbox -exclusive title released in 2002 to challenge the PlayStation-exclusive Metal Gear Solid series, by combining elements of Tom Clancy's series with elements of an in-house developed game called The Drift . In March 2001, Gores Technology Group sold The Learning Company 's entertainment division (which included games originally published by Broderbund , Mattel Interactive , Mindscape and Strategic Simulations ) to them. The sale included
1776-481: A lack of flexibility, salary increases, and profit-sharing, which they believe the company has ignored. Ubisoft has yet to address the union's concerns. Ubisoft Connect, formerly Uplay, is a digital distribution , digital rights management , multiplayer and communications service for PC created by Ubisoft. First launched alongside Assassin's Creed II as a rewards program to earn points towards in-game content for completing achievements within Ubisoft, it expanded into
1887-404: A month later culminated in the project's cancellation and Fish's announced exit from the industry. In an episode of his show Invisible Walls , Beer had criticized Fish's recent response to questions about Microsoft's Xbox One self-publishing policy change. On Twitter, Fish condemned the industry for its negativity before his final tweet announced the cancellation and his leave. The news came as
1998-419: A panacean pill that travels through human bodies as its playable protagonist, and it uses the iPhone's multi-touch screen. GameSetWatch 's Eric Caoili compared it to Soul Bubbles and Irritating Stick . The game was developed with Alec Holowka of Infinite Ammo, and a level editor was expected to be included. While working on Fez , Fish revived a game project called SuperHyperCube , which
2109-560: A partnership with Tencent to help bring their games into the Chinese market. Vivendi completely divested its shares in Ubisoft by March 2019. Since 2018, Ubisoft's studios have continued to focus on some franchises, including Assassin's Creed , Tom Clancy's , Far Cry , and Watch Dogs . As reported by Bloomberg Businessweek , while Ubisoft as a whole had nearly 16,000 developers by mid-2019, larger than some of its competitors, and producing 5 to 6 major AAA releases each year compared to
2220-444: A positive and inclusive workplace environment" so that these changes are propagated throughout the company. Ahead of a September 2020 "Ubisoft Forward" media presentation, Yves Guillemot issued a formal apology for the company on their lack of responsibility in the matters prior to these events. Guillemot said "This summer, we learned that certain Ubisoft employees did not uphold our company's values, and that our system failed to protect
2331-751: A prototype of a game with animated features that caught the brothers' interest. Michel Guillemot decided to make the project a key one for the company, establishing a studio in Montreuil to house over 100 developers in 1994, and targeting a line of 5th generation consoles such as the Atari Jaguar and PlayStation . Their game, Rayman , was released in 1995. Yves managed Guillemot Informatique, making deals with Electronic Arts , Sierra On-Line and MicroProse to distribute their games in France. Guillemot Informatique began expanding to other markets, including
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#17327973796062442-477: A result, some Ubisoft staff either quit or were fired, including Hascoët, Maxime Béland, the co-founder of Ubisoft Toronto, and Yannis Mallat, the managing director of Ubisoft's Canadian studios. Yves Guillemot implemented changes in the company to address these issues as it further investigated the extent of the misconduct claims. Ubisoft stated in its end of 2020 fiscal year investor call in February 2021 that
2553-500: A same or similar password had been used. All the users who registered were emailed by the Ubisoft company about the breach and a password change request. Ubisoft promised to keep the information safe. In March 2015, the company set up a Consumer Relationship Centre in Newcastle-upon-Tyne . The centre is intended to integrate consumer support teams and community managers. Consumer Support and Community Management teams at
2664-490: A sequel. He called the Twitter spat an "out" borne from his own frustrations at having suddenly become a public figure from Indie Game: The Movie as well as the obligations of trying to build on his success by creating a sequel he did not care to make. By Fish's recollection, Fez 2 only had very basic concept art which made the cancellation decision easy. Fish claimed he was working on a new project, which he hinted may not be
2775-459: A shareholders' meeting on 22 July 2020 addressing these more recent issues. Changes in the wake of the departures included a reorganization of both the editorial team and the human resources team. 2 positions, Head of Workplace Culture and Head of Diversity and Inclusion, would be created to oversee the safety and morale of employees going forward. To encourage this, Ubisoft said it would tie the performance bonus of team leaders to how well they "create
2886-615: A similar event, GAMMA 256, for 2007, and a third event, GAMMA 3D, for November 2008 in Montreal. Fish was invited to present a lecture on GAMMA 01 at the 2007 Game Developers Conference . He also wrote a review of the 1999 Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver in the 2007 book Space Time Play: Synergies Between Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: the Next Level . Fish has been characterized by Sean Hollister of The Verge as "notorious for voicing angry, controversial opinions about
2997-529: A start-up check through Uplay/Ubisoft Connect servers when launched. Ubisoft Anvil, formerly named Scimitar, is a proprietary game engine developed wholly within Ubisoft Montreal in 2007 for the development of the first Assassin's Creed game and has since been expanded and used for most Assassin's Creed titles and other Ubisoft games, including Ghost Recon Wildlands , Ghost Recon Breakpoint and For Honor . The Disrupt game engine
3108-454: A surprise to the rest of Polytron, which has not commented on upcoming projects other than ports since the sequel's cancellation. Polygon listed Fish in their top 50 newsmakers of 2013 for the social power of his "caustic use of Twitter". In June 2014, Fish announced Polytron Partners—a new effort by Polytron to fund and support potential indie game efforts, like a publisher . For their first game, Polytron would work with Finji to provide
3219-534: A video game. Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA ( / ˈ j uː b i s ɒ f t / ; French: [ybisɔft] ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA ) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include Assassin's Creed , Driver , Far Cry , Just Dance , Prince of Persia , Rabbids , Rayman , Tom Clancy's , and Watch Dogs . By
3330-414: Is a consortium of several companies active in the blockchain space that seeks to explore the potential applications of this technology in the video game industry and publicly promotes the use of blockchain-based content in video games. According to Yves Guillemot , one of Ubisoft's co-founders, crypto -based content in video games will allow players to actually own digital content within it, while growing
3441-614: Is a version of Super Turrican that includes additional content that was not available on the original Super NES version due to the limited capacity of the Mask ROM used at the time. The design of the Super Nt console is similar to that of the Super Famicom console and the European and Korean Super NES control deck. The console features an HDMI port for video output, a micro USB port for power, an SD card port for firmware updates,
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3552-568: Is cancelled. I am done. I take the money and I run. This is as much as I can stomach. This isn't the result of any one thing, but the end of a long, bloody campaign. You win. Fez 2 cancellation post on Polytron's website A Fez sequel was announced as "one more thing" at end of the Horizon indie game press conference during the June 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo . A Twitter argument between Fish and GameTrailers journalist Marcus Beer
3663-441: Is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving." Union workers at Ubisoft Paris took issue with this message, calling for a strike and demanding higher salaries and improved working conditions. As part of a change in the terms of their acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023 to satisfy government regulators, Microsoft gave Ubisoft
3774-464: Is shown preparing for Fez 's booth at PAX East in March 2011. The film presents Fish amidst a legal dispute with a former business partner that jeopardizes the game's release. The ex-partner, Jason DeGroot (a musician who contributed to the game), is portrayed negatively and is not shown on-screen. The film also tracks Fish's personal and emotional investment in the game. Eurogamer wrote that
3885-405: The #MeToo movement in June and July 2020, Ubisoft had a number of employees accused of misconduct from both internal and external sources. Between Ubisoft's internal investigation and a study by the newspaper Libération , employees had been found to have records of sexual misconduct and troubling behaviour, going back up to 10 years, which had been dismissed by the human resources departments. As
3996-620: The Assassin's Creed series and other products as to avoid the use of female protagonists. Ubisoft had already been criticized for failing to support female player models in Assassin's Creed Unity or in Far Cry 4 , which the company claimed was due to difficulty in animating female characters despite having done this in earlier games. Ubisoft employees, in Schreier's report, said that in
4107-626: The Far Cry games. For Far Cry 6 , Ubisoft introduced more features to the Dunia 2 engine such as ray tracing support on the PC version, and support for AMD's open source variable resolution technology, FidelityFX Super Resolution . Aside from the main entries in the Far Cry series, the Dunia 2 engine is also used in the spin-off games. These include Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon , Far Cry Primal , and Far Cry New Dawn . The Snowdrop game engine
4218-510: The Far Cry series and a perpetual licence on the CryEngine. In developing Far Cry 2 , Ubisoft Montreal modified the CryEngine to include destructible environments and a more realistic physics engine . This modified version became the Dunia engine which premiered with Far Cry 2 in 2008. The Dunia engine continued to be improved, such as adding weather systems, and used as the basis of all future Far Cry games, and Avatar: The Game , developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Ubisoft introduced
4329-573: The 1980s, the Guillemot family had established itself as a support business for farmers in the Brittany province of France and other regions, including into the United Kingdom . The five sons of the family – Christian, Claude, Gérard, Michel, and Yves – helped with the company's sales, distribution, accounting, and management with their parents before university. All five gained business experience while at university, which they brought back to
4440-469: The 2 or 3 from the others, the net revenue earned per employee was the lowest of the 4 due to generally lower sales of its games. Bloomberg Business attributed this partially due to spending trends by video game consumers purchasing fewer games with long playtimes, as most of Ubisoft's major releases tend to be. To counter this, Ubisoft in October 2019 postponed 3 of the 6 titles it had planned in 2019 to 2020 or later, as to help place more effort on improving
4551-442: The 2008 Game Developers Conference Independent Games Festival . Fish's employer, Artificial Mind and Movement, would not let him take leave from work to attend, so Fish quit. He marked this January 2008 moment as "when I became indie". The game received widespread attention upon its showing at the festival, leading Fish to open Polytron Corporation as a startup company with a government loan. Polytron later ran out of money and
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4662-790: The 2012 GDC Independent Games Festival's Seamus McNally Grand Prize, the 2011 Indiecade Best in Show and Best Story/World Design, and the 2008 GDC Independent Games Festival's Excellence in Visual Art. Eurogamer awarded Fez a perfect score and named the "perfect, wordless sci-fi parable " their 2012 Game of the Year . The game sold one million copies by the end of 2013 and Fish announced eventual ports for most video game platforms. The New York Times 's Chris Suellentrop likened Fish to "a Quentin Tarantino of 8-bit gaming ". Fez 2
4773-411: The 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie , which brought Fish fame unusual for game developers. Following an online argument and doxxing , Fish publicly announced his exit from game development twice over the next two years, citing long-term mistreatment by the industry. Polytron later published the 2015 Panoramical , and Fish returned with Kokoromi to release SuperHyperCube in 2016. Phil Fish
4884-534: The 30% mark that could trigger a takeover; as of December 2016, Vivendi held a 25.15% stake in Ubisoft. Reuters reported in April 2017 that Vivendi's takeover of Ubisoft would likely happen that year and Bloomberg Businessweek observed that some of Vivendi's shares would reach the 2-year holding mark, which would grant them double voting power, and would likely meet or exceed the 30% threshold. The Guillemot family has since raised its stake in Ubisoft; as of June 2017,
4995-577: The CRC are operational 7 days a week. Since around 2015, the French mass media company Vivendi has been seeking to expand its media properties through acquisitions and other business deals. In addition to advertising firm Havas , Ubisoft was one of the first target properties identified by Vivendi, which as of September 2017 has an estimated valuation of $ 6.4 billion. Vivendi, in two actions during October 2015, bought shares in Ubisoft stock, giving them
5106-561: The Dunia 2 engine first in Far Cry 3 in 2012, which was made to improve the performance of Dunia-based games on consoles and to add more complex rendering features such as global illumination. The Dunia 2 engine was further refined in Far Cry 4 , and Far Cry 5 . According to Remi Quenin, one of the engine's architects at Ubisoft Montreal, the state of the Dunia engine by 2017 included "vegetation, fire simulation, destruction, vehicles, systemic AI, wildlife, weather, day/night cycles, [and] non linear storytelling" which are elements of
5217-635: The Guillemots and Tencent were considering this and other alternatives to shift ownership of the company in light of the recent poor financial performance. On October 16, 2024, over 700 Ubisoft employees in France began a three-day strike, protesting the company's requirement to return to the office three days a week. The strike, organized by the STJV union, involved Ubisoft's offices in Paris, Montpellier, Lyon , and Annecy. Workers expressed dissatisfaction over
5328-496: The Guillemots asked for more Canadian investors in the following February to fend off a similar Vivendi takeover; by this point, Vivendi had increased their share in Ubisoft to 15%, exceeding the estimated 9% that the Guillemots owned. By June 2016, Vivendi had increased its shares to 20.1% and denied it was in the process of a takeover. By the time of Ubisoft's annual board meeting in September 2016, Vivendi had gained 23% of
5439-456: The Guillemots, and started acquiring Ubisoft shares. In the following February, Vivendi acquired €500 million worth of shares in Gameloft, gaining more than 30% of the shares and requiring the company under French law to make a public tender offer ; this action enabled Vivendi to complete the takeover of Gameloft by June 2016. Following Vivendi's actions with Gameloft in February 2016,
5550-569: The United Kingdom and shipping to France, and came upon the idea of a mail-order business around computers and software. Their mother said they could start their own business this way as long as they managed it themselves and equally split its shares among the five of them. Their first business was Guillemot Informatique, founded in 1984. They originally only sold through mail order, and then were getting orders from French retailers, since they were able to undercut other suppliers by up to 50% of
5661-538: The United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. They entered the video game distribution and wholesale markets and by 1993 had become the "largest" distributor of video games in France. In 1996, Ubi Soft listed its initial public offering and raised over US$ 80 million in funds to help them to expand the company. Within 2 years, the company established worldwide studios in Annecy (1996), Shanghai (1996), Montreal (1997), and Milan (1998). A difficulty that
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#17327973796065772-522: The acquisition of Hybride Technologies , a Piedmont -based studio. In November 2008, Ubisoft acquired Massive Entertainment from Activision . In January 2013, Ubisoft acquired South Park: The Stick of Truth from THQ for $ 3.265 million. Ubisoft announced plans in 2013 to invest $ 373 million into its Quebec operations over 7 years. The publisher is investing in the expansion of its motion capture technologies and consolidating its online games operations and infrastructure in Montreal. By 2020,
5883-728: The aforementioned January 2020 changes in the editorial department and gave its members more autonomy. There remained questions as to what degree CEO Yves Guillemot knew of these issues prior to their public reporting; employees reported that Hascoët has been very close with the Guillemot brothers since the founding of the editorial department around 2001 and that some of the prior complaints of sexual misconduct had been reported directly to Yves and were dismissed. Gamasutra also spoke to some former and current Ubisoft employees during this period from its worldwide studios, corroborating that these issues appears to replicate across multiple studios, stemming from Ubisoft's main management. Ubisoft had
5994-442: The annual NAD Center Awards of Excellence Gala. Later that year, Fish began work as a level designer at Artificial Mind and Movement, where he designed for film tie-in games including The Golden Compass . Fish is a founding member of Kokoromi , a group that designs and promotes experimental video games. His November 2006 Arcadia Festival event, GAMMA 01 Audio Feed, featured games that incorporated live sound. Fish planned
6105-461: The brothers found was the lack of an intellectual property that would have a foothold in the United States market. When "widespread growth" of the Internet arrived around 1999, the brothers decided to take advantage of this by founding game studios aimed at online free-to-play titles, including GameLoft ; this allowed them to license the rights to Ubi Soft properties to these companies, increasing
6216-584: The chateau. These included Michel Ancel , a teenager at the time noted for his animation skills, and Serge Hascoët, who applied to be a video game tester for the company. The costs of maintaining the chateau became more expensive, and the developers were given the option to relocate to Paris. Ancel's family which had moved to Brittany for his job could not afford the cost of living in Paris and returned to Montpellier in southern France. The Guillemot brothers told Ancel to keep them abreast of anything he might come up with there. Ancel returned with Frédéric Houde with
6327-400: The comments, but later acknowledged that he had been rude and apologized. Fish began to work with Toronto-based indie developer Shawn McGrath on McGrath's idea for a puzzle game that showed 2D views of a 3D space. Fish provided the project's art until the partnership crumbled due to creative differences: Fish wanted their product to be more of a platform game . Fish continued to work on
6438-462: The company announced it would start branding games developed by its 1st-party developers as "Ubisoft Originals". In 2021, they announced that they would be making an open world Star Wars game. The deal marked an end to EA's exclusive rights to make Star Wars titles. In October 2021, Ubisoft participated in a round of financing in Animoca Brands . In November 2021, Ubisoft announced
6549-462: The company that holds part of the Guillemots' ownership of Ubisoft. This gave Tencent 49.9% ownership in this holding company and increased the Guillemots' share of voting rights within Ubisoft to about 30%. Yves Guillemot said that Tencent would be working closely with Ubisoft, helping to bring their games into China while assisting in paying off Ubisoft's debts and preventing the company from potential buyouts. Citing disappointing financial results in
6660-519: The company will start to make AAA game releases less of a focus and put more focus on mobile and freemium games following fiscal year 2022. CFO Frederick Duguet stated to investors that "we see that we are progressively, continuously moving from a model that used to be only focused on AAA releases to a model where we have a combination of strong releases from AAA and strong back catalog dynamics, but also complimenting our program of new releases with free-to-play and other premium experiences." Later that year,
6771-705: The company would employ more than 3,500 staff at its studios in Montreal and Quebec City. In February 2013, it began offering games from third-party publisher including Electronic Arts and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment on its Uplay Shop and its own games to EA's Origin . In July 2013, Ubisoft announced a breach in its network resulting in the potential exposure of up to 58 million accounts including usernames, email address, and encrypted passwords. The firm denied any credit/debit card information could have been compromised, issued directives to all registered users to change their account passwords, and recommended updating passwords on any other website or service where
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#17327973796066882-457: The company's global head of human resources. Yves Guillemot temporarily filled in Hascoët's former role. A following report from Bloomberg News by Jason Schreier corroborated these details, with employees of Ubisoft's main Paris headquarters comparing it to a fraternity house . Schreier had found that the issues with Hascoët had gone back years and had affected the creative development on
6993-531: The company, in quarterly results published in November 2017, announced that it had no plans to acquire Ubisoft for the next 6 months, nor would seek board positions due to the shares they held during that time, and that it "would ensure that its interest in Ubisoft would not exceed the threshold of 30% through the doubling of its voting rights." Vivendi remained committed to expanding in the video game sector, identifying that their investment in Ubisoft could represent
7104-557: The company, the developers would have to make compromises to meet Hascoët's expectations, such as the inclusion of a strong male character if they had included female leads or if they had used cutscenes, a narrative concept Hascoët reportedly did not like. Hascoët's behavior among other content decisions made by Hascoët had "appeared to affect" the quality of Ubisoft's games by 2019; both Tom Clancy's The Division 2 and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint "underperformed", which gave Ubisoft justification to diminish Hascoët's oversight with
7215-475: The company. Spurred by these claims, the newspaper Libération had begun a deeper investigation into the workplace culture at Ubisoft. The paper ran a 2-part report printed on 1 and 10 July 2020 that claimed that Ubisoft had a toxic workplace culture. A component of that workplace was from accusations related to Hascoët. The issues identified by Libération and corroborated by employees from other studios suggested that some of these problems had extended from
7326-451: The cost of some titles. By 1986, this company was earning about 40 million French francs (roughly US$ 5.8 million at that time). In 1985, the brothers established Guillemot Corporation for similar distribution of computer hardware. As demand continued, the brothers recognised that video game software was becoming a lucrative property and decided that they needed to get into the industry's development side, already having insight on
7437-536: The daily operations capacity for an "interactive musical landscape anthology" game named Panoramical . Fish was an early target of Gamergate ; his personal and company records were hacked and released publicly in August 2014. Fish responded by announcing that the company and Fez property were for sale. After twice announcing his leave from the video game industry, Fish remained connected with Kokoromi. Together they finished SuperHyperCube in late 2016 as one of
7548-571: The development of their first Ubisoft Entertainment Center, created by experience design firm Storyland Studios and Alterface. The first location is set to open in Studios Occitanie Méditerranée by 2025. Ubisoft has been increasingly involved in blockchain-based video games since the later 2010s. The company is a co-founder of the Blockchain Game Alliance , which was established in September 2018 and
7659-405: The editorial department overseen by Hascoët. On 9 September 2003, Ubi Soft announced that it would change its name to Ubisoft, and introduced a new logo known as "the swirl". In December 2004, gaming corporation Electronic Arts purchased a 19.9% stake in the firm. Ubisoft referred to the purchase as "hostile" on EA's part. Ubisoft's brothers recognised they had not considered themselves within
7770-428: The end of September 2024, Ubisoft had reduced its number of employees to 18,666. In the first half of 2024, Ubisoft experienced underperforming sales of Star Wars Outlaws , Skull and Bones and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora , causing its stock to fall to nearly its lowest levels in the previous decade. As a result, the company announced they were launching an investigation of their development cycles to focus on
7881-466: The end of development, Fish felt "burnt out" and that his personal health had suffered. Fez was released on April 13, 2012, and sold 200,000 copies in its yearlong exclusivity to the Xbox Live Arcade platform. Video game review aggregator Metacritic described its reception as "generally favorable" and that of the 2013 PC version as "universal acclaim". While in development, Fez had won
7992-419: The family business after graduating. The brothers came up with the idea of diversification to sell other products of use to farmers; Claude began with selling CD audio media. Later, the brothers expanded to computers and additional software that included video games. In the 1980s, they saw that the costs of buying computers and software from a French supplier were more expensive than buying the same materials in
8103-413: The family held 13.6% of Ubisoft's share capital, and 20.02% of the company's voting rights. In October 2017, Ubisoft announced it reached a deal with an "investment services provider" to help them purchase back 4 million shares by the end of the year, preventing others, specifically Vivendi, from buying these. In the week before Vivendi would gain double-voting rights for previously purchased shares,
8214-536: The first PlayStation VR games. He also designed the boot-up animations for the Analogue Super Nt console in 2017. Fish spoke about the cancellation of Fez 2 and his self-declared departure from the industry in a 2023 interview on the My Perfect Console podcast. He claimed that the cancellation had less to do with the argument with Beer and more with his own lack of interest in creating
8325-424: The following Assassin's Creed games which did feature female protagonists at release, including Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Assassin's Creed Origins , there were serious considerations of removing or downplaying the female leads from the editorial department. This was due to a belief that Hascoët had set in the department that female characters did not sell video games. Further, because of Hascoët's clout in
8436-581: The game environment or storyline progress. Its open world city management comes from AnvilNext while its vegetation and AI are from Dunia. Parts of the engine were originally intended for another game in the Driver franchise. The Dunia engine is a software fork of the CryEngine that was originally developed by Crytek , with modifications made by Ubisoft Montreal. The CryEngine at the time could render some outdoor environmental spaces. Crytek had created
8547-480: The game in his spare time, and incorporated the idea of voxels (3D pixels), where a 2D pixel could be seen from four sides. The game would become Fez and the game's design, lore, and art derived from this game mechanic . Fish searched for a programmer on DeviantArt and Renaud Bédard, the first person to apply, became the game's programmer. Fez was first announced in July 2007 and was nominated for two awards at
8658-457: The game to be released in Spain and West Germany . Ubi Soft started importing products from abroad for distribution in France, with 1987 releases including Elite Software's Commando and Ikari Warriors , the former of which sold 15,000 copies by January 1987. In 1988, Yves Guillemot was appointed as Ubi Soft's chief executive officer . By 1988, the company had about 6 developers working from
8769-581: The games industry to work on a wildlife preserve, stating that his project Beyond Good & Evil 2 at Ubisoft and Wild as Wild Sheep Studio was left in good hands before he left. As part of their coverage from the sexual misconduct issues, Libération found that Ancel's attention towards Beyond Good & Evil 2 to be haphazard, which had resulted in delays and restarts since the game's 1st announcement in 2010. The team considered Ancel's management style to be abusive, having dismissed some of their work and forcing them to restart on development pathways. While
8880-463: The human resource heads of the company ignoring complaints made against Hascoët, using sexual misconduct and harassment to intimidate those who criticized him, on the basis that the creative leads were producing valuable products for the company. On 11 July 2020, the company issued a press release, announcing departures which include the voluntary resignations of Hascoët, Yannis Mallat, the managing director of Ubisoft's Canadian studios, and Cécile Cornet,
8991-488: The live-action film Assassin's Creed (2016) and the series Rabbids Invasion (2013), and Mythic Quest (2020–present). From June to July 2020, a wave of sexual misconduct accusations occurred through the video game industry as part of the ongoing #MeToo Movement , including some of Ubisoft's employees. Ashraf Ismail, the creative director of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla , stepped down to deal with personal issues related to allegations made towards him; his employment
9102-477: The new guidelines. In response to this report, Ubisoft stated that "Over a period of several months, Ubisoft has implemented major changes across its organization, internal processes and procedures in order to guarantee a safe, inclusive and respectful working environment for all team members." and "These concrete actions demonstrate the profound changes that have taken place at every level of the company. Additional initiatives are underway and are being rolled out over
9213-426: The players with more fun, leading the company to switch from pursuing single-player only games to internet connected ones. According to Guillemot, Ubisoft internally refers to its reimagined self as 'before The Division ' and an 'after The Division ' . In an interview with The Verge , Anne Blondel-Jouin, executive producer of The Crew turned vice-president of live operations, noted that The Crew
9324-458: The previous quarter, Ubisoft cancelled another three previously unannounced games in January 2023. In an email to staff, Yves Guillemot told employees to take responsibility for the company's forthcoming projects, asking that "each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we're being as efficient and lean as possible", while also saying that "The ball
9435-498: The publication and distribution side. Ubi Soft (formally named Ubi Soft Entertainment S.A.) was founded by the brothers on 28 March 1986. The name "Ubi Soft" was selected to represent "ubiquitous" software. Ubi Soft initially operated out of offices in Paris , moving to Créteil by June 1986. The brothers used the chateau in Brittany as the primary space for development, hoping the setting would lure developers, as well as to have
9546-425: The quality of the existing and released games. Due to overall weak sales in 2019, Ubisoft stated in January 2020 that it would be reorganizing its editorial board to provide a more comprehensive look at its game portfolio and devise greater variation in its games which Ubisoft's management said had fallen stagnant, too uniform and had contributed to weak sales. Stemming from a wave of sexual misconduct accusations of
9657-447: The rights for cloud gaming of Activision Blizzard's games. As part of a cost reduction plan, Ubisoft reduced its number of employees from 20,279 in 2022 to 19,410 in September 2023. In November 2023, Ubisoft laid off 124 employees from its VFX and IT teams. In March 2024, Ubisoft laid off 45 employees from its publishing teams. Another 45 employees were cut between its San Francisco and Cary, North Carolina offices in August 2024. By
9768-503: The rights to intellectual properties such as the Myst and Prince of Persia series. Ubisoft Montreal developed the Prince of Persia title into Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time released in 2003. At the same time, Ubi Soft released Beyond Good & Evil , Ancel's project after Rayman ; it was one of Ubi Soft's first commercial "flops" on its release but which since has gained
9879-588: The same reward progression system that the Club offered to gain access to in-game content. Some games on the UPlay service will not be updated to support these reward features that they previously had under the Ubisoft Club; for those, Ubisoft will unlock all rewards for all players. Uplay/Ubisoft Connect serves to manage the digital rights for Ubisoft's games on Windows computers, which has led to criticism when it
9990-417: The scene where Fish resolves to kill himself if he does not release his game is "the film's most startling moment". Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote that Fish is portrayed as melodramatic, existential, theatrical, and neurotic in contrast with the other developers shown in the film, which would exacerbate his outspoken public perception. Game Informer called Fish the film's "most memorable developer". Near
10101-460: The share value of Ubi Soft five-fold. With the extra infusion of €170 million , they were able to then purchase Red Storm Entertainment in 2000, giving them access to the Tom Clancy's series of stealth and spy games. Ubi Soft helped with Red Storm to continue to expand the series, bringing titles like Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series. The company got
10212-447: The shares, while the Guillemots were able to increase their voting share to 20%. A request was made at the board meeting to place Vivendi representatives on Ubisoft's board, given the size of their shareholdings. The Guillemots argued against this, reiterating that Vivendi should be seen as a competitor, and succeeded in swaying other voting members to deny any board seats to Vivendi. Vivendi continued to buy shares in Ubisoft, approaching
10323-607: The state of video games". In a notable incident at the Game Developers Conference in March 2012, a Japanese developer asked Fish for his opinion on modern Japanese games, to which Fish replied, "your games just suck". Many condemned Fish's comment as racist; Alex Donaldson of VG247 wrote in 2023 that it "became the banner-bearer" for racist Western attitudes towards Japanese-developed games. Conversely, Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune defended Fish's remark as necessary criticism. Fish initially defended
10434-515: The studio co-founder Maxime Béland, also the vice president of editorial for Ubisoft as a whole, was forced to resign by Ubisoft's management due to sexual misconduct issues and led some employees working there to express strong concerns that "The way the studio—HR and management—disregards complaints just enables this behavior from men." Tommy François, the vice president of editorial and creative services, had been placed on disciplinary leave around July and by August, Ubisoft announced his departure from
10545-417: The team and asserts his departure was stress-related. In November 2020, Hugues Ricour, the managing director of Ubisoft Singapore , stepped down from that role after these internal reviews and remained with the company. The French trade union Solidaires Informatique initiated a class action lawsuit against Ubisoft in relation to the allegations; Solidaires Informatique had previously represented workers in
10656-413: The team at Ubisoft Montpellier had reported on Ancel's lack of organization and leadership on the project to management as early as 2017, Libération claimed it was his close relationship with Yves Guillemot that allowed the situation to continue until 2020 when a more indepth review of all management was performed in wake of the sexual misconduct allegations. Ancel stated he was not aware of the issues from
10767-556: The victims of their behavior. I am truly sorry to everyone who was hurt. We have taken significant steps to remove or sanction those who violated our values and code of conduct, and we are working hard to improve our systems and processes. We are also focused on improving diversity and inclusivity at all levels of the company. For example, we will invest $ 1 million over the next five years in our graduate program. The focus will be on creating opportunities for under-represented groups, including women and people of color." Guillemot sent out
10878-451: The video game industry in the process. Ubisoft furthermore announced its Ubisoft Quartz blockchain program in December 2021, allowing players to buy uniquely identified customization items for games and then sell and trade them based on the Tezos currency, which Ubisoft claimed was an energy efficient cryptocurrency. This marked the first "AAA" effort into blockchain games. The announcement
10989-471: The video game publisher Ubisoft , where he worked on Open Season as a level designer . He was initially excited for the job but grew disenchanted with their large development teams and working conditions. Fish later described it as "the worst experience of [his] life". He was later fired from the company. On May 24, 2006, Fish won the Artificial Mind and Movement Award for Best Cut-Scene at
11100-424: Was a founding member of Kokoromi , a collective that explores experimental gameplay ideas, and organized Montreal's annual GAMMA games events. While Fez was in development, Fish worked on other unreleased games at Polytron including SuperHyperCube and Power Pill . Fez was released in April 2012 to widespread acclaim after a protracted five-year development cycle . Its final phases of development were shown in
11211-413: Was an early game of Ubisoft's to require a persistent internet connection in order to play. This raised concerns for gamers and internally at the company. Ubisoft initiated its Ubisoft Film & Television division then named Ubisoft Motion Pictures in 2011. Initially developing media works tied to Ubisoft's games, it has since diversified to other works including about video games. Productions include
11322-491: Was based on Wiimote motion capture input and stereoscopic navigation. Fish felt the game would work better with the new Kinect motion tracking. The adapted game was a finalist at Indiecade 2011. Fish and Fez were featured prominently in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie , through which Fish received celebrity unusual for game developers. The film chronicles the stories of several indie developers at various stages of their games' development cycles, and Fish
11433-544: Was born Philippe Poisson in Montreal in 1984. He was raised in Quebec, where his parents shared their interest in art and gaming with him. Fish's father translated The Legend of Zelda into French so the two could play together. Fish credits these memories as formative, and later cited their influence on Fez . He graduated from the 2004 Design and Digital Art for Video Games program at the Montreal NAD ( National Animation and Design Centre ). Fish began his career at
11544-658: Was co-developed by Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft for Tom Clancy's The Division . The core of the game engine is powered by a "node-based system" which simplifies the process of connecting different systems like rendering, AI, mission scripting and the user interface. The engine is also used in other Ubisoft games such as South Park: The Fractured but Whole , Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle , Starlink: Battle for Atlas , Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora , and Star Wars Outlaws . According to Guillemot, Ubisoft recognised that connected sandbox games, with seamless switches between single and multiplayer modes provided
11655-564: Was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and is used for the Watch Dogs games. Developer Ubisoft Montreal spent four years creating the engine. The majority of Disrupt was built from scratch and uses a multithreaded renderer, running on fully deferred physically based rendering pipeline with some technological twists to allow for more advanced effects. The engine also has a feature that allows players to seamlessly connect and disconnect their game from others without causing major disruptions in
11766-419: Was first launched, as some games required always-on digital rights management , causing loss of save game data should players lose their Internet connection. The situation was aggravated after Ubisoft's servers were struck with denial of service attacks that made the Ubisoft games unplayable due to this DRM scheme. Ubisoft eventually abandoned the always-on DRM scheme and still require all Ubisoft games to perform
11877-531: Was heavily criticized by audiences, with the Quartz announcement video attaining a dislike ratio of 96% on YouTube. Ubisoft subsequently unlisted the video from YouTube. The announcement was also criticized internally by Ubisoft developers. In July 2022, Ubisoft announced that it had cancelled Splinter Cell VR and Ghost Recon Frontline , along with two other unannounced titles. In September, Tencent invested another €300 million into Guillemot Brothers Limited,
11988-696: Was later terminated by Ubisoft in August 2020 after their internal investigations. Ubisoft announced two executives who were also accused of misconduct had been placed on leave, and that they were performing an internal review of other accusations and their own policies. Yves Guillemot stated on 2 July 2020 that he had appointed Lidwine Sauer as their head of workplace culture who is "empowered to examine all aspects of our company's culture and to suggest comprehensive changes that will benefit all of us", in addition to other internal and external programs to deal with ongoing issues that may have contributed to these problems. Specific accusations were made at Ubisoft Toronto where
12099-440: Was on the verge of folding when the company's Québécois neighbor, developer-producer Trapdoor , offered to help Polytron without transferring its intellectual property rights. According to Fish, the partnership saved Fez . The game was delayed several times over the next few years for which it received some notoriety. In late 2009, Polytron presented an iPhone game called Power Pill at Pecha Kucha Montreal. The game features
12210-579: Was originally developed by Ubisoft Montreal as a sequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and instead transitioned to a story about Assassins and the Templar Knights . In July 2006, Ubisoft bought the Driver franchise from Atari for a sum of €19 million in cash for the franchise, technology rights, and most assets. Within 2008, Ubisoft made a deal with Tom Clancy for perpetual use of his name and intellectual property for video games and other auxiliary media. In July 2008, Ubisoft made
12321-764: Was originally released in four variants: Black, Classic (modeled after the North American Super NES ), SF (modeled the Super Famicom and the European Super NES) and Transparent. A limited edition fifth variant in white (in collaboration with Ghostly International and limited to 1000 units) was released on December 3, 2018. The Analogue Super Nt was released on February 7, 2018 to critical acclaim. Forbes called it "the new benchmark for all retro consoles". Tom's Guide and PCMag gave it an Editor's Choice Award. Wired Magazine gave it
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