Ubisoft Reflections
| Ubisoft Reflections | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Limited Company |
| founding | 1984 |
| Seat | Newcastle upon Tyne , UK |
| management | Pauline Jacquey |
| Website | reflections.ubisoft.com |
Ubisoft Reflections , formerly Reflections Interactive , is a British game developer based in Newcastle upon Tyne . It was founded in 1984 by Martin Edmondson and Nicholas Chamberlain. The studio is known, among other things, for the racing games of the Destruction Derby and Driver series. The studio has been part of the Ubisoft group since 2006 .
history
The company was founded in 1984 by Martin Edmondson and Nicholas Chamberlain and initially developed games for the home computers Acorn Electron and BBC Micro . The first game the founders developed was called Paper-Round and was an adaptation of the arcade game Paperboy . However, the developers gave up on this project before completion and instead developed the action-adventure Ravenskull . This was followed by code names: Droid and Stryker's Run .
In 1989, Shadow of the Beast was released . This was the developer's first game for the Amiga and the first to use the term Reflections . The game was published by Psygnosis .
In 1995 Destruction Derby was released for PlayStation , DOS, and Saturn . It was the first game that focused on depicting accidents and destruction. In commercial terms, Destruction Derby was successful, being the first Reflections game to sell more than a million units. Several successors followed, but not all of them were developed by Reflections.
In 1998 the company was bought by the French group GT Interactive for $ 41 million. Another racing game followed a year later, Driver , in which the player took on the role of an undercover police officer. Driver also became a success. It has received praise and awards from the press and has been republished several times.
In the same year, GT Interactive was acquired to 70% by Infogrames for 135 million US dollars. In 2004 the founder left Edmondson as part of the development of Driver: Parallel Lines Reflections and sued Atari , as GT Interactive was now called, because of discrepancies between the developer and the publisher. The dispute was settled out of court. In the meantime, Edmondson's brother Gareth took over the management of the studio.
In summer 2006, shortly after the publication of Reflections and, Atari sold the naming rights to the Driver series to the French group Ubisoft due to a lack of money. Atari only retained the marketing rights for the recently released Driver: Parallel Lines until the end of 2006. The British studio was then renamed Ubisoft Reflections. The first game under Ubisoft's direction was released in 2007 and was titled Driver 76 .
Ubisoft later began developing a new Driver title. According to Ubisoft, this should lead the series, which had continued to lose popularity with each new installment, to its old size. Founder Martin Edmondson returned to Reflections as a consultant to develop the game. In 2011 it finally appeared under the title Driver: San Francisco . In the same year, Edmondson's brother left the studio.
For the shooter Far Cry 3 , released in 2012, Reflections supported Ubisoft Montreal in the development of the vehicles. The studio was also involved in the implementation of the MMO racing game The Crew .
Pauline Jacquey has directed the studio since 2013.
Games
Web links
- Ubisoft Reflections at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Martin Edmondson, Nicholas Chamberlain. October 1987, accessed February 24, 2015 .
- ↑ IP profile: Driver. July 19, 2008, accessed February 25, 2015 .
- ^ Infogrames Gets Control of GT Interactive - New York Times . In: New York Times , The New York Times Company, November 16, 1999. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
- ↑ Ellie Gibson: Atari reaches settlement with ex-Reflections boss. In: GamesIndustry . February 17, 2006, accessed February 25, 2015 .
- ^ Tim Surette: Ubisoft gets Driver's license. In: GameSpot . CBS Corporation , July 13, 2006, accessed February 26, 2015 .
- ↑ Dennis Bangert: Driver - San Francisco: Interview with serial father. In: Computer Picture Games . Axel Springer SE , accessed on February 26, 2015 .
- ↑ Gareth Edmonson quits Ubisoft Reflections. In: Edge . November 15, 2011, archived from the original on February 7, 2012 ; accessed on February 26, 2015 .
- ^ E3 2013: Ubisoft reveals The Crew, a new racer from Ivory Tower and Reflections. In: Edge . June 10, 2013, archived from the original on June 18, 2013 ; accessed on February 26, 2015 .
- ↑ Rachel Weber: On Reflections: First interview with the Ubisoft studio's new MD. In: GamesIndustry . February 28, 2013, accessed February 26, 2015 .