Ubisoft Toronto

Last updated

Ubisoft Toronto Inc.
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Video games
FoundedSeptember 2010;13 years ago (2010-09)
Founder
Headquarters
Toronto
,
Canada
Key people
Darryl Long (managing director)
Number of employees
600 (2017)
Parent Ubisoft
Website toronto.ubisoft.com

Ubisoft Toronto Inc. is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Toronto. The studio was established under Jade Raymond in September 2010. Games developed by Ubisoft Toronto include Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist , Far Cry 5 , Starlink: Battle for Atlas , Far Cry 6 , and Watch Dogs Legion .

Contents

History

Ubisoft announced in July 2009 that it was establishing a Toronto-based development studio. Yannis Mallat, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Ubisoft Montreal, was to become Ubisoft Toronto's CEO, while the government of Ontario was to invest CA$263 million over a course of 10 years to create up to 800 jobs. [1] [2] Unlike other Ubisoft studios, Ubisoft Toronto was immediately allowed to lead development of its games, whereas others start by only supporting larger studios like Ubisoft Montreal, though Ubisoft Toronto also served to support Montreal as part of its initial role as a sister studio. [3] [4] [5]

By September 2009, Jade Raymond was put in charge of establishing the studio. [2] Most of the studio's staff in its development phase, including Raymond, transferred to the new location from Ubisoft Montreal. [3] Key hires included producer Alexandre Parizeau and creative director Maxime Béland, who were brought on for the production of a new game in the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series, and were considered co-founders of the studio alongside Raymond. [6] [7] A second, smaller development team for an undisclosed project was headed up by Lesley Phord-Toy, and Rima Brek was put in charge of the studio's internal Technology Group. [6] [8] By May 2010, Ubisoft Toronto had received more than 2,000 job applications. [7]

Ubisoft Toronto's offices were established from a former General Electric building in the Junction Triangle neighborhood of Toronto. [5] [3] Ubisoft Toronto began operating in late 2009 and formally opened in September 2010. [9] [10]

By March 2012, Ubisoft Toronto had grown to 200 people, and to 300 by September 2013. [9] [10] By the latter, the studio had received 30,000 applications and given 1,800 job interviews. [10] In September 2012, Ubisoft Toronto received an internal performance capture studio. [11] The studio's debut project, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist , was released in August 2013 to critical success. [4] [10] Raymond left the studio and was succeeded as general manager by Parizeau. [12] By July 2015, Ubisoft Toronto was developing an original intellectual property (IP). [13] This game was later revealed to be Starlink: Battle for Atlas , an action-adventure game with optional toys-to-life integration. [14] The game was released in 2018 as the studio's first own IP. [15] As of July 2017, Ubisoft Toronto has 600 staff members. [16]

Near the end of June 2020 and into July 2020, a wave of accusations related to the MeToo movement swept through the video game industry, including several directed at some Ubisoft employees. Over one hundred employees of Ubisoft Toronto wrote to Parizeau in late June to report concerns related to sexual misconduct and the lack of action taken by management and human resources in response to their prior reports. Ubisoft announced it had investigated these reports, and in the case of Ubisoft Toronto, had requested studio co-founder Maxime Béland resign from the company. Speaking to Kotaku , some of these employees stated that there were still additional problems at the studio that went beyond Béland and they were still seeking signs of larger change from the studio and Ubisoft as a whole. [5] Parizeau left the company in February 2021 and was replaced by Istvan Tajnay, who had previously been the managing director for Ubisoft Berlin. [17] In December 2021, it was announced that the studio was developing a remake of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002); reports on the project appeared earlier in October. [18] After 2 years, Tajnay left the company in July of 2023 and was replaced by Darryl Long, who had previously been the managing director for Ubisoft Winnipeg and Ubisoft Singapore. [19]

Games developed

YearTitlePlatform(s)
2013 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360
2018 Far Cry 5 [lower-alpha 1] Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia
Starlink: Battle for Atlas Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
2020 Watch Dogs: Legion Amazon Luna, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
2021 Far Cry 6
TBATom Clancy's Splinter Cell [lower-alpha 2] TBA

Notes

  1. ↑ In collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal.
  2. ↑ A remake of the 2002 video game of the same name.

Related Research Articles

<i>Tom Clancys Splinter Cell</i> (video game) 2002 stealth video game

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a 2002 stealth game developed by Ubi Soft Montreal and published by Ubi Soft. It is the first game in the Splinter Cell series. Endorsed by author Tom Clancy, it follows the activities of NSA black ops agent Sam Fisher. The game was inspired by both the Metal Gear series and games created by Looking Glass Studios, and was built using Unreal Engine 2.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of stealth action-adventure video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels that were endorsed by Tom Clancy. The series follows Sam Fisher, a highly trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon", as he overcomes his adversaries. Levels are created using Unreal Engine and emphasize light and darkness as gameplay elements. The series has been positively received, and was once considered to be one of Ubisoft's flagship franchises. The series had sold 19 million units by 2008. No further installments have been released since 2013. A remake of the first game was announced in December 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ubisoft</span> French video game company

Ubisoft 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, Far Cry, For Honor, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, Rayman, Tom Clancy's, and Watch Dogs.

<i>Tom Clancys Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory</i> 2005 stealth video game

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a stealth game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Milan. The game was released for GameCube, PlayStation 2, Windows and Xbox in March 2005. Handheld versions for the Nintendo DS, mobile, and N-Gage were also released. A Game Boy Advance port was planned but later cancelled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jade Raymond</span> Canadian video game creator (born 1975)

Jade Raymond is a Canadian video game producer, best known for helping create the Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs franchises, as well as building Ubisoft Toronto and Motive Studio. In March 2021, Raymond announced the founding of a new independent development team called Haven Studios, which was later acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in July 2022, making them a first-party developer for PlayStation Studios.

<i>Tom Clancys Splinter Cell: Double Agent</i> 2006 video game

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent is a 2006 stealth game developed by Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Shanghai, and published by Ubisoft. The Splinter Cell series, endorsed by American author Tom Clancy, follows Sam Fisher, an agent employed by a black-ops division of the National Security Agency (NSA), dubbed Third Echelon. The game was released for GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360 in October 2006. The Wii and Windows versions were released in November 2006. A PlayStation 3 version was released in March 2007.

<i>Tom Clancys Splinter Cell: Essentials</i> 2006 video game

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Essentials is an action-adventure video game with heavy emphasis on stealth. It is part of the Splinter Cell series and was released for the PlayStation Portable handheld system. It was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft on March 21, 2006. It is the fourth entry in the series and runs on the Unreal Engine 2.

<i>Tom Clancys Splinter Cell: Conviction</i> 2010 video game

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction is a 2010 stealth action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Microsoft Game Studios and Ubisoft. The game is a sequel to Splinter Cell: Double Agent and part of the Splinter Cell series. Key members of the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas team, such as creative director Maxime Béland worked on the game. It released for Windows and Xbox 360 in April 2010. Gameloft released a handheld version for Apple's iOS in May/July 2010. There are also versions available for Android, Windows Phone and Bada, as well as a side-scrolling 2D version for mobile phones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ubisoft Montreal</span> Canadian video game developer

Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ubisoft Quebec</span> Canadian video game development company

Ubisoft Quebec is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Quebec City. The studio was established in June 2005 and is best known for its work in the Assassin's Creed franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Hocking</span> Canadian video game director and designer

Clint Hocking is a Canadian video game designer and director. He has primarily worked at the Canadian divisions of Ubisoft, where he developed three titles, and briefly worked at LucasArts, Valve, and Amazon Game Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PlayStation Studios</span> Group of video game developers owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment

PlayStation Studios is an American division of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) that oversees the video game development at the studios owned by SIE. The division was established as SCE Worldwide Studios in September 2005 and rebranded as PlayStation Studios in 2020.

<i>Tom Clancys Splinter Cell: Blacklist</i> 2013 video game

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a 2013 stealth action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. The game is the sequel to Splinter Cell: Conviction and the seventh installment of the Splinter Cell series. Players control Sam Fisher, a highly trained operative working for the Fourth Echelon, in a mission to stop the Engineers, a group of terrorists which is trying to coerce the United States into recalling all of its troops stationed abroad. The gameplay is similar to its predecessors, with players tasked with completing objectives and defeating enemies. Blacklist marks the return of the asymmetrical multiplayer mode Spies vs. Mercs, which was introduced in Pandora Tomorrow.

Motive Studio is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal.

Red Barrels Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Montreal. The company was founded by Philippe Morin, David Chateauneuf and Hugo Dallaire in 2011. The three were previously developers for Ubisoft Montreal and EA Montreal, but founded the company after the origination of an original intellectual property by Dallaire in 2010. After leaving their respective workplaces, the team's online presence began in July 2012 and a trailer for the game that became Outlast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snowdrop (game engine)</span> Proprietary game engine

Snowdrop is a proprietary game engine created by Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft for use on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, and Luna. It was revealed at E3 2013 with Tom Clancy's The Division, the first game using the engine. Snowdrop is one of the primary game engines used by Ubisoft along with Disrupt, Dunia, and Ubisoft Anvil.

<i>Starlink: Battle for Atlas</i> 2018 video game

Starlink: Battle for Atlas is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It was released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 16, 2018, and for Microsoft Windows on April 30, 2019. The game also features optional toys-to-life elements. It received average to positive reviews, while not meeting sales expectations.

Typhoon Studios Inc. was a Canadian video game developer based in Montreal. It was founded by Alex Hutchinson, Yassine Riahi, and Reid Schneider in early 2017 and acquired by Google in December 2019, becoming part of Stadia Games and Entertainment (SG&E). After releasing its first game, Journey to the Savage Planet, in 2020, Typhoon Studios was shut down alongside SG&E in February 2021.

References

  1. ↑ Fahey, Mike (6 July 2009). "Ubisoft Toronto Brings 800 Jobs To Ontario". Kotaku . Archived from the original on 13 March 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 Thorsen, Tor (1 September 2009). "Jade Raymond heading up Ubisoft Toronto". GameSpot . Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Kumar, Mathew (25 May 2010). "Building On Conviction: Inside Ubisoft Toronto, Page 1 of 4". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  4. 1 2 Dyer, Mitch (4 September 2013). "The Rise of Ubisoft Toronto: How a New Team Nailed its AAA Debut". IGN . Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 Gach, Ethan (6 July 2020). "Ubisoft Employees Have 'Grave Concerns' Over Toronto Studio's Misconduct Allegations". Kotaku . Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  6. 1 2 Kumar, Mathew (25 May 2010). "Building On Conviction: Inside Ubisoft Toronto, Page 2 of 4". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  7. 1 2 Kumar, Mathew (25 May 2010). "Building On Conviction: Inside Ubisoft Toronto, Page 3 of 4". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  8. ↑ Kumar, Mathew (25 May 2010). "Building On Conviction: Inside Ubisoft Toronto, Page 4 of 4". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  9. 1 2 Weber, Rachel (8 March 2017). "Jade's Empire: Building Ubisoft's Super-Studio". GamesIndustry.biz . Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Sinclair, Brendan (6 September 2013). "How to build a AAA studio". GamesIndustry.biz . Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  11. ↑ Goldfarb, Andrew (14 September 2012). "Ubisoft Opens New Performance Capture Studio". IGN . Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  12. ↑ Crecente, Brian (20 October 2014). "Ubisoft Toronto managing director Jade Raymond leaves company". Polygon . Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  13. ↑ Moser, Cassidee (14 July 2015). "Ubisoft Toronto is Working on a New AAA IP". IGN . Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  14. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (12 June 2017). "Ubisoft unveils Starlink video game with toys that attach to your controller". VentureBeat . Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  15. ↑ Dring, Christopher (12 June 2017). "Ubisoft Toronto: "We can bring life back to toys-to-life"". GamesIndustry.biz . Archived from the original on 13 March 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  16. ↑ Sapieha, Chad (6 July 2017). "Ubisoft Toronto's big bet: A new spin on toy-based video games with Starlink". Financial Post . Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  17. ↑ Batchelor, James (3 February 2021). "Ubisoft Toronto appoints new managing director". GamesIndustry.biz . Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  18. ↑ Good, Owen S. (15 December 2021). "A Splinter Cell remake is in development at Ubisoft Toronto". Polygon . Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  19. ↑ https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ubisoft-appoints-veteran-managing-directors-for-toronto-and-montpellier-studios
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.