Ubisoft Toronto Inc. is a Canadian

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

and a studio of

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...

based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. The studio was established under

Jade Raymond Jade Raymond (born 28 August 1975) is a Canadian video game creator, best known for helping create the ''Assassin's Creed'' and ''Watch Dogs'' franchises, and for building the Ubisoft Toronto and EA Motive Studios. On 16 March 2021, Raymond an ...

in September 2010. Games developed by Ubisoft Toronto include '' Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist'', '' Far Cry 5'', '' Starlink: Battle for Atlas'', '' Far Cry 6'', and '' Watch Dogs Legion''.

History

announced in July 2009 that it was establishing a

-based development studio. Yannis Mallat, the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

(CEO) of

Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal. The studio was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with sub ...

, was to become Ubisoft Toronto's CEO, while the

government of Ontario The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor� ...

was to invest over a course of 10 years to create up to 800 jobs. Unlike other Ubisoft studios, Ubisoft Toronto was immediately allowed to lead development of its games, whereas others start by only supporting larger studios like Ubisoft Montreal, though Ubisoft Toronto also served to support Montreal as part of its initial role as a sister studio. By September 2009,

was put in charge of establishing the studio. Most of the studio's staff in its development phase, including Raymond, transferred to the new location from Ubisoft Montreal. Key hires included producer Alexandre Parizeau and

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

Maxime Béland, who were brought on for the production of a new game in the ''

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell ''Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell'' is a series of stealth action-adventure video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels that were endorsed by Tom Clancy. The series follows Sam Fisher, a highly trained agent of a ...

'' series, and were considered co-founders of the studio alongside Raymond. A second, smaller development team for an undisclosed project was headed up by Lesley Phord-Toy, and Rima Brek was put in charge of the studio's internal Technology Group. By May 2010, Ubisoft Toronto had received more than 2,000 job applications. Ubisoft Toronto's offices were established from a former

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

building in the

Junction Triangle Junction Triangle is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the city's west end, just west of Lansdowne Avenue. The area is a triangle surrounded on all three sides by railway lines: the CNR/CPR mainline to the west, Metroli ...

neighborhood of Toronto. Ubisoft Toronto began operating in late 2009 and formally opened in September 2010. By March 2012, Ubisoft Toronto had grown to 200 people, and to 300 by September 2013. By the latter, the studio had received 30,000 applications and given 1,800 job interviews. In September 2012, Ubisoft Toronto received an internal performance capture studio. The studio's debut project, '' Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist'', was released in August 2013 to critical success. Raymond left the studio and was succeeded as

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

by Parizeau. By July 2015, Ubisoft Toronto was developing an original

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

(IP). This game was later revealed to be '' Starlink: Battle for Atlas'', an

action-adventure game The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

with optional

toys-to-life Toys-to-life is a video game feature using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game. These toys use a near field communication (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), or image recognition data protocol to determine ...

integration. The game was released in 2018 as the studio's first own IP. As of July 2017, Ubisoft Toronto has 600 staff members. Near the end of June 2020 and into July 2020, a wave of accusations related to the

MeToo movement #MeToo is a social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media ...

swept through the video game industry, including several directed at some Ubisoft employees. Over one hundred employees of Ubisoft Toronto wrote to Parizeau in late June to report concerns related to sexual misconduct and the lack of action taken by management and human resources in response to their prior reports. Ubisoft announced it had investigated these reports, and in the case of Ubisoft Toronto, had requested studio co-founder Maxime Béland resign from the company. Speaking to ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. Histor ...

'', some of these employees stated that there were still additional problems at the studio that went beyond Béland and they were still seeking signs of larger change from the studio and Ubisoft as a whole. Parizeau left the company in February 2021 and was replaced by Istvan Tajnay, who had previously been the managing director for Ubisoft Berlin. In December 2021, it was announced that the studio was developing a remake of ''

'' (2002); reports on the project appeared earlier in October.

Games developed

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Canadian companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in Ontario Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Toronto Ubisoft divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2010 Video game companies of Canada Video game development companies