Ubisoft’s name comes from the word “ubiquitous”, which means to be everywhere at the same time. With the many branches Ubisoft has throughout Europe and Canada, there’s a reason for the name.

Locations in Barcelona, Shanghai, Dusseldorf, Bucharest and Casablanca (just to name a few) make the company seem like the in-house producer of spy novels rather than a high-end video game developer.

And that assumption isn’t too far off target. After all, Ubisoft has more than dabbled in the subject matter, being the creator of both the Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter series.

Ubisoft got its start as a publisher, and much like Electronic Arts, used this as a springboard to make its own in-house software. Starting in France in 1986, they received their first recognition as a developer with the creation of Rayman, a title originally designed for the flop that was the Atari Jaguar and the more standardized MS-DOS operating system back in 1995.

Rayman was your typical 2D side-scrolling adventure, but it served its purpose in getting the company noticed, and Ubisoft was able to continue future creations with decent capital. Giving the hero a wide variety of powers helped the game achieve enough variety to create a fan base and later Rayman adventures.

Ubisoft continued to produce quality carts in the years to come. They would really start to make big strides once development began for the newer generation of console titles. Ubisoft really started to make a name for itself with the PS2, XBOX and Gamecube clientele. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell in particular was a huge leap for them and their famous Montreal office.

Splinter Cell proved successful with fans of the stealth/action category made famous by its Konami counterpart, Metal Gear Solid. Sam Fisher, a character now synonymous with the genre, was a more grizzled, realistic, and relatable character than the super-soldier archetype of Solid Snake. His was a more realistic world, using more realistic weaponry in more realistic settings.

The addition to the highly popular multiplayer capabilities introduced in the sequel Pandora Tomorrow would only sweeten the deal, and many gamers found more joy in the highly playable Splinter Cell series than Kojima’s cinema-heavy Metal Gear Solid series. He was the Pepsi to Metal Gear’s Coke, and many gamers welcomed the change.

After Ubisoft successfully went toe-to-toe with a genre monopoly, they decided to reanimate a classic game themselves. In 2003 the Montreal branch released Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , an artistic interpretation of the original series created by Jordan Mechner. The game successfully captured the urgency and acrobatic prowess of the original, while delivering an amazing story arc with top-notch narration.

Flipping over parallel bars, running on walls, and sliding under closing spiked gates has never been this much fun, and fans who fondly recalled the 1989 original rejoiced. Like Splinter Cell, the game gave birth to several sequels. While Mechner would not continue with Ubisoft in the development the next two games, they continued to garner success (albeit with a much darker tone and subject matter). Ubisoft had another hit that would continue to attract critical praise.

Ubisoft has made plenty of must-buy titles in its short existence, and published dozens of others. The sleeper hit Beyond Good and Evil, the Myst series continuation Myst IV: Revelation, and the stylized first person shooter XIII are some examples. But what makes Ubisoft hold its own with the other big hitters on this list is its commitment to a promising future.

By the end of this year we can expect to have Assassin’s Creed, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and Haze. Next year shows no sign of letting up with potential blockbusters FarCry 2 and Tom Clancy’s EndWar rounding out 2008’s lineup.

What puts Ubisoft in the running for best developer of our generation is the fact that many will buy these titles simply because they’re brandished with the Ubisoft logo. They have built a name in the past, which continues in the present and should continue into the future. Ubisoft picked its name wisely – ubiquitous is truly what they are.

Must Haves:
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Multi),
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Multi),
GRAW 2 (Multi)

Have Nots:
Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force (GBA)

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