Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: When was Ubisoft Quebec founded?
Ubisoft Quebec was announced on 11 April 2005,[1][2] and was effectively opened 2 June 2005.[3] In June 2008, Ubisoft Quebec ramped up its computer-generated imagery business to work on movies in conjunction with Guillemot.[4] The unit was closed down again with the foundation of Ubisoft Motion Pictures in May 2011.[5] On 3 November 2011, Ubisoft acquired a Quebec City-based development division of Longtail Studios, of which 48 employees were merged into Ubisoft Quebec, while 6–7, including the division's manager, departed.[6]
Ubisoft Osaka, formerly known as Digital Kids, was founded in Osaka, Japan. It was acquired by Ubisoft in 2008, and has since created many handheld titles, including "Petz". The studio collaborates with Ubisoft San Francisco.
Tribute Games is an independent game studio in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It focuses on retro games for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita. It was founded in 2011 by former Ubisoft employees Jonathan Lavigne, Jean-Francois Major and Justin Cyr who, amongst other games, have worked on "" and "TMNT".
The PSP and Wii versions were developed by Ubisoft Quebec; the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows versions were handled by Ubisoft Montreal with the help of Ubisoft Singapore; and the Nintendo DS version was made at Casablanca.
Ubisoft Leamington (formerly FreeStyleGames Limited) is a British video game developer based in Leamington Spa, England. Founded in November 2002 by six industry veterans formerly of Codemasters and Rare, the studios was bought by Activision in September 2008. In January 2017, Ubisoft acquired the studio from Activision and renamed it Ubisoft Leamington. Ubisoft Leamington is working on AAA games, primarily the "Tom Clancy's The Division" franchise, in close cooperation with sister studio Ubisoft Reflections.
During this period, in 2005, the government of Quebec gave Ubisoft to expand with anticipation of reaching 2,000 employees by 2010. In 2007, with already 1,600 employees, the government increased to to reach 3,000 employees by 2013, which would make Ubisoft Montreal the world's largest game development studio.
During development of the previous game by Obsidian Entertainment for publisher THQ, Ubisoft bought the rights to the game after THQ went into bankruptcy. Ubisoft chose to develop the sequel internally, replacing Obsidian Entertainment with the nearly 100-member team at Ubisoft San Francisco (USF). The team, which was responsible for the "Rocksmith" series of music video games, recruited experts in role-playing games and their related systems. Additional support work was done by Ubisoft Osaka, Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Reflections, Blue Byte, and Ubisoft Quebec.
Ubisoft Saguenay, in Chicoutimi, Quebec, was announced in September 2017 and opened in February 2018 with 20 employees led by Jimmy Boulianne. The studio will be used to support online and connectivity components for Ubisoft's games.
Ubisoft Montreal is Ubisoft's largest in-house development studio, as well as the largest development studio worldwide with more than 3,200 employees. Founded in 1997 in Montreal, Quebec, the studio started with only 50 employees. 25 of these came from Ubisoft's headquarters in France, while the rest were new recruits. Yannis Mallat is the company's studio head. While the company originally focused their work on licensed family-friendly titles, the team achieved breakthrough success through the release of two new titles: "" and "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell".
Ubisoft Montreal's break-out title came through "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell", released in 2002. Prior to this, Ubisoft had closed down an internal development studio at the New York offices in 1999, which had been working on a game called "The Drift", a third-person shooter with elements of stealth. Ubisoft had found the game lacking cohesion, and despite efforts to rebrand it as a potential "James Bond" game, Ubisoft opted to halt development and transfer key staff and all the work in progress to Ubisoft Montreal. The next year in 2000, Ubisoft acquired Red Storm Entertainment, which had successfully produced games based on Tom Clancy novels. The acquisition include the licence to develop more Tom Clancy-based games, as well as access to the Unreal game engine. The Ubisoft Montreal team starting experimenting with modern spy gadgetry within the existing "Drift" elements, and found some potential promise to make a game in the "Tom Clancy's" series from it. With "" soon to be released, Ubisoft Montreal was tasked with creating the "Metal Gear Solid" killer, which resulted in the first "Splinter Cell" game. The Montreal studio continued to develop several of the "Splinter Cell" sequels through 2010.
Ubisoft Leamington, formerly FreeStyleGames, was founded in Leamington Spa, England, in 2002 by six industry veterans formerly of Codemasters and Rare. The studio worked on popular music games such as "DJ Hero" and "Sing Party" while it was owned by Activision. After the commercial failure of "Guitar Hero Live", Activision sold the studio to Ubisoft, which directed the studio to work with Ubisoft Reflections. The studio has 50 employees and works closely with Ubisoft Reflections.
Ubisoft Motion Pictures SASU is a French film production company and a subsidiary of video game publisher Ubisoft based in Montreuil. Founded on 27 January 2011, Ubisoft Motion Pictures is in charge of producing films and television shows based on Ubisoft franchises.
At the same time, the city of Montreal in Quebec was looking to recover from job losses due to disappearing manufacturing and textile industries from the early 1990s. The controlling political party, Parti Québécois (PQ), pursued new job creation in technology, computers, and multimedia. Lobbyist Sylvain Vaugeois, hearing that Ubisoft was searching for jobs, came up with a plan called "Plan Mercure" which would incentivize Ubisoft to found a studio in Montreal by having the government subsidize each employee for five years, but the government rejected this plan, believing it was too expensive for use of public funds. Vaugeois still went on to meet with Ubisoft, inviting them to visit Montreal and suggesting "Plan Mercure" was viable, and upon their visit, discovered that they had been mislead, leading to some embarrassment on the city and providence. PQ representatives of Quebec's and Montreal's government met with Ubisoft to convince them to establish a studio in Quebec after hearing that Ubisoft was considering a studio instead near Boston or in New Brunswick, and recognised they needed to follow on some form of Vaugeois' "Plan Mercure" to convince Ubisoft to form a studio in Montreal. Pierre Pettigrew, the Minister of Human Resources Development worked with the Quebec and federal government to come to a solution, whereby the two governments would split the previously considered per employee ( from the Quebec government) to provide 500 new jobs to young persons and provide training in the multimedia sector. Ubisoft was agreeable to this, and established Ubisoft Montreal (formally named Ubisoft Divertissements Inc.) on 25 April 1997. The studio was founded in offices in the , a former textile factory, located in the Mile End neighbourhood along Saint-Laurent Boulevard.
Ubisoft Chengdu was founded in 2008 in Chengdu, as Ubisoft's second studio in China. The studio also served as a support studio, working on games such as "", and provided Chinese localisation services for games like "". Ubisoft Chengdu led the development of "Monkey King Escape", a mobile title, and casual games "Scrabble" (2013), "Uno" (2017) and "Wheel of Fortune". The studio has over 200 employees.
Ubisoft Reflections was founded in 1984 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The company has developed several successful franchises, including "Destruction Derby" and "Driver" before Ubisoft's acquisition in July 2006. After Reflections' acquisition, the company continued to work on new "Driver" titles, with the latest being 2011's "". The studio then turned to become a support team to work on other titles such as "Tom Clancy's The Division", worked on vehicle physics for other Ubisoft games, and experimented with smaller projects such as "Grow Home". The studio is managed by Pauline Jacquey. Ubisoft Reflections works closely with Ubisoft Leamington.
Ubisoft announced plans in 2013 to invest $373 million into its Quebec operations over seven years, a move that is expected to generate 500 additional jobs in the province. The publisher is investing in the expansion of its motion capture technologies, and consolidating its online games operations and infrastructure in Montreal. By 2020, the company will employ more than 3,500 staff at its studios in Montreal and Quebec City.
Ubisoft Bucharest in Bucharest, Romania, was founded in 1992 as Ubisoft's first in-house studio that was based outside France. Consisting of six members when it was founded, the company's main goal was to port Ubisoft's games to personal computers. It also supported other studios on the development of "Assassin's Creed" multiplayer, "Assassin's Creed Rogue", "Just Dance", and "". A separate team in Craiova was established in September 2008 with 12 employees. In December 2008, 126 employees were added to the two studios (of which 75 in Bucharest and 51 in Craiova), with the total staff count reaching around 770.
The studio was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with subsidies from the governments of Montreal, Quebec, and Canada to help create new multimedia jobs. The studio's initial products were low-profile children's games based on existing intellectual property. Ubisoft Montreal's break-out titles was 2002's "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" and 2003's "". Subsequently, the studio continued to develop sequels and related games in both series, and developing its own intellectual properties through the "Assassin's Creed", "Far Cry", "Watch Dogs", and "For Honor".
Ubisoft Quebec is a Canadian video game developer and a subsidiary of Ubisoft based in Quebec City.
Typhoon Studios is a Canadian video game developer based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; it was founded by former employees of Ubisoft and Electronic Arts in January 2017.
Ubisoft Casablanca was opened in April 1998 in Casablanca, Morocco. The studio's first production was the Nintendo 64 version of "". Ubisoft Casablanca assisted the development of various games for portable platforms. In June 2007, Ubisoft stated that they were to expand the studio by 150 people using government incentives. Between 2008 and 2010, the studio also operated a campus that sought to train 300 game development graduates. Ubisoft Casablanca was shuttered on 13 June 2016, following a shift in the marketplace, and the studio's position not being compatible with Ubisoft's plans going forward. The studio previously employed 48 staff members and was the oldest video game studio in North Africa. Companies set up by former Ubisoft Casablanca employees include developers TheWallGames founded by Yassine Arif, Rym Games by Imad Kharijah and Othman El Bahraoui, and Palm Grove Software by Khalil Arafan, as well as the collective Moroccan Game Developers founded in 2011 by Arif and Osama Hussain to promote video game development in Morocco.
Ubisoft Montpellier is a French video game developer and a subsidiary of Ubisoft based in Castelnau-le-Lez. The company was founded in 1994, originally as a graphics studio, and was known as Ubi Pictures, and later as Ubisoft Pictures. In December 2000, the studio had 25 employees working from an old farm located near the Opéra national de Montpellier. On March 14, 2011, Ubisoft Pictures was merged with several other Ubisoft-owned properties in the Montpellier area, including Tiwak, and was renamed Ubisoft Montpellier. The studio is best known for developing the "Beyond Good & Evil" and "Rayman" series, as well as creating the UbiArt Framework game engine.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 23, 2015, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on November 19, 2015, for Microsoft Windows. It is the ninth major installment in the "Assassin's Creed" series, and the successor to 2014's "Assassin's Creed Unity".
Ubisoft Kiev was founded in 2008 in Kiev, Ukraine. The studio's focus is to port Ubisoft games to personal computers (PCs), and the studio has also worked on titles such as "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier" and "Watch Dogs 2". Ubisoft Kiev partnered with Massive Entertainment on Uplay and frequently worked with RedLynx on "Trials" games. In 2016, the studio launched a quality control department for PC ports. Recently, Ubisoft Kiev has worked closely with Ubisoft Quebec on "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" PC version, and with RedLynx on "Trials Rising".
Hybride Technologies in Piedmont, Quebec, is a technology company founded in 1991. Its main role is to create visual effects for films and TV shows, and had contributed to films such as "Jurassic World" and "". The company was acquired by Ubisoft in 2008. The company has a second office co-located with Ubisoft Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, which was opened in February 2016.