It is imposing but few people from Bordeaux know what it contains. A brand new, long building has sprung up near the botanical garden, on the right bank of the Bastide district. It is here that one of the flagships of the video game giant Ubisoft has discreetly established itself and is officially inaugurated this Tuesday.
One of the big Ubisoft studios in the world
Established since 2017 on the left bank of Bordeaux, Ubisoft is expanding its Bordeaux ambitions with this studio of nearly 8,000 m2 which brings together 400 employees. 20 Minutes takes you on a tour of the places, calibrated to count in the coming years, even as the group’s stock market shares, whose turnover for 2023-2024 stands at 2.32 billion, are experiencing ups and downs. “The video game sector, of which Ubisoft is a stakeholder, is in a fairly competitive and quite tough moment,” comments Julien Mayeux, general manager of Ubisoft Bordeaux, without further explanation.
But for him, there is no doubt: Bordeaux will play a key role in the group’s future. “The success ofAssassin’s Creed Mirage has placed us on the map of the big Ubisoft studios in the world, he believes. We are an “Assassin” studio and we will continue in this vein, even if all the expertise that we have created around Assassin’s Creed can also be mobilized in other universes, we are not closing the door to anything. »
No background information leaks out about the high-stakes releaseAssassin’s Creed Shadowthe new opus around feudal Japan whose release has been slightly delayed and set for February 14, 2025. “This is rather good news for the players because we are giving the developers more time to finish the game well,” comments soberly Julien Mayeux. In the meantime, on all the employees’ screens that day these are characters Mirage and on everyone’s lips too.
“An artistic bible” as a guide
Self-promoted “creator of worlds”, Ubisoft brings together 70 to 80 different professions to produce its games. “The artistic vision must be well established from the start because hundreds of people are involved in the production of the game, in thirteen different studios, spread across at least five to six countries,” points out Julien Mayeux.
This is the artistic team, led by Jean-Luc Sala on Mirage who developed “the artistic Bible”, and its ten commandments. In front of views of the roofs of Baghdad in the 9th century, the artistic director says that an “authenticity team”, notably composed of historians, “educated” the people involved in the project. This desire to stick as closely as possible to historical veracity is one of the trademarks of games Assassin.
“We are not a history lesson either, but we seek to be as credible as possible since we are going to be a window on the period,” explains the artistic director. But, above all, we aim to offer an immersive journey through time, during which we have a good time running on the roofs.”
The team has a projection room in the Bordeaux studio to leave no detail to chance. “We reconstructed this city and wanted to show that it was on the fertile crescent but also extremely innovative, particularly in astronomy and canal management,” adds Salomé Strappazzon, associate artistic director.
“Will it look good when he’s climbing and jumping around?” »
The “chara” team (for character in English) consisted of a dozen people on Mirage. “We start with a biography and a sheet with characteristics, like a role-playing game,” explains Arthur Gatineau, in charge of character creation. It’s an iterative process, which can take us a year.”
Beyond the main characters, the challenges consist of diversifying the crowds, while highlighting, for example, the sociological differences between the districts of a city. Before the animation team takes over, it is also a matter of preparing the entire framework which will determine the movements of the characters and their equipment. “To make the hood jump or that what is metallic keeps its shape, since the chain mail does not move like a fabric for example,” explains a colleague of Arthur Gatineau. Or ultimately, we wonder: will it look good when he’s climbing and jumping everywhere? »
In terms of animation, the Bordeaux studio has state-of-the-art equipment to work in motion capture on character choreographies. “A motion capture studio requires the mobilization of 25 people, including professional actors, ultimately resulting in a very high hourly cost. There, our own equipment allows us to prepare all the work in advance, make all the adjustments, and arrive on the day of the shoot with something much more accomplished. » And, the icing on the cake, the animators can slip into their characters. Enough to boost their creativity.
A little paradise for gamers
What do the players think? This is the question that obsesses Ubisoft at every stage of development. To appreciate it, the company invites, for a fee, “gamers” who are happily installed in the Bordeaux studio, with a relaxation area and very comfortable gaming stations. “We can have 300 to 500 testers for a game,” assures Tristan Dufour, in charge of customer experience. And another neighboring room allows designers to discover live the reactions of testers.
The latter are not there to find bugs, since that is part of the mission of qualified professionals, but simply to experience the game. An essential step to see, for example, if character attacks are well “read” or more overall to improve the fluidity of the game. At Ubisoft, the testers only do one session per game because the group is looking for “fresh eyes”, convinced that it is the first contact with the game that is decisive,” adds Tristan Dufour .
Ubisoft doesn’t play with innovation
On the upper floor of the building is nestled the Forge, Ubisoft’s research and development team. Guillaume Gaudron, its director, talks about one of the latest technologies developed by his team, thanks in particular to AI, and which makes it possible to “automatically generate the interior of the buildings of a city traveled by the character of the game , and this in real time with an impression of diversity”.
These textures are being deployed in three of the group’s games. They have the double advantage of reducing the work of the artist who can concentrate on tasks which are more valuable and of allowing a saving of 60% of memory, in a context where games take up a lot of space.
Calibrated to ensure large productions, the Bordeaux studio should be required to make significant contributions to the group’s next games, shrouded in the greatest secrecy. “Our ambition is to make the best games in the coming years,” says the general manager, inevitably leaving us a little unsatisfied…
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