Speaking at GDC, Olivier de Rotalier, managing director for
Ubisoft's Singapore and Southeast Asia, revealed the company's intention
to establish a new development studio in the Philippines. As part of
the announcement he shared some details about the current state of the
Singapore studio.
"We've been very happy to be
involved in many titles," he said. "We've built two main expertise in
Singapore: one in AAA games, the other in PC online with Ghost Recon: Phantoms.
"We've
built 10 AAA games in seven years," he continued. "And now our studio
is leading one of the biggest Ubisoft projects on console and PC."
It
is unclear whether the game in question is part of an existing
franchise, or if it is a new property developed by the Singapore studio.
GameSpot has asked Ubisoft for clarification.
The Singapore studio is most notable for creating Assassin's Creed 3's naval battles, which went on to become a key pillar of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed Rogue's gameplay.
Ubisoft's
new studio in the Philippines marks an expansion in the Southeast Asian
territory which, according to Rotalier is "a fast-growing market in the
gaming industry" and has a "young and growing population that is very
connected and creative."
Ubisoft is moving
experienced Filipino developers from its Singapore studio to the new
Philippines studio to give it a strong foundation to build on.
"We
have, in Singapore, a team with people from the Philippines who have
grown in expertise with us. We've built a solid work relationship and
trust with them, and that's an important core for us to start a new
studio.
"Some of them will transfer to the Philippines to
bring the Ubisoft knowhow, methodology, and knowledge to the studio ...
Leveraging the team in Singapore to train and groom the people in the
[Philippines] is a key part of what we're doing.
"[The
studio manager, Chip Go] is already someone that worked in Singapore and
will bring his knowledge of the group, company, and process. We want to
expose [the developers] to our major AAA franchise ... that'll be the
best way to expose them to the best standards of the industry and the
best people to learn from. Also, [they can work] on the best technology
that we have."
According to Rotalier, Ubisoft is planning
to have 50 developers at the Philippines studio by the end of 2016, and
then grow to a total of 200 people.
In other Ubisoft news, in February chief executive Yves Guillemot confirmed rumours it is not releasing a new entry in the mainline Assassin's Creed series in 2016.
Instead, it is giving its developers the time to "[take advantage of
all the new technologies" and "the brand a new dimension."
An
Ubisoft blog post added: "This year, we are stepping back and
re-examining the Assassin's Creed franchise ... Since the release of Assassin's Creed Unity,
we’ve learned a lot based on your feedback. We've also updated our
development processes and recommitted to making Assassin's Creed a
premier open-world franchise.
"We're taking this year to
evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we're delivering on the
promise of Assassin's Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay
experiences that make history everyone's playground."
Watch Dogs 2, meanwhile, is expected to will launch before the end of April 2017. Ubisoft's fiscal 16/17 games slate also includes For Honor, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
0 comments:
Post a Comment