1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:17,840 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And as I've mentioned 5 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:25,799 Speaker 1: on recent shows, we are entering a new era of 6 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: video game consoles and that has a lot of people excited. 7 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 1: Though I have already started seeing reports of problems with 8 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: optical drives, both for the Xbox Series X and the 9 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,600 Speaker 1: PS five, so that's not great, which serves as a 10 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:45,239 Speaker 1: good reminder that sometimes it pays to hang back just 11 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:47,920 Speaker 1: a little bit when new hardware comes out, just to 12 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: see if there are any you know, bugs or issues 13 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 1: that still need working out. That way, you can purchase 14 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:58,560 Speaker 1: version one point one or whatever and hopefully avoid those problems. 15 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 1: You know. I'm thinking of things like the infamous Red 16 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:05,800 Speaker 1: Ring of Death, that kind of stuff where the early 17 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:09,839 Speaker 1: adopters bear the brunt of it. They end up getting 18 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: the faulty hardware, and now you have to go through 19 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 1: the whole process of getting stuff repaired or replaced. I 20 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,320 Speaker 1: like to skip that and kind of swoop in afterward. 21 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: But still, if it weren't for the early adopters, none 22 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: of us would have the consoles anyway. The consoles have 23 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:27,000 Speaker 1: video games on my mind, is what I was trying 24 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: to say. And I thought it was a really good 25 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: idea to jump into a new deep dive on a 26 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 1: video game studio I had yet to tackle this time. 27 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: I thought it would take a good long look at 28 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: Ubi Soft or is it you be Soft? I'm kidding. 29 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: I've actually watched videos of Ubi soft employees saying the name, 30 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: and there is no standardized pronunciation even within the company. 31 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: Some of them say you be Soft, some of them 32 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,960 Speaker 1: to be Soft. I'm going to go with uby Soft 33 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: because well, to me, that sounds more French. The company's 34 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: history has a lot of drama packed into it, from 35 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 1: attempted takeovers to allegations of sexual misconduct, to a reputation 36 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:19,600 Speaker 1: for terrible production crunch times and more. In fact, I'm 37 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 1: actually recording this just days after there was this confusing 38 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: event in which employees at the company's Montreal branch had 39 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:31,920 Speaker 1: evacuated their buildings, some of them barricading themselves on the 40 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 1: rooftop before authorities determined that there was no actual threat present. 41 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: But we'll get to that in a future episode. Boobisoft 42 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: is known for some prestige titles like Assassin's Creed and 43 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 1: Far Cry. So it might surprise you to learn that 44 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:51,799 Speaker 1: the video game company was founded by a family business 45 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: that supplied farming equipment to farmers in France. Yeah, farmers, 46 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 1: I'm not making that up. It was the early nineties 47 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: and five brothers, Eve's Michel, Gerard, Christianne and Claude Guilmant 48 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: would rotate through various jobs at their father's store in Brittany, 49 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:17,960 Speaker 1: France as in the northwest section of France, kind of 50 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: across the English Channel from England, and they carried all 51 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:27,800 Speaker 1: sorts of supplies, including machinery parts for like heavy farm machinery. Now, 52 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: I say this so that you don't think of it 53 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:33,480 Speaker 1: as some sort of quaint, you know, mom and pop shop. 54 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 1: This was big business. But by the nineteen eighties the 55 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: profit margins for selling equipment like that, we're starting to 56 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,400 Speaker 1: get fairly narrowed, so it's harder to stay in business, 57 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: and the brothers looked around to see how they might 58 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: diversify the family businesses product line, perhaps by finding some 59 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: products that have a much larger profit margin than say, 60 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 1: tractor parts. At the time, the personal computer industry was 61 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: starting to kick into a new year, and it had 62 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 1: begun in the mid nineteen seventies, but at that time 63 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: it was almost exclusively the domain of hobbyists. A few 64 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: years later, there were a ton of different computer companies 65 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: in this burgeoning industry. Here in the States were familiar 66 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: with names like Apple and Commodore and Atari and maybe 67 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: Tandy and a few others. In Europe, there were a 68 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: couple of other computer companies at play, like Sinclair or Amstrade, 69 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: both out of the UK. The Amstrade had just recently 70 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,960 Speaker 1: debuted in nineteen eighty four, and the brothers saw that 71 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:36,160 Speaker 1: it was starting to gain popularity in France. But they 72 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 1: also saw something else that was unusual. If you ordered 73 00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: computers or computer software from a French distributor, it cost 74 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: way more money than if you ordered the exact same 75 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: stuff direct from the UK, and that opened up an 76 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:56,719 Speaker 1: opportunity their store could become a retailer for computer software 77 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,280 Speaker 1: in addition to you know, farming equipment. It's sounds like 78 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: an odd commodation, but that's kind of how things unfolded. 79 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: But then the brothers decided that their best course of 80 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: action was to create a mail order business rather than 81 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: just try to convert the shop into a true farming 82 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 1: and computer software type business, you know, like you do. 83 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 1: The brothers founded a new company in nineteen eighty four 84 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:23,840 Speaker 1: to oversee mail orders. They called it Guilmo Informatique. The 85 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:27,919 Speaker 1: business proved successful, and the following year they formed the 86 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,720 Speaker 1: Guillmant Corporation to expand into the area of computer hardware 87 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 1: in addition to software. This also proved to be successful, 88 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:41,039 Speaker 1: and by night six the corporation was earning around forty 89 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: million francs. So this was before the European Union and 90 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: the emergence of the euro and so we have to 91 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:50,600 Speaker 1: factor in exchange rates and stuff into the value of 92 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:54,200 Speaker 1: the frank relative to the US dollar, which fluctuated a 93 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:57,839 Speaker 1: lot in nineteen eight six. So I guess I'm gonna 94 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,680 Speaker 1: say that they were bringing in somewhere between five and 95 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: ten million US dollars in nineteen eighty six, which is 96 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: a pretty princely sum. If we adjust for inflation, it 97 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:11,279 Speaker 1: would be somewhere between twelve million and twenty four million dollars. 98 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:14,280 Speaker 1: Because they were able to buy software and hardware at 99 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:18,120 Speaker 1: much lower costs from the UK than from other French distributors. 100 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:21,240 Speaker 1: They could also price their products at a lower cost 101 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: to consumers without eating too much into the profit margin, 102 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:29,799 Speaker 1: so they were essentially undercutting the competition. In six computer 103 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:34,120 Speaker 1: games were starting to become a real commodity again. The 104 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:37,840 Speaker 1: market had crashed hard a couple of years earlier, mostly 105 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:42,560 Speaker 1: in video game consoles, but computer games were also affected. 106 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:46,359 Speaker 1: But the computer game industry made a pretty fast recovery. 107 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:51,000 Speaker 1: While people were a bit more cautious about consoles at first, 108 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: computers had a totally different value proposition. You could do 109 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,359 Speaker 1: useful stuff on computers, right. You could have a word 110 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 1: processor or something and could do workie work on a computer. 111 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 1: It was just cool that programmers could also make games 112 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,800 Speaker 1: for computers, and the brothers saw an opportunity. They were 113 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,520 Speaker 1: already distributing video games as part of their software business, 114 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: and they saw how popular it was. But they could 115 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: also form a video game developer studio, a company that 116 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:24,360 Speaker 1: actually makes games. Part of the motivation for starting up 117 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: a development company was that young programmers in France had 118 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:33,520 Speaker 1: approached the brothers with either completed games or ideas for games. 119 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:37,080 Speaker 1: The software industry in France was still very young and 120 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: there were few opportunities for programmers at that time in 121 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,480 Speaker 1: the country, so the company decided that this was a 122 00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:47,720 Speaker 1: risk worth taking, but it would require a new organization, 123 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:54,040 Speaker 1: a new company dedicated to game development. On March night six, 124 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:58,960 Speaker 1: the brothers Guilmant founded the UBI Soft Entertainment s A. 125 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,360 Speaker 1: And depending on the source you look at, the original 126 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: name for the company was broken up into two parts, 127 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: with Ubi and Soft being distinct words, though lots of 128 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:10,760 Speaker 1: other sources just pair them together as UBI soft. To 129 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: be fair, their logo made it clear it was UBI 130 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 1: soft to words, and for many years that's essentially how 131 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 1: official company communications spelled the name of the company now 132 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: Soft clearly comes from software, but what is UBI Well, 133 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: that also depends upon which source you cite. Now most 134 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:39,319 Speaker 1: claim that UBI stands for ubiquity, meaning omnipresent or found everywhere. 135 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,200 Speaker 1: That's what uby soft. Montreal tweeted that the UBI stood 136 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:47,080 Speaker 1: for warhen someone asked them outright, so it seems pretty definitive. 137 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,520 Speaker 1: But other sources point to a more regional explanation for 138 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 1: the origin of the company name, and that was that 139 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:58,880 Speaker 1: UBI stood for Union de Breton Independent, the Union of 140 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:03,080 Speaker 1: Independent Bretts, as in people from Brittany. Now, according to 141 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:07,360 Speaker 1: an interview that Christianne Guillamont sat in for back in, 142 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,400 Speaker 1: his brother Gerard Guillamont was the one who suggested UBI 143 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:17,480 Speaker 1: because he thought it sounded good, and Eve Guillamont had 144 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:22,120 Speaker 1: given the ubiquity answer in another interview, So I'm willing 145 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,240 Speaker 1: to go with ubiquity being the origin. However, I would 146 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,320 Speaker 1: not be surprised to find out that the sound of 147 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:31,760 Speaker 1: the name came first and then the meaning followed afterward. 148 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:35,840 Speaker 1: That's also possible. I'm not saying that's what happened. I'm 149 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:39,079 Speaker 1: just saying it wouldn't surprise me. Now. The brothers had 150 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:41,959 Speaker 1: also made an interesting decision when it came to the 151 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:46,000 Speaker 1: headquarters for this company. There are other businesses were located 152 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:49,679 Speaker 1: out of Paris at this point, but Ubisoft would be different. 153 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: After a few months, and originally they worked out of 154 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 1: the same sort of Parisian offices, but shortly thereafter, the 155 00:09:57,360 --> 00:10:02,120 Speaker 1: brothers decided to establish UBI Soft, the video game development company, 156 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:06,199 Speaker 1: in a chateau in Brittany. And when I say chateau, 157 00:10:06,679 --> 00:10:09,280 Speaker 1: I'm talking about the real deal. Think of something that 158 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:13,560 Speaker 1: sits somewhere between castle and mansion, and you're on the 159 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:16,760 Speaker 1: right track now. According to the founders, this was largely 160 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:20,679 Speaker 1: a marketing strategy to attract programmers who wanted to work 161 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: in a different setting than your typical office building. You 162 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: could work in a chateau La la, and according to 163 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:33,800 Speaker 1: Ubisoft's executive director of Worldwide Studios, Christine Burgess Gernard, there 164 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:37,439 Speaker 1: was another motivation for putting the HQ in a chateau, 165 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:42,600 Speaker 1: one that might in retrospect be viewed with some disapproval. 166 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:47,600 Speaker 1: Perhaps In an interview with Game Informer, Christine said, we 167 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:50,280 Speaker 1: also thought it would be great to have a place 168 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:53,600 Speaker 1: where we could actually lock all of our developers together 169 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,000 Speaker 1: so that they could develop games and finish them. It 170 00:10:57,080 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: was not always easy when you had a bunch of 171 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:02,880 Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen year olds to realize that when you 172 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:05,360 Speaker 1: start a game and you start talking to the press 173 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,800 Speaker 1: about it and you start investing into it, you have 174 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:11,880 Speaker 1: to deliver. So the first aim was to make sure 175 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:14,920 Speaker 1: that everybody was under the same roof, so we could 176 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:20,960 Speaker 1: have everybody contained in a way in the quotation, so yikes, 177 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:24,280 Speaker 1: with the benefit of a more heightened awareness of things 178 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:28,520 Speaker 1: like development crunch and autonomy, which I'm sure we'll touch 179 00:11:28,559 --> 00:11:31,719 Speaker 1: on again as we go through this history, that kind 180 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:35,360 Speaker 1: of perspective takes on a much more sinister meaning. But 181 00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:38,120 Speaker 1: I want to be fair, it's not at all an 182 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:41,679 Speaker 1: unusual tactic for tech companies in general to kind of 183 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: go this route. Uh not, maybe not this extreme, but 184 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:48,960 Speaker 1: it's not unusual. Microsoft was famous for doing stuff like 185 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:52,160 Speaker 1: buying pinball and arcade machines to put in the employee 186 00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:55,520 Speaker 1: break room so that the developers over at Microsoft would 187 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: find reasons to stick around the office for longer hours. 188 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:03,880 Speaker 1: Google kept chefs on hand to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner, 189 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:07,240 Speaker 1: thus removing the need for people to go home to 190 00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 1: have meals. The tech world is no stranger to finding 191 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 1: ways to discourage workers from, you know, having a life 192 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:18,080 Speaker 1: outside of work. The company hired on programmers and a 193 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:21,960 Speaker 1: leadership team for all the usual stuff like marketing for example, 194 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:25,600 Speaker 1: and at first the focus was purely on the French market, 195 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:28,160 Speaker 1: so keep that in mind when I talk about sales 196 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:30,960 Speaker 1: figures in a second. So the company got started in 197 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:34,559 Speaker 1: March and by the end of the year they had 198 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:41,559 Speaker 1: published several titles, including Zombie z O, m b I, Sineclap, Fair, 199 00:12:41,679 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 1: eflam Mosque, and a developer tool called graphic City. Which 200 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 1: was designed to help programmers edits sprites. A sprite is 201 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:54,760 Speaker 1: a two dimensional bit map image that can integrate into 202 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:58,000 Speaker 1: a larger scene. So a lot of early computer and 203 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: console games used sprites to represent, say the player character, 204 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:04,679 Speaker 1: and you would be able to move around within the 205 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 1: larger background world of the video game, whatever it might be. 206 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:12,640 Speaker 1: Zombie gets the credit for Ubisoft's first in house game. 207 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:16,559 Speaker 1: In that game, you control a group of characters who 208 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:21,719 Speaker 1: are exploring a shopping mall that is infested with well zombies. 209 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:25,320 Speaker 1: In this way, it was taking elements of other popular 210 00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:28,920 Speaker 1: computer games of the time, like Bard's tail Or Wizardry, 211 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:31,800 Speaker 1: where you would control a group of characters exploring a 212 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:36,040 Speaker 1: fantasy setting, and then combining that with the setting from 213 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:40,040 Speaker 1: George Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead movie. There's also 214 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 1: a little bit of Oregon Trail kind of going on here, 215 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 1: because you would control crosshairs. After you would hit a 216 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:49,559 Speaker 1: use icon to activate your gun, assuming you had one 217 00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:52,600 Speaker 1: in your inventory, and then you would aim at zombies 218 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:55,600 Speaker 1: that were walking across your field of view from one 219 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: side of the screen to the other, and you would 220 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: fire to take them down before they would stop and 221 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:03,520 Speaker 1: turn and attack you. It wasn't quite at the level 222 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:06,400 Speaker 1: of a first person shooter, but you can see elements 223 00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:11,160 Speaker 1: that would evolve into that genre. One great addition is 224 00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:13,640 Speaker 1: that should one of your player characters lose all their 225 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:17,320 Speaker 1: hit points and die, they would become a zombie and 226 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 1: would become an enemy to the surviving characters, which I 227 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:23,280 Speaker 1: think is kind of nifty. And the developers included posters 228 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,080 Speaker 1: on the walls that said things like are you a programmer? 229 00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:31,000 Speaker 1: Contact ubi Soft, so that was cheeky. Ubi Soft developed 230 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: the game for platforms like the armstrad CPC and the 231 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 1: z X Spectrum computer, among others. By January seven, Ubi 232 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:46,000 Speaker 1: Soft had sold around five thousand copies of Zombie. So 233 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:49,400 Speaker 1: here's where we address the differences in scale from the 234 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:53,160 Speaker 1: mid eighties to today. If a video game development studio, 235 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 1: even a relatively modest independent studio, were to see five 236 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:02,080 Speaker 1: thousand titles sold after a few months of launch, it 237 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:06,000 Speaker 1: would be a pretty big flop. But this was back 238 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:09,120 Speaker 1: in the early days of programming, when it was possible 239 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:12,000 Speaker 1: for a small team of three or four people to 240 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: put together a full game, and these were games that 241 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:18,760 Speaker 1: were coming from big, established studios, so kind of the 242 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:20,720 Speaker 1: equivalent of what we would think of as a triple 243 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: A title today. Also, at this point, Ubisoft was only 244 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:28,720 Speaker 1: selling games within France, which meant they were hitting a 245 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:33,120 Speaker 1: pretty small potential market. After all, only a relatively few 246 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:36,360 Speaker 1: number of households owned a computer in the first place, 247 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:40,600 Speaker 1: and Ubisoft was only focusing on their own home country. 248 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:44,240 Speaker 1: But the early success encouraged the leaders of Ubisoft, who 249 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:48,040 Speaker 1: became determined to expand into other markets. At first, they 250 00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:51,480 Speaker 1: took aim at Spain and West Germany. To keep in mind, 251 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:55,200 Speaker 1: this is before the reunification of East and West Germany 252 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:59,920 Speaker 1: into Germany. In addition, Ubisoft began to form partnerships with 253 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,920 Speaker 1: other developers, and so it became an official distribution partner 254 00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:07,840 Speaker 1: within France. When we come back, we'll talk more about 255 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:12,360 Speaker 1: the early days of Ubisoft's existence, including some very early 256 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:23,600 Speaker 1: road bumps, But first let's take a quick break. So 257 00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:29,720 Speaker 1: in Ubisoft was developing games like a spy hunter like 258 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:34,680 Speaker 1: vehicular combat game called Asphalt. You controlled a giant truck 259 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:38,240 Speaker 1: that had a turret gun mounted on it. They also 260 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:42,480 Speaker 1: had a pingo like game called mange Quelu, in which 261 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:45,560 Speaker 1: you've controlled a red bird that could push rocks around 262 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,680 Speaker 1: a maze to avoid enemies. By the way my French pronunciation. 263 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: I know it's terrible. I realized that I'm gonna do 264 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,320 Speaker 1: my best, but it will be bad. Ubisoft was also 265 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,240 Speaker 1: distributing games from other companies around this time, and some 266 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:01,000 Speaker 1: of those games ended up being really big titles like 267 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:05,640 Speaker 1: Akari Warriors and Commando, which were pretty popular, and those 268 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:09,359 Speaker 1: would end up selling thousands of copies within France. Eve 269 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:13,440 Speaker 1: Guillmant would become CEO of the company in short order, 270 00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:17,800 Speaker 1: and one other big change was also coming. The company 271 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:22,560 Speaker 1: determined that the chateau in Brittany, while impressive and working 272 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:24,639 Speaker 1: like a treat as a way to entice people to 273 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: come and actually, you know, work as a developer for Ubisoft, 274 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:32,800 Speaker 1: it was just playing expensive to maintain. Too expensive. It 275 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:36,320 Speaker 1: turns out that really old buildings require a lot of maintenance, 276 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:40,440 Speaker 1: and that heating a building that wasn't designed to accommodate 277 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:45,400 Speaker 1: modern heating methods is pretty expensive. So the company decided 278 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:48,399 Speaker 1: to let the lease on the property expire at the 279 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:51,720 Speaker 1: end of it, and they decided to shift operations back 280 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,040 Speaker 1: to Paris, and from what I can tell, the initial 281 00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:56,639 Speaker 1: plan was to kind of share space with some of 282 00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,359 Speaker 1: the other Guilmalt brother companies now this it and go 283 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 1: over great with all the developers. Paris is an expensive 284 00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:07,560 Speaker 1: city to live in, and some programmers balked at the 285 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:13,960 Speaker 1: prospect of moving from relatively inexpensive Brittany to extremely expensive Paris, 286 00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:16,040 Speaker 1: and it would mean many of them would have to 287 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,760 Speaker 1: secure an apartment in a less desirable part of the 288 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: city to stay within their budgets. A few of them 289 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:25,520 Speaker 1: declined to make the move, and Ubisoft would just kind 290 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:29,440 Speaker 1: of keep the door open for collaborations, allowing some programmers 291 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:33,960 Speaker 1: to even work remotely. Now, in those cases, it wasn't 292 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,320 Speaker 1: like the remote programmer was a full time employee, but 293 00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:40,600 Speaker 1: rather that Ubisoft would look at any work that the 294 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:44,399 Speaker 1: programmers produced to see if anything might warrant an investment. 295 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:48,879 Speaker 1: One of those people was a guy named michel Ansell, 296 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,200 Speaker 1: who was quite young and whose family had moved from 297 00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:56,119 Speaker 1: Montpellier to Brittany in order for him to work at Ubisoft. 298 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: Paris was not a feasible option for the family and 299 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:04,600 Speaker 1: they decided to relocate back to Montpellier. But on sales 300 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:08,920 Speaker 1: talent was undeniable, and the Guillman brothers convinced him to 301 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:12,680 Speaker 1: keep communications open. Should he have anything to show them 302 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:16,159 Speaker 1: on sale, got to work on some general concepts and 303 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:19,919 Speaker 1: later partnered with a programmer named Frederic Howd to create 304 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,200 Speaker 1: a sort of proof of concept game and the two 305 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:26,359 Speaker 1: would present their idea to be soft and it definitely 306 00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:28,800 Speaker 1: got the company's attention. They could see a lot of 307 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:31,920 Speaker 1: promise in the concept, but it would require a great 308 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,240 Speaker 1: deal more work and several more years to bring it 309 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,160 Speaker 1: into existence as a fully fledged game. Will come back 310 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:41,520 Speaker 1: to that. In the meantime, Ubisoft continued to develop, publish, 311 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:46,240 Speaker 1: and distribute games. In company published a port of its 312 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 1: first game, Zombie, to the Atari st computer system. While 313 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,360 Speaker 1: the company was turning out game titles, most of these 314 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:57,480 Speaker 1: wouldn't be familiar to people outside of France, and definitely 315 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:01,720 Speaker 1: the familiarity drops off once get outside of Europe, as 316 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:05,359 Speaker 1: they were still catering primarily to those markets. Also, just 317 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,920 Speaker 1: as a side note, there is a Wikipedia page that's 318 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:11,919 Speaker 1: supposed to be a list of Ubisoft games, but I 319 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:14,439 Speaker 1: can tell you that a lot of the entries, at 320 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:18,200 Speaker 1: least for the years between n six and nine, are 321 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:21,840 Speaker 1: just playing wrong. Ubisoft is listed as developer for games 322 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:24,960 Speaker 1: that it did not develop, though in some cases the 323 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,320 Speaker 1: company would develop a later game in a series based 324 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:30,800 Speaker 1: off the one that shows up on that list. Anyway, 325 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:34,160 Speaker 1: just a reminder that Wikipedia is a great starting point 326 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:37,240 Speaker 1: for research, but you should always go beyond that because 327 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:40,760 Speaker 1: sometimes the information there is just playing wrong. Anyway, I'm 328 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:43,200 Speaker 1: not gonna go through an exhaustive list of all these 329 00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:45,879 Speaker 1: early games, as most of them have faded into obscurity 330 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:48,439 Speaker 1: in the passing years and there wouldn't be much value 331 00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,879 Speaker 1: to that. That being said, I'm immediately going to break 332 00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:54,240 Speaker 1: my own rule to talk about one game I learned 333 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:56,600 Speaker 1: about while researching this. I had never heard of this 334 00:20:56,640 --> 00:21:01,000 Speaker 1: game before. This game is called Fred. You play as 335 00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:04,840 Speaker 1: a big, strong night named Fred, who at the very 336 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,359 Speaker 1: beginning of the game gets transformed into a tinier version 337 00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:12,440 Speaker 1: of himself, and then you must face enemies like gnomes, who, 338 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:15,800 Speaker 1: for the life of me, like garden gnomes. And there 339 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:18,520 Speaker 1: are other batties in there too, like spiders and ravens 340 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,240 Speaker 1: and stuff, but it's the gnomes that sell this for me. 341 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:26,359 Speaker 1: The gameplay is interesting. It kind of reminds me of 342 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:29,679 Speaker 1: ghosts and goblins, or ghouls and ghosts if you prefer. 343 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:32,800 Speaker 1: That's another title in that same series, but one cool 344 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,240 Speaker 1: thing is that the levels have a cheat to them 345 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:37,520 Speaker 1: to give them a little bit of depth. The game 346 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:40,000 Speaker 1: is a platform or and it's a side scroller, so 347 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:43,280 Speaker 1: you're looking at everything in profile, and enemies typically travel 348 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 1: along specific planes of depth, but there are multiple planes 349 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:50,359 Speaker 1: in every level, so in other words, you can travel 350 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,639 Speaker 1: left or right on a plane that's closest to the 351 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:55,840 Speaker 1: screen that would be the one you know, closest to 352 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:59,199 Speaker 1: the player, or one that's maybe slightly further back, or 353 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 1: maybe one that's even further back close to the background. However, 354 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,359 Speaker 1: that also means they can be kind of tricky to 355 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:07,679 Speaker 1: figure out which plane of depth and enemy is on. 356 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:10,520 Speaker 1: It might look like you're both lined up, but one 357 00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,000 Speaker 1: of you is actually a little further back than the 358 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,040 Speaker 1: other with respect to the you know, your point of view, 359 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,480 Speaker 1: and so in those cases your attacks won't hit them, 360 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:21,879 Speaker 1: and most of the time their attacks won't hit you either, 361 00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,119 Speaker 1: And you have to each beyond the same plane of 362 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 1: depth in order to fight each other, and that's not 363 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:30,520 Speaker 1: always apparent. However, the attempt at adding death would be 364 00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 1: another indicator of game elements that were coming down the 365 00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,119 Speaker 1: line in the future. Just as Zombie was hinting a 366 00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: little bit at first person shooter elements. These were decent 367 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:45,160 Speaker 1: ideas that were executed upon and let's say limited success. 368 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,399 Speaker 1: That's a kind way of putting it. Fred from what 369 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,040 Speaker 1: I've seen, does not look like it was a particularly 370 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:56,480 Speaker 1: playable game. Around would be Soft established its own internal 371 00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,400 Speaker 1: studio in Paris, by which I mean the company established 372 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:01,800 Speaker 1: a real face for programmers to come and work in 373 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:05,639 Speaker 1: a studio. In addition, the company would open its first 374 00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:10,120 Speaker 1: studio outside of France, establishing a space in Bucharest, Romania. 375 00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:14,359 Speaker 1: This gave the company access to more developer talent. So 376 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:18,680 Speaker 1: remember Michel on Sale and Frederic Howd. They presented their 377 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:21,159 Speaker 1: work to be Soft with an early build of what 378 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:25,840 Speaker 1: would evolve into the game Rayman, a platformer style game 379 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:29,120 Speaker 1: with a super cute protagonist. Now, those of you familiar 380 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,000 Speaker 1: with Rayman know that it would go on to become 381 00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:36,120 Speaker 1: an enormous franchise, spawning more than forty games that were 382 00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:39,920 Speaker 1: either sequels or spinoffs or tie ends. It would become 383 00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,120 Speaker 1: the big early hit for Ubisoft, and it would put 384 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:46,600 Speaker 1: the company on the larger video game map through most 385 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:50,280 Speaker 1: of Europe. And it started off so small. The very 386 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:54,119 Speaker 1: earliest concept for Rayman was to be destined for the 387 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:56,440 Speaker 1: Atar E S T. That was what it was originally 388 00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:59,440 Speaker 1: going to be programmed for, but that was back when 389 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:01,880 Speaker 1: on Cell was just working on it by himself. Once 390 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:05,880 Speaker 1: Frederic joined that changed. The pair of developers worked on 391 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,480 Speaker 1: their project for Ubisoft with the goal of producing a 392 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,280 Speaker 1: game for a system that would never actually emerge. They 393 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:16,240 Speaker 1: were working on creating the title for the Super Nintendo 394 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:21,200 Speaker 1: CD Peripheral system, which was originally a cooperative project between 395 00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:26,919 Speaker 1: Nintendo and Sony, but in Nintendo famously dropped a bombshell 396 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,840 Speaker 1: at C E S and announced that it would instead 397 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,840 Speaker 1: partner with the Dutch tech company Phillips to develop the 398 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:38,040 Speaker 1: CD peripheral and it would be dumping Sony in the process. 399 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,600 Speaker 1: And it was really this event that encouraged Sony executive 400 00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:45,399 Speaker 1: Ken Kutaragi to take the progress that he had made 401 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:49,240 Speaker 1: for the proposed Nintendo C D system and pivot that 402 00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: toward the internal development of Sony's own video game console system, 403 00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,560 Speaker 1: which would evolve into the PlayStation. And you can hear 404 00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:00,679 Speaker 1: more about that story in the episodes I'd did about 405 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:05,399 Speaker 1: the history of the PlayStation. Those episodes published earlier this year, 406 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 1: and it's a crazy story anyway. At this stage, Phillips 407 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:13,280 Speaker 1: was still supposedly working with Nintendo to develop this CD 408 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:17,840 Speaker 1: peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Only no peripheral 409 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:21,119 Speaker 1: ever came out. Nintendo never announced that development for the 410 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,199 Speaker 1: system had been canceled. The company never gave a release 411 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:27,280 Speaker 1: date or a proposed price, or even a list of 412 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,240 Speaker 1: games that were in development for the system. It just 413 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:35,000 Speaker 1: kind of faded from public consciousness because the next generation 414 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:38,239 Speaker 1: of video game consoles was starting to creep forward, and 415 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,480 Speaker 1: really it was a matter of a lost cause at 416 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,679 Speaker 1: that point. It just made more sense to shift resources 417 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,879 Speaker 1: to developing the next Nintendo console as opposed to a 418 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,280 Speaker 1: peripheral for an older console, and so the developers would 419 00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,199 Speaker 1: need to change direction for Rayman. They need to go 420 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:59,000 Speaker 1: to a different platform. The Nintendo CD system was a 421 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:03,240 Speaker 1: no go around. That same time, Ubisoft made a huge investment. 422 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,800 Speaker 1: They opened up another in house studio in Paris, and 423 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,639 Speaker 1: they hired on more than one hundred programmers. The little 424 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:14,800 Speaker 1: project of Rayman grew into a fully fledged next generation 425 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:19,479 Speaker 1: studio title on Cell. Would continue his animation design and 426 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:23,280 Speaker 1: the developers were building a game around it, and thus 427 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:26,399 Speaker 1: we got Rayman a cute character who has a body. 428 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:28,840 Speaker 1: He's got feet, he's got hands, he's got a head, 429 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:31,120 Speaker 1: but he doesn't have a neck, he doesn't have arms, 430 00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,080 Speaker 1: he doesn't have legs, so he has these sort of 431 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:36,320 Speaker 1: free floating appendages. And that meant the designers could give 432 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,960 Speaker 1: Rayman really interesting abilities, like throwing a punch with his 433 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,800 Speaker 1: fist traveling halfway across the screen potentially, so they made 434 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 1: a creative platform or game based around this little fella. Now, 435 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:52,239 Speaker 1: initially the first platform the project would focus on was 436 00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:55,879 Speaker 1: the Atari Jaguar. Now that you know the Nintendo thing 437 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: had fallen through, they thought, let's look at this new console, 438 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:02,040 Speaker 1: the Autar Jaguar. Now a lot of you out there 439 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,800 Speaker 1: may not know a whole lot about that console because 440 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:08,720 Speaker 1: it didn't have a particularly illustrious or long lifespan. It 441 00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:13,639 Speaker 1: launched first in North American and within just three years 442 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:17,639 Speaker 1: Atari would discontinue the system. The Jaguar was a cartridge 443 00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:21,040 Speaker 1: based console, though Atari would try to extend a life 444 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,120 Speaker 1: of the flailing system later by releasing a CD ROM 445 00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:27,000 Speaker 1: add on. But that means that any game for the 446 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,679 Speaker 1: system had to be hard coded onto a circuit board 447 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,240 Speaker 1: that was housed inside a cartridge that you would then 448 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:36,880 Speaker 1: plug into the console. If Ulbi Soft had only ever 449 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,359 Speaker 1: made a version of Rayman for the Atari Jaguar, there's 450 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,040 Speaker 1: a really good chance that no one would even know 451 00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:45,959 Speaker 1: what Rayman was at this point, would be Soft itself, 452 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:48,720 Speaker 1: would not be the company that it is. It likely 453 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,560 Speaker 1: would have made little to no impression due to that 454 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:56,040 Speaker 1: small market size of Jaguar owners. But fortunately, both for 455 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 1: the company and for gamers, that's not what happened. Mis 456 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,240 Speaker 1: Jail Guilmant recognized the potential of the game and had 457 00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:06,879 Speaker 1: a hunch that Sony's PlayStation console, which was on the 458 00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,919 Speaker 1: way but not yet on the market, was going to 459 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:12,720 Speaker 1: be a huge deal. So part of the work that 460 00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:16,280 Speaker 1: those one plus developers were doing was to create a 461 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,800 Speaker 1: version of Rayman for the PlayStation that would be ready 462 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:23,200 Speaker 1: to go as soon as the console was hitting store shelves. 463 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:26,960 Speaker 1: The prevailing feeling was that to compete globally in the 464 00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:31,919 Speaker 1: platform game market, especially to go up against established Japanese 465 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:35,800 Speaker 1: video game companies, they would need to time the launch 466 00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,719 Speaker 1: to a console launch. They would need to tie it 467 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,160 Speaker 1: to that, otherwise Raymond would likely get left behind by 468 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,360 Speaker 1: the numerous games coming out of other places like Japan, 469 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,440 Speaker 1: and it totally worked. When Raymond shipped, there were only 470 00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:54,680 Speaker 1: nine games available on the PlayStation. As Eve Guilmant would 471 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:59,240 Speaker 1: Riley observe, customers didn't have much choice but to try 472 00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:02,280 Speaker 1: this one. The company would also publish the title for 473 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 1: other systems like the Sega Saturn for PCs. This was 474 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 1: at the tail end of the ms DOS days, just 475 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:12,680 Speaker 1: before Windows would really take over, and then much later 476 00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:16,520 Speaker 1: on for more recent platforms like iOS and Android, but 477 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:20,000 Speaker 1: obviously those came much much later. The game was a 478 00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:23,000 Speaker 1: big success in Europe, though it met with a more 479 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:27,840 Speaker 1: modest reception in the United States. In the same year 480 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:31,520 Speaker 1: Raymond debuted would be Soft established a new department within 481 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,280 Speaker 1: the company, the Editorial Department, with a man named Serge 482 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:40,440 Speaker 1: Ascue named as the head of that department. Says started 483 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,320 Speaker 1: with the company back in ninety eight, originally serving as 484 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,720 Speaker 1: a video game tester after applying for the gig through 485 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,719 Speaker 1: a newspaper. At As head of Editorial, Says would be 486 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:55,280 Speaker 1: the voice of authority on game development. If you wanted 487 00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:58,720 Speaker 1: a game made, you had to get approval from him first. 488 00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: He could take a get your work and demand changes 489 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,240 Speaker 1: or even cancel a project outright, he would play a 490 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:08,160 Speaker 1: key role in the direction of the company, and more 491 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:11,680 Speaker 1: recently he was in the news that paint him in 492 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,800 Speaker 1: a truly negative light. Now I'll get to those in 493 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,520 Speaker 1: an upcoming episode, as the allegations of his behavior didn't 494 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,960 Speaker 1: really become public until this year, that is twenty twenty. 495 00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:24,360 Speaker 1: The important thing to keep in mind is that he 496 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:28,280 Speaker 1: was effectively the gatekeeper of games coming out of the studio. 497 00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:31,400 Speaker 1: If he didn't like it, it wasn't going to stick 498 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:35,200 Speaker 1: around for very long. Raymond's success marked a real turning 499 00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:39,000 Speaker 1: point for Ubisoft. One year after the game's launch, Ubisoft 500 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:43,400 Speaker 1: would list on Paris's secondary stock exchange and raise more 501 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,840 Speaker 1: than eighty million dollars worth of investments. As well, the 502 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:51,200 Speaker 1: company would expand once again, opening up a studio in France, 503 00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:55,080 Speaker 1: another one and a new international development studio in Shanghai, 504 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:59,520 Speaker 1: China in and then they opened up the famous Ubisoft 505 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:04,240 Speaker 1: Montree y'all in Quebec, Canada. In they would follow that 506 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,880 Speaker 1: up with two new studios in Spain and Italy, and 507 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:10,360 Speaker 1: it really set the stage from the next phase of 508 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:14,800 Speaker 1: Ubisoft's history. We'll learn more about that in just a moment, 509 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:26,360 Speaker 1: but first let's take another quick break. So about that 510 00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:31,440 Speaker 1: Ubisoft Montreal office. Ubisoft was looking to expand into North 511 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 1: America and office in Montreal would work well as Montreal 512 00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:39,520 Speaker 1: is a French speaking city, though the dialects of Quebec 513 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:44,840 Speaker 1: and France are very different. In addition, Montreal was looking 514 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:48,360 Speaker 1: to create incentives to attract tech companies to open offices 515 00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,760 Speaker 1: in the city, having struggled as other industries like textiles 516 00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:55,920 Speaker 1: were starting to flounder. After some negotiations, Ubisoft was able 517 00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:58,920 Speaker 1: to get a pretty sweet deal to establish a studio 518 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:03,840 Speaker 1: in Montreal. When it opened in about half of the 519 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,719 Speaker 1: fifty employees of the studio actually originally came from the 520 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:11,880 Speaker 1: Parisian office of UBI Soft. The other half were locals, 521 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,200 Speaker 1: and according to later interviews, most of them had no 522 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,280 Speaker 1: clue how to develop software or at the very least 523 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:20,760 Speaker 1: video games. They were being brought in as kind of 524 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: blank slates, learning on the job how to make games. 525 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:29,160 Speaker 1: The studio initially focused at least primarily on licensed titles, 526 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,880 Speaker 1: so in other words, the games coming out of Ubisoft 527 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,920 Speaker 1: Montreal were mostly games based off of existing i p 528 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:39,840 Speaker 1: from other companies like d C Comics or Disney. Sometime 529 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 1: around then Ubisoft also established a development office in New York. 530 00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,160 Speaker 1: I can't get a whole lot of information about the 531 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:49,360 Speaker 1: specifics around this, but they did have an office of 532 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,600 Speaker 1: developers in New York City at one point. One of 533 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,000 Speaker 1: the projects that that team tackled was a concept called 534 00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:59,840 Speaker 1: The Drift. Now, the Drift never made it as a 535 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 1: full game, but elements of the Drift would become really 536 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:07,200 Speaker 1: important in later Ubisoft games. For example, the Drift had 537 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,000 Speaker 1: a modular weapon that could do all sorts of stuff 538 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,920 Speaker 1: like be used as a grappling hook. It also had 539 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,280 Speaker 1: stealth mechanics and surveillance cameras that you could deploy within 540 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:20,120 Speaker 1: the game, and had crowd ai behaviors that made crowds 541 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,760 Speaker 1: of nonplayer characters react to you depending on your own behavior. 542 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: So if you pulled out a weapon, for example, in 543 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:29,160 Speaker 1: a public space, the crowd would react to that, or 544 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:31,560 Speaker 1: if you were running through a crowd, the crowd would 545 00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:34,120 Speaker 1: react to that. The New York team tried to kind 546 00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:37,400 Speaker 1: of pull all this together to make a cohesive game, 547 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:41,160 Speaker 1: but while the individual ideas were good ones, no real 548 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:46,200 Speaker 1: game emerged from the collection of ideas. There was a 549 00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:49,400 Speaker 1: last ditch effort to pitch this concept as the basis 550 00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:53,440 Speaker 1: for a James Bond style game, like an actual licensed 551 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,280 Speaker 1: James Bond game, but that ultimately went nowhere. So then 552 00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,479 Speaker 1: UBI soft headquarters would decide to close down the New 553 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,880 Speaker 1: York office, with many of that development team moving to 554 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:08,160 Speaker 1: Montreal to join that team there, and the Drift would 555 00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:12,759 Speaker 1: be put on ice for the time being. In n Michelle, 556 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:16,719 Speaker 1: Guilmant would found another video game publisher, this one called 557 00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:21,640 Speaker 1: game Loft. Rather than a competitor to Ubisoft, game Loft 558 00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,719 Speaker 1: had another market in mind. The Internet was in a 559 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:27,960 Speaker 1: boom phase. Keep in mind this is getting towards the 560 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,240 Speaker 1: peak of the dot com bubble, and the main focus 561 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:34,040 Speaker 1: for game Loft was for web based content and then 562 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:38,200 Speaker 1: later on for mobile games. Game Loft licensed ip held 563 00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:41,560 Speaker 1: by You guessed it would be Soft, and a few 564 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,560 Speaker 1: other web based game companies would do the same, and 565 00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:48,239 Speaker 1: soon those licensing vs we're making up the majority of 566 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,600 Speaker 1: Ubisoft's revenue, which in turn pumped up the company's stock 567 00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:56,319 Speaker 1: value fivefold. Flush with cash, Ubisoft made a move that 568 00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:59,080 Speaker 1: would really help it break into the North American market. 569 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:03,480 Speaker 1: It acquire another company. Longtime listeners of tech stuff will 570 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:07,000 Speaker 1: recognize the strategy some companies find that the solution to 571 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:11,480 Speaker 1: expansion is just in acquiring other companies rather than building 572 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:16,920 Speaker 1: things out on their own cough Comcast cough. For some companies, 573 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:21,400 Speaker 1: this kind of boils down into buying growth, which seems 574 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,400 Speaker 1: a little cynical of me, I guess. But for Ubisoft, 575 00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:26,880 Speaker 1: it was a means to tap into a market that 576 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:30,360 Speaker 1: had thus far remained elusive and to cover some of 577 00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:35,319 Speaker 1: the gaps in Ubisoft's own expertise. Ubisoft's acquisition was a 578 00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:39,800 Speaker 1: game development studio out of North Carolina called Red Storm. 579 00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:43,160 Speaker 1: Red Storm Studios was only four years old at the time. 580 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 1: It was founded by Doug Little John's and Tom Freaking Clancy. 581 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:51,760 Speaker 1: The company took its name from a Clancy novel named 582 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:55,839 Speaker 1: Red Storm Rising, and it launched out of, and then absorbed, 583 00:35:55,960 --> 00:36:00,840 Speaker 1: an earlier game studio called Vitus Studios. Between its founding 584 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: and two thousand, the studio had published a few titles, 585 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,960 Speaker 1: but the one that really caught fire was the PC 586 00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:12,600 Speaker 1: tactical first person shore game Rainbow six. The game eventually 587 00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:16,120 Speaker 1: would come out for numerous other platforms, including the PlayStation, 588 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:20,600 Speaker 1: the second Dreamcast, mac computers, and more. The title was 589 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:24,520 Speaker 1: a phenomenal success and the studio was still relatively small, 590 00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:27,759 Speaker 1: which made it a perfect entry point for a company 591 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:31,160 Speaker 1: that wants to get into the North American market. Red 592 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:35,960 Speaker 1: Storm was at a crossroads. According to marketing manager Wendy Beasley, 593 00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:38,400 Speaker 1: the studio was in the mindset that it needed to 594 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:43,040 Speaker 1: either be acquired to acquire some other company, or to 595 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,719 Speaker 1: go public to be soft and red Storm first initiated 596 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:51,120 Speaker 1: talks about an acquisition sometime around E three in two thousand. 597 00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:55,120 Speaker 1: E three, for those unfamiliar, is a video game industry conference. 598 00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:58,319 Speaker 1: By August of that year, the paperwork was signed and 599 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:01,960 Speaker 1: Red Storm had become a one hundred percent owned subsidiary 600 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:05,920 Speaker 1: of Ubisoft. Now. In the announcement of that acquisition, the 601 00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:09,640 Speaker 1: messaging was made clear that Red Storm would continue to 602 00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:14,120 Speaker 1: operate as if it were a truly independent studio. In addition, 603 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:17,839 Speaker 1: the developers at red Storm could potentially take over Ubisoft 604 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:21,239 Speaker 1: titles and franchises that were a better fit for the 605 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:26,520 Speaker 1: American developers. One big change was that Tom Clancy left 606 00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:29,520 Speaker 1: the company, though he would still license his properties to 607 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:32,840 Speaker 1: red Storm, which was a good thing as games inspired 608 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:34,839 Speaker 1: by his work would prove to be some of the 609 00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:39,480 Speaker 1: biggest successes for Ubisoft. During this part of the company's history, 610 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:44,240 Speaker 1: so now Ubisoft had access to licensed material from Tom Clancy. 611 00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:49,480 Speaker 1: Ubisoft Montreal had talent and assets from the recently closed 612 00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:53,640 Speaker 1: New York office. At some point, the puzzle pieces clicked 613 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:57,040 Speaker 1: into place, and Ubisoft Montreal got to work on a 614 00:37:57,080 --> 00:38:00,960 Speaker 1: Tom Clancy game in which an operative would complete missions 615 00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:05,120 Speaker 1: using stealth and special equipment to navigate levels while trying 616 00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:09,200 Speaker 1: to avoid detection. Most of the technology from the Drift 617 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,719 Speaker 1: would come into play in this game. In addition, the 618 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,560 Speaker 1: team had a directive from Ubisoft HQ they needed to 619 00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:19,160 Speaker 1: make a game they could go toe to toe with 620 00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:23,719 Speaker 1: the PlayStation Konami game Metal Gear Solid two out of 621 00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:28,400 Speaker 1: the legendary video game developer Hideo Kajima. And that is 622 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:32,279 Speaker 1: how Tom Clancy's splinter Cell was born as a convergence 623 00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:36,000 Speaker 1: of technologies and opportunities, which I think is pretty cool. 624 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,520 Speaker 1: It was an Xbox exclusive and it helped to establish 625 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:42,759 Speaker 1: the console's legitimacy as well as the company's place in 626 00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:46,160 Speaker 1: the North American video game market, and it would set 627 00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:49,160 Speaker 1: off a chain of events that would push Ubisoft's Montreal 628 00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:54,000 Speaker 1: studio on a path to tackle increasingly ambitious games. There 629 00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:58,000 Speaker 1: was a lot going on around this time. In two 630 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,040 Speaker 1: thousand one, while the Montreal team was hard at work 631 00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:04,840 Speaker 1: finishing splinter Cell, would be Soft acquired the entertainment division 632 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:08,640 Speaker 1: from the Learning Company, which in turn had properties from 633 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:14,560 Speaker 1: earlier game companies like Strategic Simulations and Mattel Interactive, among others. 634 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:18,719 Speaker 1: In fact, I think this acquisition is what confused some 635 00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:22,160 Speaker 1: of the editors on Wikipedia who put together that list 636 00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:25,279 Speaker 1: I had mentioned earlier. One of the games that was 637 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:29,680 Speaker 1: mistakenly included on that list was the original Pool of 638 00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:34,000 Speaker 1: Radiance game. That's an advanced Dungeons and Dragons licensed game 639 00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:40,200 Speaker 1: that was published under the developer Strategic Simulations Incorporated in Now, 640 00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:43,200 Speaker 1: I love that game, but it is definitely not an 641 00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:46,759 Speaker 1: Ubisoft title. Ubisoft would later go on to make a 642 00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:50,640 Speaker 1: game with a Pool of Radiance name, a sequel at 643 00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,320 Speaker 1: least in name, but it shared very little in common 644 00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:57,280 Speaker 1: with the older title, and it got pretty mixed reviews 645 00:39:57,320 --> 00:39:59,759 Speaker 1: as well. Anyway, that's me getting my dander up about 646 00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:02,200 Speaker 1: wick A p D against We'll leave it there. The 647 00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:06,440 Speaker 1: important point here is that the acquisition did give Ubisoft 648 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:09,840 Speaker 1: the right to several franchises, including an old game that 649 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:12,440 Speaker 1: had been made for the Apple two called The Prince 650 00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,839 Speaker 1: of Persia. Ubisoft Montreal had the task of creating a 651 00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,359 Speaker 1: new game based off this concept of the original game 652 00:40:19,400 --> 00:40:22,319 Speaker 1: that had come out decades earlier, and that was a 653 00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:24,960 Speaker 1: platformer and puzzle game that had been created by a 654 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:28,880 Speaker 1: guy named Jordan Metchner. The Montreal team reached out to 655 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:31,799 Speaker 1: him and he was reluctant to come on board after 656 00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:34,720 Speaker 1: having a really bad experience with a Prince of Persia 657 00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:37,360 Speaker 1: sequel that had happened to Prince of Persia three D. 658 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,680 Speaker 1: But persistence went out and he would end up joining 659 00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:43,360 Speaker 1: the team and become heavily involved in the project, becoming 660 00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,480 Speaker 1: the head writer for the new game. Now keep in 661 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:48,959 Speaker 1: mind this is also going on at the same time 662 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,840 Speaker 1: as the Splinter Cell development, so it was a really 663 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:55,680 Speaker 1: busy time in Montreal. One of the creative features of 664 00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:58,799 Speaker 1: the Prince of Persia game was the incorporation of a 665 00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:02,480 Speaker 1: rewind feature, so players could build up the capability to 666 00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:05,560 Speaker 1: do a quick rewind of time so that if they 667 00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:09,040 Speaker 1: made a mistake that would have led to disaster, they 668 00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,440 Speaker 1: can activate that feature and rewind time just as short 669 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:15,600 Speaker 1: ways and then try it again. So you miss a jump, 670 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:17,920 Speaker 1: you rewind time you try and make the jump again. 671 00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,560 Speaker 1: The writers worked this capability into the story itself, making 672 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:24,400 Speaker 1: it a clever feature of not just the gameplay, but 673 00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:27,239 Speaker 1: the mythology of the game world, and it was, in 674 00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:30,839 Speaker 1: my mind, a stroke of brilliance. The resulting game was 675 00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:34,080 Speaker 1: Prince of Persia the Sands of Time, which published in 676 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:37,800 Speaker 1: two thousand three. The game was a critical success, though 677 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,560 Speaker 1: it took a little bit longer for sales figures to 678 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:44,280 Speaker 1: follow suit. Now I owned both splinter Cell and Prince 679 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:46,480 Speaker 1: of Persia of the Sands of Time for the Xbox 680 00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:49,120 Speaker 1: the original Xbox, and they were two of my favorite 681 00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:53,839 Speaker 1: games of that console generation. Clearly, Ubisoft Montreal wasn't hurt 682 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:57,480 Speaker 1: by the fact that half of their starting employees had 683 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,479 Speaker 1: little to no experience in video game development. The team 684 00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:03,600 Speaker 1: learned quickly and they were turning out some real bangers 685 00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:07,080 Speaker 1: for games. The Prince of Persia game made use of 686 00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:09,439 Speaker 1: a game engine that Ubisoft had developed for a totally 687 00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,960 Speaker 1: different project, one that was held by Michelle A. Sell, 688 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:16,840 Speaker 1: the guy who created Rayman. After working on numerous Rayman 689 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,440 Speaker 1: sequels on Cell, wanted to tackle something totally different, and 690 00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,920 Speaker 1: that's something would be a project called Beyond Good and Evil, 691 00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:26,400 Speaker 1: a game in which the player controls a young woman 692 00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:29,240 Speaker 1: as she tries to uncover a conspiracy in a science 693 00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:33,160 Speaker 1: fiction setting. The game had a long and troubled development 694 00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:37,000 Speaker 1: process back at Ubisoft HQ in France, and it included 695 00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:41,400 Speaker 1: a nearly complete rewrite, and it would have ultimately debuted 696 00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:45,440 Speaker 1: to lackluster sales, but it got really good reviews. The 697 00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,320 Speaker 1: game was released on the then current generation of video 698 00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:51,760 Speaker 1: game consoles, which were the PlayStation two and the Xbox 699 00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:55,760 Speaker 1: and the Nintendo GameCube, and also it came out for Windows. 700 00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:58,839 Speaker 1: Much later on. It would also come to the Xbox three, 701 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:02,040 Speaker 1: sixty and the p US three. Over time, the reputation 702 00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:04,640 Speaker 1: for the game would lead to better sales figures, but 703 00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:08,040 Speaker 1: at first, at least, it appeared to be a serious misstep. 704 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,640 Speaker 1: In retrospect, many at Ubisoft said that the failure largely 705 00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:16,319 Speaker 1: rested on the company's marketing for the game. And we're 706 00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:19,359 Speaker 1: going to conclude this part of our story with ubi 707 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:24,239 Speaker 1: Soft two words officially becoming ubi Soft one word, and 708 00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:28,520 Speaker 1: that happened on September nine, two thousand three. The company 709 00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:31,960 Speaker 1: also would replace its logo. Originally, its logo had been 710 00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:37,120 Speaker 1: a large maroon pinkish Ubi I with the word soft 711 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:41,200 Speaker 1: written in white script on top of U B i uh. 712 00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:44,480 Speaker 1: It had gone through a few other permutations of logos 713 00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:46,840 Speaker 1: in the following years, but in two thousand three we 714 00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:50,720 Speaker 1: finally got the more familiar swirl logo, which would remain 715 00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,960 Speaker 1: the official logo for more than a decade. It changed 716 00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:56,680 Speaker 1: again in twenty seventeen, but we'll get to that. So 717 00:43:56,719 --> 00:43:59,399 Speaker 1: in our next episode, will continue the story of Ubi 718 00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:02,200 Speaker 1: Soft and talk about how some sharks in the games 719 00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:04,880 Speaker 1: industry started to circle the studio just as it was 720 00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:08,319 Speaker 1: really taking off on the global stage, but that will 721 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,480 Speaker 1: have to wait until next time. If you have suggestions 722 00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:15,160 Speaker 1: for topics I should tackle in future episodes of tech Stuff, 723 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:17,560 Speaker 1: reach out to me and let me know. The best 724 00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:19,879 Speaker 1: way to do that is on Twitter, where I used 725 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:23,000 Speaker 1: the handle text stuff h s W for the show, 726 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:31,800 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff 727 00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:35,000 Speaker 1: is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from 728 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:38,839 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 729 00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:40,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.