How Ubisoft Retains Its Culture
To allow its teams to win, Ubisoft does invest in them, and if sometimes things don’t work out – such as with Ubisoft’s recent efforts in VR, for instance – it makes sure not to punish the creators. After all, that’s hardly going to encourage that all-important risk taking. “It’s not so much that we say don’t worry if you get it wrong; because of the budgets involved, we don’t want people to get it wrong,” Burgess-Quémard admits. “But we have a saying: at Ubisoft you always have a second chance. We don’t cut people’s heads [off] if they make a mistake first time. “But what is rewarded, obviously, is the success. When you have a successful project, you will have all these people behind you who will feel and share the success as well. That’s why we also have incentive programmes, to make sure that people feel really part of the project.” It’s not all about financial rewards. Over the years we’ve written about Ubisoft’s efforts to avoid team fatigue if they’ve been working on a single franchise for so long. Enabling its creators, if it can, to try new projects, work on different things, and even to develop indie-style games.
We don’t do too much science fiction, because we are not sending people to the Moon, or to Mars... yet... Maybe it will happen sooner than you think. Maybe we should work with Richard Branson.” Burgess-Quémard is only half joking. Ubisoft’s culture may not have changed as drastically as you might expect after growing from five to 15,000, employees but it has changed. It used to make distinctly French games, and now it builds international IN THE FIELD projects made by teams in every continent. It’s adding new voices and ideas through Like most studios, new studios in different territories. It’s continually Ubisoft invests in the investing in the latest consoles team’s education, too. and technology. It was a It runs the Ubisoft Ubisoft game (Assassin’s “One of the first Developer Conference, Creed Odyssey) that was studios we opened which is in its tenth year front and centre at the up was in Bucharest.. in 2019, plus a series of Google Stadia reveal at other specialists courses. GDC, for example. 30 years ago, going That’s all pretty normal Of course, as any gamer into Romania was a stuff for a large business, will tell you, Ubisoft isn’t real challenge” but one of Ubisoft’s more perfect. It makes mistakes and Christine Burgess-Quémard, Ubisoft surprising education gets things wrong, and does initiatives is in sending its so frequently. But it is always teams around the world so trying. Perhaps that’s what they can learn about different cultures makes Ubisoft feel so different. and make their games as realistic as possible. “A lot of companies have disappeared from The Far Cry team, for instance, spent three the industry because maybe sometimes you think weeks in Montana to get a feel for the place you’ve reached the top,” concludes Burgessthey were re-creating. Quémard. “But it’s not difficult to “Each new world that we are creating, reach the top. It’s staying there that is difficult. we make sure that the team is exposed to it. “We never think we have made it.”
Ubisoft continues to open studios in different countries, including India
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