Ubisoft Reflections

Ubisoft Reflections Ltd.
Subsidiary
Industry Computer and video game industry
Founded 1984 (1984)
Founder Martin Edmondson
Headquarters Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Key people
Pauline Jacquey (Managing director)
Products Driver series
Just Dance series
Destruction Derby series
Shadow of the Beast
Owner Ubisoft
Number of employees
200+
Parent Ubisoft
Website reflections.ubisoft.com

Ubisoft Reflections Ltd. (formerly Reflections Interactive Ltd.), is a British video game developer based in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. The studio focuses on racing games and it is best known for creating the award winning Driver series.

History

Martin Edmondson started developing games for the BBC Micro with Nicholas Chamberlain in 1984. Their first game was a Paperboy clone called Paper-Round that took two years to develop but was never released.[1] While working on that game, they started Ravenskull which would be their first published game, released in 1986 by Superior Software. This was followed by Codename: Droid and an Acorn Electron conversion of Stryker's Run in 1987.[1]

The name Reflections was first used for their 1989 hit Amiga game, Shadow of the Beast, published by Psygnosis which spawned two sequels. The original Amiga game was partially written by Paul Howarth, and started out life as a parallax test of the blitter of the Amiga's Agnus chip; Paul later went on to work for Deep Red Games, a UK video game company based in Milton Keynes. A number of other Amiga and Atari ST games followed including Ballistix (1989), Awesome (1990) and Brian the Lion (1994).

In 1995, they became known for Destruction Derby, which was critically acclaimed for its realistic physics and destruction, which later become Reflections' specialty.[2] Due to the success, the game had four more sequels over the years. In 1999, Reflections became well known for the game Driver, which was inspired by '70s cop shows like Starsky and Hutch and movies like Bullitt and The Driver. It has been followed by four sequels and four spin-offs. The company incorporated as Ever 1016 Ltd. on 14 April 1998, and changed its name to Reflections Interactive Ltd. on 22 May 1998.

Their original logo was designed to complement the Psygnosis owl, so that they would look good together on the back of game cases. Their current logo is a written "R" which is then rotated and mirrored, thus reflecting upon their name, "Reflections".

In 2004, studio founder Martin Edmondson left Reflections after the concepting stage of Driver: Parallel Lines, and sued Atari due to "constructive unfair dismissal as a result of Reflections alleged repudiatory breach of a contract of employment that necessitated Mr. Edmondson's resignation."[3] Martin's brother, Gareth Edmondson, took his place as the studio manager. In July 2006, Atari announced that it had transferred all of the staff and most of the assets of Reflections Interactive Limited, including the intellectual property and technology rights to the Driver series, to Ubisoft for $24 million.[4]

Reflections Interactive was formally moved to a newly registered company, Mundays (797) Ltd., on 19 April 2006, which changed its name to Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd., trading as Ubisoft Reflections, on 23 May 2006, and to Ubisoft Reflections Ltd. on 6 March 2012. The first Reflections game after becoming a Ubisoft studio, was Driver 76, released in 2007.

Martin Edmondson returned to Reflections as a consultant for the duration of the development of Driver: San Francisco, released in September 2011.

Gareth Edmondson, studio manager, left Reflections after more than a ten-year presence at the studio in November 2011, two months after the launch of Driver: San Francisco. The studio is now headed by Pauline Jacquey.[5]

Reflections is working on multiple console formats, including the PlayStation Vita, Wii U[6] and Kinect.[7]

May 2013, Ubisoft Reflections announced that they are working on a new game, Ubisoft planned to announce the game at E3 2013.[8] On 10 June, during Ubisoft's press conference it was revealed that Reflections are working with developer Ivory Tower on a new racing game called The Crew, The Crew was released in December 2014.[9]

As of June 2016, the studio is working on Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands and Grow Up.

Games

Title Year Platform(s) Publisher
Ravenskull 1986 Acorn Electron Superior Software
BBC Micro
Codename: Droid 1987 Acorn Electron Superior Software
BBC Micro
Stryker's Run 1987 Acorn Electron[lower-alpha 1] Superior Software
Shadow of the Beast 1989 Amiga Psygnosis
Ballistix 1989 Amiga Psygnosis
Atari ST
Shadow of the Beast II 1990 Amiga Psygnosis
Atari ST
Awesome 1990 Amiga Psygnosis
Atari ST
Shadow of the Beast III 1992 Amiga Psygnosis
Brian the Lion 1994 Amiga Psygnosis
Destruction Derby 1995 DOS Psygnosis
PlayStation
Sega Saturn
Destruction Derby 2 1996 DOS Psygnosis
PlayStation
Microsoft Windows
Thunder Truck Rally 1998 DOS Psygnosis
PlayStation
Microsoft Windows
Driver 1999 Game Boy Color GT Interactive
Macintosh
PlayStation
Microsoft Windows
Driver 2 2000 Game Boy Advance Infogrames
PlayStation
Stuntman 2002 PlayStation 2 Infogrames
Driv3r 2004 PlayStation 2 Atari
Windows
Xbox
Driver: Parallel Lines March 2006 PlayStation 2 Atari
Xbox
June 2007 Wii Ubisoft
Windows
Driver 76[lower-alpha 2] 2007 PlayStation Portable Ubisoft
Emergency Heroes 2008 Wii Ubisoft
Monster 4x4: Stunt Racer 2009 Wii Ubisoft
Driver: San Francisco 2011 Mac OS X Ubisoft
PlayStation 3
Wii
Windows
Xbox 360
Just Dance 3 [lower-alpha 3] 2011 PlayStation 3 (with Move) Ubisoft
Just Dance 4 [lower-alpha 4] 2012 PlayStation 3 Ubisoft
Wii
Wii U
Xbox 360
Far Cry 3 [lower-alpha 5] 2012 PlayStation 3 Ubisoft
Windows
Xbox 360
Just Dance 2014 [lower-alpha 6] 2013 PlayStation 3 Ubisoft
PlayStation 4
Wii
Wii U
Xbox 360
Xbox One
Watch Dogs[lower-alpha 7] 2014 PlayStation 3 Ubisoft
PlayStation 4
Wii U
Microsoft Windows
Xbox 360
Xbox One
Just Dance 2015[lower-alpha 8] 2014 PlayStation 3 Ubisoft
PlayStation 4
Wii U
Wii
Xbox 360
Xbox One
The Crew[lower-alpha 9] 2014 PlayStation 4 Ubisoft
Microsoft Windows
Xbox One
Xbox 360
Grow Home 2015 Microsoft Windows Ubisoft
PlayStation 4
Linux
Tom Clancy's The Division[lower-alpha 10] 2016 PlayStation 4 Ubisoft
Microsoft Windows
Xbox One
Grow Up August 2016 Microsoft Windows Ubisoft
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Watch Dogs 2[lower-alpha 11] 2016 PlayStation 4 Ubisoft
Xbox One
Microsoft Windows
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands[lower-alpha 12] March 7, 2017 PlayStation 4 Ubisoft
Microsoft Windows
Xbox One
  1. Conversion of BBC Micro game[1]
  2. Co-developed with Sumo Digital
  3. Co-developed with Ubisoft Paris
  4. Co-developed with Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Bucharest
  5. Co-developed with Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Massive and Ubisoft Shanghai
  6. Co-developed with Ubisoft Milan, Ubisoft Paris and Ubisoft Bucharest
  7. Co-developed with Ubisoft Montreal
  8. Co-developed with Ubisoft Paris and Ubisoft Pune
  9. Co-developed with Ivory Tower
  10. Co-developed with Ubisoft Massive, Ubisoft Red Storm and Ubisoft Annecy
  11. Co-developed with Ubisoft Montreal
  12. Co-developed with Ubisoft Paris

References

  1. 1 2 3 Profile, A&B Computing, October 1988
  2. "Ubisoft Reflections Ltd.". MobyGames. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  3. Gibson, Ellie (27 February 2006). "Atari reaches settlement with ex-Reflections boss". GamesIndustry. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  4. Carless, Simon (13 July 2006). "Atari Sells Driver, Reflections To Ubisoft". Gamasutra. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  5. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-26-on-reflections-first-interview-with-the-ubisoft-studios-new-md
  6. John Hill (2 February 2012). "Ubisoft Reflections experts help develop PlayStation Vita titles". nebusiness. Newcastle Journal. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  7. David Hinkle (6 February 2012). "Ubisoft Reflections resume outs unannounced Kinect game". Joystiq. Joystiq. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  8. "Ubisoft Reflections Working on a Unannounced Game, Reveal at E3". Joystiq. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  9. "Ubisoft Reveals the Crew a New Racer From Ivory Tower and Reflections at E3". Edge Online. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
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