ubisoft toronto
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The darker gray of Rainbow 6: Patriots
As I'm sitting down in Ubisoft's San Francisco office for a two hour presentation on the recently announced Rainbow 6: Patriots, there's one thought running through my mind before it even starts: What the hell is Ubisoft thinking?%Gallery-140401%
Jade Raymond gives a video tour of Ubisoft Toronto
We enjoy our sworn duty of bringing you news of video game industry happenings, but if Ubisoft Toronto offered us a position, we're not sure we could say no. Jade Raymond recently led Eurogamer on a video tour of the new office, which looks like a fun-filled employer -- impromptu Nerf Wars and all.
Ubisoft's first half 2010 financials show improvement, still in the red
The first half of Ubisoft's 2010-11 fiscal year (from April 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010) showed positive growth comparatively with the company's fiscal first half of 2009-10, with sales up 57 percent to €260 million ($354.25 million) over last year. Despite the increased sales, the French publisher still spent the first six months of fiscal 2010 losing money -- €89.8 million ($122.08 million) in total. Accounting for an enormous chunk of the company's first-half loss was "studios' roles and operations reorganization," which we take to mean "we've been building and staffing up our new studio, Ubisoft Toronto." The recent closure of Ubisoft Brazil assuredly helped mitigate the expense of creating a new base of operation, though apparently not enough to keep Ubi in the black. Also to blame: Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 and Ruse both performed below the publisher's expectations, in addition to "higher R&D [research and development] than expected." CEO Yves Guillemot also explained, "The market environment continues to be tough and, although our gross profit rose sharply, the increase was lower than we expected and we had to accelerate depreciations on certain released titles." But with Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Just Dance 2, and Michael Jackson: The Experience all scheduled for launch in the third quarter of Ubi's fiscal year, the publisher is confident that Q3 will be profitable.
Ubisoft Toronto aiming to develop five big games at once
Ubisoft Toronto Managing Director Jade Raymond hopes to eventually have five triple-A projects going on at the studio. Speaking with Develop, she reiterated that the site is currently working on two projects, one of them the next Splinter Cell, and that the Toronto studio will eventually have five "major" projects in about ten years, when it beefs its staff roster up to 800. Even with such a massive staff, it sounds unlikely all the development for any one game will take place in Toronto. Raymond expressed that triple-A development currently requires several Ubisoft studios working together, explaining that "once [a] team reaches over 200 people – even if they're in the same studio – you need complex management methods to make sure everything is held together; the feature development, the communication, and everything else." A year since its creation (thanks to hundreds of millions in tax breaks), Ubisoft Toronto is shaping up to be a beast -- whether local newspaper columnists like it or not.
Ubisoft's Toronto studio making next Splinter Cell and another 'triple-A' game
The new Toronto branch of Ubisoft has been operating quietly, going largely unnoticed for almost a year since its initial announcement. It sounds like the perfect group to develop a new Splinter Cell game. Ubisoft announced that the new Toronto studio will produce the next game in the series, and will work on a second, unannounced title with Ubisoft Montreal. Splinter Cell: Conviction producer Alexandre Parizeau has joined the Toronto team for this new Splinter Cell project. Managing director Jade Raymond told Gamasutra that many Montreal staffers -- "all the core team," as she described it -- relocated to the new Toronto studio. She said that, because of significant investments from both Ubisoft and the Ontario government, Ubisoft Toronto can start right away on large-scale games. "It's a really nice position to be in," Raymond said. "Instead of starting a studio and working on small projects, Nintendo DS or portables, we're starting out of the gate with triple-A only." The second game in Toronto's slate involves a small team coordinating with Montreal, led by A2M alum Lesley Phord-Toy. She told Gamasutra that the second team "gives us the chance to focus not only on bringing the right people in at the beginning, but putting them in the right place either to train or for training. When we look to grow this second team into a full team, we'll have the core team."
Jade Raymond to head up Ubisoft Toronto, focusing on AAA games and new IPs
While the whereabouts of Beyond Good & Evil 2's Jade are still – frustratingly – unknown, the whereabouts of Ubisoft's other Jade – that would be Jade Raymond, of Assassin's Creed fame – are quite known. Though she's been somewhat out of the limelight after initially trumpeting up the still-not-out-yet I Am Alive, Ms. Raymond is still alive and has been chosen as the head of the recently announced Ubisoft Toronto. But hey, we know you're worried about Yannis Mallat, CEO of both Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto, who told us last month that he would be "handling both" studios. Well, don't fret – Ubisoft's press release says that while "Raymond will oversee day-to-day operations of the Toronto studio's work on video game project," she will do so "under the governance of Yannis Mallat." Ubisoft Toronto is scheduled to open its doors by the end of the year and begin "work on AAA games and new intellectual properties," according to Raymond.
Not everyone's happy about Ubisoft Toronto
Like the welcoming of a new baby into the world, we're always excited about the birth of a new video game studio. But some Torontonians Torontions residents of Toronto weren't so happy about the 265 million-thick stack of Queen Es that their city laid down to get Ubisoft to expand there.Globe & Mail columnist Marcus Gee fumed, "That quarter-billion has to come from somewhere, much of it from good Toronto businesses that don't have the buzz factor... Their tax burden will rise, and their business will suffer, while the cool kids in the video-game industry collect government cheques."It's a statement that provides lots of insight, not only into the inner workings of the Toronto government, but also into the social standing of newspaper columnists if they think people in the video game industry are "cool kids."
Interview: Ubisoft Montreal & Toronto boss Yannis Mallat
Earlier today, Ubisoft announced its continuing Canadian expansion, with a new studio being established in the province of Ontario's capital city of Toronto. In a joint announcement with the Premier (his actual title) of Ontario, Ubi revealed the studio will have about 800 employees, while the government is committing $263 million in funding over the next decade. We spoke with Ubisoft Montreal CEO (and newly formed Ubisoft Toronto boss), Yannis Mallat, about his plans for the company why Toronto was "culturally" the right place for Ubisoft to expand its development reach.
