When I think of a game developer and publisher that consistently releases quality games Ubisoft comes to mind. In recent years they have had their hands on a number of high profile and high quality games. Here’s a little history lesson for you, Ubisoft was founded in 1986 by five brothers from the Guillemot family in France that focused mainly on computer game publishing. In the late 1980’s the CEO of Ubisoft made deals with EA, Sierra On-line, and Micropose to distribute their games in France. Ubisoft was hitting the ground running and by the mid-1990’s had opened in-house development studios around the globe, and the company has grown to be the third largest independent videogame publisher in Europe, and seventh largest in the US.

During this time they have established a number of franchises such as Rayman, Splinter Cell, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, and are still establishing new franchises like Assassin’s Creed. Let’s look at the games that Ubisoft either developed or published; since it is a long list I have painstakingly put it in alphabetical order instead of chronological, also I am only going to list games that were for consoles…sorry computer gamers:

My God that was a daunting task! I sure hope I’ll be able to bend my fingers again. Anyways as we can see Ubisoft has kept themselves busy with an extensive catalogue of games spanning multiple platforms, some good and some bad, some really bad, Crouching Tiger Hidden anyone? Ubisoft has secured a number of high profile licenses from movies, books, TV, to well established games like Prince of Persia.

Ubisoft is becoming what Rare was back in the days of the N64, and unlike developers like 989 Studios who released sequel after bastardized sequel, Ubisoft really focuses on making their sequels better than the last. They don’t allow their games to become formulaic clones of previous titles; this can be seen in the forthcoming release of Splinter Cell: Conviction, this game will be a departure from the usual environments and equipment we are used to seeing Sam Shepard in. Gone are the three lensed goggles that had long been a staple in the Splinter Cell series, now we see Sam in his civilian clothes on the run from the government, this will allow for a better understanding of Sam as a character and not just some faceless drone.

It’s refreshing to see that some developers are willing to introduce new ideas into their already established licenses, it allows for the games to remain fresh and not become stale from overused storylines and clichéd environments. Ubisoft’s future is looking bright with games set for release in 2008 and 2009 such as: Lost, Tom Clancy’s Endwar, Far Cry 2, and Avatar in 2009.