128-491: 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
256-406: 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
384-698: A papal bull of 1289. It was suppressed during the French Revolution but was re-established in 1896. It is not known exactly at what date the schools of literature were founded which developed into the Montpellier faculty of arts; it may be that they were a direct continuation of the Gallo-Roman schools. The school of law was founded by Placentinus , a doctor from Bologna University , who came to Montpellier in 1160, taught there during two different periods, and died there in 1192. With regard to
512-410: A studio . The large video game publishers also distribute the games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies (or larger video game publishers) to distribute the games they publish. Other functions usually performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any licenses that are used by the game; paying for localization ; layout, printing, and possibly
640-527: 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
768-543: 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
896-589: 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
1024-401: A branch to Lattes and serves 32 stations. Line 4 circles the centre and serves as a connector line between the various arms of tram system. They intersect at Gare St. Roch station, Rives du Lez and Corum. Since 2019, €440 million were invested into the construction of a 5th tramway line, linking the south from Lavérune to Clapiers , up north. Since December 21, 2023, the public transport
1152-453: 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
1280-569: 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 the new guidelines. In response to this report, Ubisoft stated that "Over
1408-503: A castle and walls around the united settlement. The name is from medieval Latin mons pisleri , "Woad Mountain" referring to the woad (Latin pastellus , pestellus ) used for dyeing locally. There is no real "mountain" in the area, with the mons referring to a pile of stones. In 986 the Lords of Montpellier begin with William I of Montpellier . In the 10th century the town consisted of two portions, Montpellier and Montpelliéret. In 1160
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#17327731813601536-718: 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
1664-588: 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
1792-617: 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
1920-484: 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
2048-448: 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
2176-728: 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
2304-720: A group, they have had mixed performance. At present, Electronic Arts is the only third-party publisher present in the S&;P 500 diversified list of large U.S. corporations; in April 2010, it entered the Fortune 500 for the first time. Hype over video game publisher stocks has been breathless at two points: Montpellier Montpellier ( UK : / m ɒ n t ˈ p ɛ l i eɪ / , US : / ˌ m oʊ n p ɛ l ˈ j eɪ / ; French: [mɔ̃pəlje, -pɛl-] ; Occitan : Montpelhièr [mumpeˈʎɛ] )
2432-480: 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
2560-546: A large measure of autonomy. Theology was at first taught in the convents, in which St. Anthony of Padua , Raymond Lullus , and the Dominican Bernard de la Treille lectured. Two letters of King John prove that a faculty of theology existed at Montpellier independently of the convents, in January 1350. By a Bull of 17 December 1421, Martin V granted canonical institution to this faculty and united it closely with
2688-482: A neighbourhood council. The whole metropolitan area had a population of 813,272 at the 2020 census. In a study made by INSEE from 2007 to 2012 Montpellier saw the strongest population growth of France's main communes (+1.1%), ahead of Paris and Lyon. For most of its history, and even today, Montpellier has been known for its significant Spanish population, heritage and influence. Montpellier also houses significant Moroccan, Algerian, and Italian communities. The virgin
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#17327731813602816-557: 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
2944-402: 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
3072-443: 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
3200-568: A possession of the crown of Aragon until it passed to James III of Majorca , who sold the city to the French king Philip VI in 1349, to raise funds for his ongoing struggle with Peter IV of Aragon . From the middle of the 14th century until the French Revolution (1789), Montpellier was part of the province of Languedoc . In the 14th century, Pope Urban VIII gave Montpellier a new monastery dedicated to Saint Peter , noteworthy for
3328-750: 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
3456-474: 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
3584-498: 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
3712-459: 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
3840-540: A staff of producers or project managers to monitor the developer's progress, critique ongoing development, and assist as necessary. Most video games created by an external video game developer are paid for with periodic advances on royalties. These advances are paid when the developer reaches certain stages of development, called milestones . Video game publishing is associated with high risk : AAA game publishers produce and create games that are high budget and groundbreaking. They are advanced in technology and forward
3968-524: 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
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4096-484: A time, under Henry IV of France , the latter faculty had among its lecturers Isaac Casaubon . The Montpellier school of medicine owed its success to the ruling of the Guilhems, lords of the town, by which any licensed physician might lecture there; there was no fixed limit to the number of teachers, lectures were multiplied, and there was a great wealth of teaching. Rabelais took his medical degrees at Montpellier. It
4224-429: A wider consumer pool and have access to distribute to a big network. Although they have creative constraints within game development and marketing, they often focus and follow market trends. They have a higher demand to attain commercial success. Examples of AAA video game publishers are Electronic Arts , Ubisoft , and Activision . Indie game publishers are companies that work with independent developers. Their focus
4352-475: Is "Notre Dame des Tables", named for the money changing tables at the Basilica of Notre-Dame des Tables . The A and M are for "Ave Maria". The inescutcheon is the arms of the Lords of Montpellier (Guilhem). The University of Montpellier is one of the oldest in the world, founded in 1160, and having been granted a charter in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad von Urach and confirmed by Pope Nicholas IV in
4480-435: Is a centre for cultural events as there are many students. Montpellier has two large concert venues: Le Zenith Sud (7.000 seats) and L'Arena (14.000 seats). Le Corum cultural and conference centre contains three auditoriums. Montpellier is twinned with: Montpellier was the birthplace of: Other famous inhabitants include: The name Montpellier is used for towns and streets in as many as four continents. Many places in
4608-540: Is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea . One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania , Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault . At the 2020 census, 299,096 people lived in the city proper, while its metropolitan area had a population of 813,272. The inhabitants are called Montpelliérains . In the Middle Ages, Montpellier was an important city of
4736-552: Is a stronghold built in the seventeenth century by Louis XIII of France . Since the 1990s, Montpellier has experienced one of the strongest economic and demographic growths in the country. Its urban area has experienced the highest population growth in France since the year 2000. Numbering 70,000, students comprise nearly one-fourth of its population, one of the highest such proportions in Europe. Its living environment, with one of Europe's largest pedestrian areas, along with its rich cultural life and Mediterranean climate , explains
4864-409: Is around 630 millimetres (24.8 in), and is greatest in fall and winter, but not absent in summer, either. Extreme temperatures have ranged from −17.8 °C (−0.04 °F) recorded on 5 February 1963 and up to 43.5 °C (110.3 °F) on 28 June 2019. Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses
4992-489: Is built on two hills, Montpellier and Montpelliéret, thus some of its streets have great differences of altitude. Some of its streets are also very narrow and old, which gives it a more intimate feel. Montpellier has a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen Csa ), with cool, damp winters, and hot, rather dry summers. The monthly mean ranges from 7.2 °C (45.0 °F) in January to 24.1 °C (75.4 °F) in July. Precipitation
5120-475: Is free for all residents. Previously, all residents under 18 and over 65 years of age have been transported free of charge since September 1, 2021. The TaM also manages the large bike sharing scheme Vélomagg' , started in June 2007, comprising 1200 bicycles and 50 stations. Montpellier was the finish of Stage 11 and the departure of Stage 12 in the 2007 Tour de France . It was also the finish of Stage 11 and
5248-438: 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
Ubisoft - Misplaced Pages Continue
5376-611: Is on developing games that promotes creativity and originality. Developers have creative control over their games. These publishers implement intimate collaborations between the publishers and the developers. Often stand out in the video game market due to the more unique genres. Indie game publishers have restrict marketing budgets and have small audience reach and visibility. Examples of Indie video game publishers are Devolver Digital , Annapurna Interactive and Raw Fury . Mobile game publishers produce and specialize in video games on smartphones and tablet devices. They take advantage of
5504-452: Is said to have stood for mont pelé (the naked hill, because the vegetation was poor), or le mont de la colline (the mount of the hill). Montpellier is located 170 km (106 mi) from Marseille , 242 km (150 mi) from Toulouse , and 748 km (465 mi) from Paris. Montpellier's highest point is the Place du Peyrou, at an altitude of 57 m (187 ft). The city
5632-537: Is served by railway, including TGV highspeed trains. Montpellier's main railway station is Saint-Roch . Since 2018, there is also a station on the high-speed railway linking Nîmes and Montpellier with the LGV Méditerranée , called Montpellier-Sud de France . The Montpellier – Méditerranée Airport is located in the area of Fréjorgues, in the town of Mauguio , southeast of Montpellier. The Transports de l'agglomération de Montpellier (TaM) manages
5760-619: 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 is a consortium of several companies active in the blockchain space that seeks to explore the potential applications of this technology in
5888-405: 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
6016-617: 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
6144-523: The Crown of Aragon (and was the birthplace of James I ), and then of Majorca , before its sale to France in 1349. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest universities in the world and has the oldest medical school still in operation, with notable alumni such as Petrarch , Nostradamus and François Rabelais . Above the medieval city, the ancient citadel of Montpellier
6272-616: 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
6400-505: 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
6528-738: The Tezos currency, which Ubisoft claimed was an energy efficient cryptocurrency. This marked the first "AAA" effort into blockchain games. The announcement 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,
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#17327731813606656-573: 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
6784-468: 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
6912-479: 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,
7040-521: 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
7168-620: The Catholic party. Even before the Edict of Alès in 1629, Protestant rule was dead and the ville de sûreté was no more. Louis XIV made Montpellier capital of Bas Languedoc , and the town started to embellish itself, by building the Promenade du Peyrou , the Esplanade and a large number of houses in the historic centre. After the French Revolution , the city became the capital of
7296-554: 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
7424-634: 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
7552-428: 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
7680-503: 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, the Guillemots asked for more Canadian investors in
7808-509: The Huguenots. The city's political institutions and the university were all handed over to the Huguenots. Increasing tension with Paris led to King Louis XIII besieging the city in 1622. The city surrendered after a two-month siege. Peace terms called for the dismantling of the city's fortifications and the building of the royal Citadel of Montpellier to secure the city for the government. The university and consulate were taken over by
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#17327731813607936-533: The Revolution. The faculty numbered among its illustrious pupils of law Petrarch , who spent four years at Montpellier, and among its lecturers Guillaume de Nogaret , chancellor to Philip the Fair , Guillaume de Grimoard , afterwards pope under the name of Urban V, and Pedro de Luna , antipope as Benedict XIII. But after the 15th century this faculty fell into decay, as did also the faculty of arts, although for
8064-522: The United Kingdom and Ireland carry the name Montpellier. Often they are in resort locations claiming some of the healthy attributes for which the French city was renowned in earlier centuries. The variant spelling "Montpelier" is common, and is of quite early provenance. Brewer uses that spelling. The first example was the early 19th-century suburb of Montpelier in Brighton . The capital of
8192-504: 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
8320-536: 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
8448-577: 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,
8576-722: 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
8704-410: The boundaries of technology and creativity in the video game world. AAA game publishers often produce popular and blockbuster games. These publishers have the financial resource and means to fund large game development projects. These publishers implement and fund marketing and distribution to guarantee reach and exposure for their games. With their funds to market they are able to advertise and reach
8832-460: 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
8960-581: 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
9088-421: The city's public transportation, including its 56-kilometre (35 mi) tramway network consisting of four lines and several parking facilities. Line 1 runs from Mosson in the west to Odysseum in the east. Line 2 runs from Jacou in the northeast to St. Jean-de-Vedas in the southwest. Line 3 and Line 4 opened in April 2012. Line 3, which is 22.4-kilometre (13.9 mi) long, links Juvignac and Pérols with
9216-492: The city's thriving university culture, though many other universities have been well established there. The coastal city also benefited in the past 40 years from major construction programs such as Antigone , Port Marianne and Odysseum districts. The city is situated on hilly ground 10 km (6 mi) inland from the Mediterranean coast, on the river Lez . The name of the city, which was originally Monspessulanus ,
9344-582: The city's traditional freedoms and granted the city the right to choose twelve governing consuls annually. Under the Kings of Aragon, Montpellier became a very important city, a major economic centre and the primary centre for the spice trade in the Kingdom of France. It was the second or third most important city of France at that time, with some 40,000 inhabitants before the Black Death . Montpellier remained
9472-422: The coming months." Video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer . They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer (the publisher calls this external development ) and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called
9600-606: 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 the development of their first Ubisoft Entertainment Center, created by experience design firm Storyland Studios and Alterface. The first location
9728-461: 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
9856-518: 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,
9984-703: 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
10112-456: 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
10240-531: 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
10368-556: 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
10496-471: 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
10624-449: 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
10752-729: The departure of Stage 12 in the 2016 edition . The city is home to a variety of professional sports teams: Montpellier was one of the hosts of the FIBA EuroBasket 2015 . The city is home to the Open Sud de France tennis tournament since 2010, and will host the XXXI World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship . The main athletics stadium is the Philippidès Stadium , which is owned by the University of Montpellier . The city
10880-401: 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
11008-426: 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
11136-601: The enthusiasm for the city, which is nicknamed the "Gifted". Montpellier was nominated for "Best Emerging Culture City of the Year 2017" by the think tank LCD. It is ranked as a Sufficiency city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network . Montpellier is the third-largest French city near the Mediterranean coast, behind Marseille and Nice . It is the seventh-largest city of France , and has also been
11264-409: The faculty of law. In the 16th century the faculty of theology disappeared for a time, when Calvinism , in the reign of Henry II of France , held complete possession of the city. It resumed its functions after Louis XIII had reestablished the royal power at Montpellier in 1622; but the rivalries of Dominicans and Jesuits interfered seriously with the prosperity of the faculty, which disappeared at
11392-418: 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
11520-411: 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,
11648-550: The fastest-growing city in the country for 25 years. In the Early Middle Ages , the nearby episcopal town of Maguelone was the major settlement in the area but raids by pirates encouraged settlement a little farther inland. In 737 Charles Martel destroyed Maguelone . Montpellier, first mentioned in a document of 985, was founded under a local feudal dynasty, the Guilhem, who combined two hamlets and built
11776-424: 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
11904-399: 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 the shares, while
12032-577: 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
12160-453: 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
12288-581: 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
12416-470: The grapes needed for wine. After this the city had grown because it welcomed French repatriates from Algeria and other parts of northern Africa after Algeria's independence from France . In the 21st century Montpellier is between France's number seventh and eighth largest city. The city had another influx in population more recently, largely due to the student population, who make up about one-fourth of Montpellier's population. The school of medicine kickstarted
12544-462: 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,
12672-699: The law school was active. The two surviving towers of the city walls, the Tour des Pins and the Tour de la Babotte , were built later, around the year 1200. Montpellier came to prominence in the 12th century—as a trading centre, with trading links across the Mediterranean world, and a rich Jewish cultural life that flourished within traditions of tolerance of Muslims , Jews and Cathars —and later of its Protestants. William VIII of Montpellier gave freedom for all to teach medicine in Montpellier in 1180. The city's faculties of law and medicine were established in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad of Urach , legate of Pope Honorius III ;
12800-487: 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
12928-494: The medical faculty has, over the centuries, been one of the major centres for the teaching of medicine in Europe. This era marked the high point of Montpellier's prominence. The city became a possession of the Kings of Aragon in 1204 by the marriage of Peter II of Aragon with Marie of Montpellier , who was given the city and its dependencies as part of her dowry . Montpellier gained a charter in 1204 when Peter and Marie confirmed
13056-401: The much smaller Department of Hérault . During the 19th century the city thrived on the wine culture that it was able to produce due to the abundance of sun throughout the year. The wine consumption in France allowed Montpellier's citizens to become very wealthy until in the 1890s the phylloxera induced fungal disease had spread amongst the vineyards and the people were no longer able to grow
13184-422: 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
13312-402: 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
13440-462: The provincial universities in France. University of Montpellier 1 and University of Montpellier 2 reunified in January 2015 to form the University of Montpellier. Paul Valéry University Montpellier, remains a separate entity. Moreover, Montpellier was ranked 119th best student city in the world for 2013, according to QS Best Student Cities 2023 ranking. Public service schools Montpellier
13568-492: 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
13696-423: 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
13824-495: 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
13952-501: 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
14080-586: 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
14208-482: The school of medicine, there were excellent physicians at Montpellier. The statutes given in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad, legate of Honorius III , which were completed in 1240 by Pierre de Conques, placed this school under the direction of the Bishop of Maguelonne . Pope Nicholas IV issued a Bull in 1289, combining all the schools into a university, which was placed under the direction of the bishop, but which in fact enjoyed
14336-458: 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
14464-514: 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
14592-415: 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
14720-413: 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
14848-577: The time of the Reformation in the 16th century, many of the inhabitants of Montpellier became Protestants (or Huguenots as they were known in France) and the city became a stronghold of Protestant resistance to the Catholic French crown. Montpellier was among the most important of the 66 villes de sûreté ('cities of protection' or 'protected cities') that the Edict of Nantes granted to
14976-412: The very unusual porch of its chapel, supported by two high, somewhat rocket-like towers. With its importance steadily increasing, the city finally gained a bishop, who moved from Maguelone in 1536, and the huge monastery chapel became a cathedral. In 1432, Jacques Cœur established himself in the city and it became an important economic centre, until 1481 when Marseilles overshadowed it in this role. At
15104-554: 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
15232-510: 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 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
15360-704: The widespread appeal and rise of mobile gaming. These publishers enhance games for touch based interfaces and devices. They are proficient in designing monetization tactics for mobile platforms. Mobile game publishers have a comprehensive understanding of the mobile gaming market. They have proficiency in strategies for engagement and user acquisition for mobile sites. For mobile gaming there is access through app stores for distribution channels. There are obstacles with monetization due to lack of in-app purchase and free-to-play(F2P) models . Examples of Mobile game publishers are Supercell , King , and Zynga . Numerous video game publishers are traded publicly on stock markets . As
15488-494: The writing of the user manual; and the creation of graphic design elements such as the box design. Some large publishers with vertical structure also own publishing subsidiaries (labels). Large publishers also attempt to boost efficiency across all internal and external development teams by providing services such as sound design and code packages for commonly needed functionality. Because the publisher often finances development, they usually try to manage development risk along with
15616-411: 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
15744-647: 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
15872-557: 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
16000-419: 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
16128-531: Was in this school that the biological theory of vitalism , elaborated by Barthez (1734–1806), had its origin. The French Revolution did not interrupt the existence of the faculty of medicine. The faculties of science and of letters were re-established in 1810; that of law in 1880. It was on the occasion of the sixth centenary of the university, celebrated in 1889, that the Government of France announced its intention—which has since been realized—of reorganizing
16256-694: 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
16384-577: 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
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