It's simply because some studios have specialized areas of expertise. On a Ubi project, Studio A does your photomode and PC porting (and possibly Stadia), Lead Studio does the biggest chunk of the game worldbuilding, missions, and all major gameplay systems, Studio B assists with sharing part of the word and missions mandate, Studio C might handle next-gen ports if they're not done by Lead Studio, Studio D might handle animal life and naval gameplay, Studio E might do all of your performance capture, Studio F might do your cinematics, Studio G might do Club Ubisoft integration, Studio H might handle one part of the worldwide QC mandate, and the list goes on. There are also lots of agnostic tech groups within Ubisoft that might help exclusively with one aspect of a technology pipeline.I sincerely hope no one uses the fact that there a lot of studios (Be it outsourced or support) working on this is considered an inherently bad thing
Assassin's Creed Ragnarok world map size will be twice that of Assassin's Creed Odyssey. It will have all of Northern Europe and a huge emphasis on boats and cities.
It's simply because some studios have specialized areas of expertise. On a Ubi project, Studio A does your photomode and PC porting (and possibly Stadia), Lead Studio does the biggest chunk of the game worldbuilding, missions, and all major gameplay systems, Studio B assists with sharing part of the word and missions mandate, Studio C might handle next-gen ports if they're not done by Lead Studio, Studio D might handle animal life and naval gameplay, Studio E might do all of your performance capture, Studio F might do your cinematics, Studio G might do Club Ubisoft integration, Studio H might handle one part of the worldwide QC mandate, and the list goes on. There are also lots of agnostic tech groups within Ubisoft that might help exclusively with one aspect of a technology pipeline.
A lot of this has to do with planning ahead, years in advance, to match up the various studios expertise to the project's mandate and scope. It allows these games to be as big as they are. Spreading out the work also means you have someone, somewhere, working on the game at all 24 hours of a day.
It's one of Ubisoft's biggest strengths though I know many like to deride Ubisoft for this approach.
Maybe 20%. Hated most of the side quests in Origin and Odyssey
There's a huge difference between outsourcing and co-development though. Most AAA are developed using countless outsourcing studios in Eastern Europe, Canada and Asia but those are barely (if ever) mentionned in credits. Horizon Zero Dawn was 95% outsourced according to devs. Ubisoft is actually splitting the game in chunks that will be entirely developed by other Ubisoft studios. Assassin's Creed boat gameplay was mostly developed by Singapore, multiplayer in Annecy, art props in China and so on. They tend to use freelancers and outsource concept artists for specific, one-time task but in a reaaaaally small proportion compared to other publishers. They just have an insane workforce...Yep, Ubisoft also has a deep, deep bench of outsourcing studios they turn to for help. For instance, a lot of their concept art has traditionally not solely been done in house. They've used outside resources for countless other things too.
When you work on projects as large as Ubi's, they tend to use a lot of their partnerships.
There's a huge difference between outsourcing and co-development though. Most AAA are developed using countless outsourcing studios in Eastern Europe, Canada and Asia but those are barely (if ever) mentionned in credits. Horizon Zero Dawn was 95% outsourced according to devs. Ubisoft is actually splitting the game in chunks that will be entirely developed by other Ubisoft studios. Assassin's Creed boat gameplay was mostly developed by Singapore, multiplayer in Annecy, art props in China and so on. They tend to use freelancers and outsource concept artists for specific, one-time task but in a reaaaaally small proportion compared to other publishers. They just have an insane workforce...
that why their games always leaks xDNah, Ubisoft is also using quite a few external partners on this as well. They have for every game since Black Flag.
I also know that quite a few of the AC games have had a bunch of concept art done by a separate outsourcing studio specifically designed for concept art.
I was not talking about freelancers :) I've seen some Ubi projects lean heavily on outsourcing, to the point where over 1000 non-Ubi employees have touched their games in various degrees before they comes out. So to say the game is "entirely" developed in house is never true at Ubisoft, and has not been true for years.
I sincerely hope no one uses the fact that there a lot of studios (Be it outsourced or support) working on this is considered an inherently bad thing
lol are you joking??? xDFunny thing about their game leaks: Their employees all take a morning bus to their Montreal studio (I commonly call it the Ubi-bus) and its so packed people are falling out the windows and almost everyone on it is wearing a whole bunch of Ubi swag.
Ubi has super nice employees (and a really nice building, they hold awesome roof parties at Ubi Montreal that I've been to!) who all just want to talk about the cool stuff they work on. Some of them are also trying to get work done on the bus/train/metro/other Montreal public transit, and sometimes their stuff leaks from that. Square-Enix Montreal also ran into a similar problem on the Montreal metro, it's how Tomb Raider leaked.
i didn't know about this, that's impressive reallyNope, Montreal is a video game production hub with AAA studios, indies, outsourcing studios, game engine developers and a whole bunch more all over the place. These people also pretty much all know each other or know people who work at another company, so the local industry is quite small in many ways.
This is what causes people to be very chatty about what they are working on in public transport or when they are out for lunch :)
Currently at 14K employees and 40 studios.I REALLY want to see a NoClip documentary on Ubisoft and how the hell they function haha.
I knew that that often had several studios coordinate on one game, but I never would've imagined it was as high as 15.
If they have 15 studios working (at least part time) on AC Valhalla, not to mention Watch Dogs Legion, Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Roller Champions, and Far Cry 6 all coming within the next year, how many damn studios do they have total?!
Im not buying another Ubi games this gen ,got burned by last 3 Ubisoft games I've played, I couldnt force myself to finish Farcry 5(uninteresting setting and mission design) watchdogs 2(uninteresting characters, meh stealth) Odyssey (bloat)
No different than any other game utilizing different contractors for certain things.
Im not buying another Ubi games this gen ,got burned by last 3 Ubisoft games I've played, I couldnt force myself to finish Farcry 5(uninteresting setting and mission design) watchdogs 2(uninteresting characters, meh stealth) Odyssey (bloat)
Yeah poor souls 😂I'm sure Ubisoft employees will be finding it hard to sleep at night without you playing their games anymore /s
did AC Black Flag end up in the ballpark of what this generation of games could look like? I'd say nope.Can´t wait to see the gameplay to have a ballpark of what to expect next gen.
did AC Black Flag end up in the ballpark of what this generation of games could look like? I'd say nope.
It's a fine looking game, but the last two ACs put it to shame.Aside from character models, AC Black Flag still holds up, to be honest.
Its like one guy who coordinates 14 other guys, The lead on this is not zoom calling a thousand people.Imagine managing a project like this.
Imagine that managers caffeine levels.
Now imagine the amount of Zoom calls.