In case anyone was curious how big Ubisoft's team sizes were.
They're still hiring people for Watch_Dogs to note, so presumably that will go higher.
They're still hiring people for Watch_Dogs to note, so presumably that will go higher.
GamesIndustry said:Q: Will the studio be working on its own original IP?
Pauline Jacquey: Yes. We do parts of games, but it's very actually standard at Ubisoft now to do AAA games, like for the new PS4 console, you need teams of up to 600 guys so you can't do it at just one site. So there's organisation within Ubisoft to make sure that collaboration happens and works. So it's not like outsourcing, it's real co-development and collaboration and I think both sides learn a lot from working together. So I want this to be a very strong pillar of the studio, but yes, I want us to do our own games and I'm very interested in the evolution of the industry like free-to-play and digital and mobile. And that's something that I did already, in the past. Not very famous games, but still millions of players. So I don't know exactly which shape it could take, I've only been here for three months, but my intention is to have a very varied portfolio and collaboration will not just be what we do.
GamesIndustry said:Q: And how do you manage resources to be able to work on all the different platforms, is that the same sort of thing?
Pauline Jacquey: That's actually exactly my challenge right now, I have to hire 50 people to make sure that I cover all my needs and that's my biggest challenge today. We're looking for a very specific profile that's not easy to find anywhere in Ubisoft. Specialities are very hard to find, and it's hard to find everywhere. But for instance I just managed to have a team of ten guys in Barcelona that are going to work with us, so the international collaboration is happening at all levels.
GamesIndustry said:We have a team of almost 90 guys working on Watch Dogs, so one third of the team is in the UK.
Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...rst-interview-with-the-ubisoft-studios-new-mdGamesIndustry said:Q: Do you have to factor the challenges of a new console into your development costs?
Pauline Jacquey: Totally. We actually started making simulations three years ago on next-gen because we knew that it would require probably a multiplication of data by two or four, meaning bigger teams. But it depends on the type of thing that you do, there are games that Ubisoft specialises in like open world action games with a lot of production value, and you do need a team of 400 to 600 people, that's a lot, and next-gen is increasing this. And then some systemic games you can probably afford to do a next-gen game with 100 people. Ubisoft are very generous with resources, making sure product quality is top notch, so it's got a big influence on budget. But then the outcome, the production revenue, should be much higher as well so it balances. It's just the risk is higher, so if we miss it once or twice the impact is big.