UBISOFT® POSITIONS ITSELF IN THE MULTIPLAYER....... NADEO

[ripbox]

UBISOFT® POSITIONS ITSELF IN THE MULTIPLAYER SEGMENT BY ACQUIRING NADEO, CREATOR OF THE CULT TRACKMANIA® GAME
Paris, France – October 05, 2009. Today, Ubisoft announced the acquisition of the development studio Nadeo, creator of TrackMania, the cult multiplayer car racing video game.
Set up in 2000 in Paris and comprising a highly talented team of developers, the Nadeo studio has won acclaim for the quality of its multiplayer technology which offers one of the best available on-line game experiences and has already notched up 10 million registered players. Its flagship game – TrackMania – has 700,000 unique players a month and is a pioneer in the sharing of creations (almost 15 million custom tracks created since 2008). It is also the first eSport franchise for racing games.
"The acquisition of Nadeo is an important step in our expansion within the on-line gaming sector", said Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft. “Through Nadeo, Ubisoft will gain an expert team, one of the best on-line technologies around as well as a flagship multiplayer game that enjoys an unrivalled reputation among a loyal and committed community. We are excited about the idea of introducing TrackMania to an ever-wider audience and sharing the expertise of Nadeo's teams with our Group's other developers”.
"Joining Ubisoft is a huge opportunity for us to develop and innovate and take Nadeo to new horizons", said Florent Castelnérac, Chief Executive Officer of Nadeo. “Nadeo’s team was keen for this acquisition to happen. Like players in a community, we see ourselves as being a complementary fit with Ubisoft and believe that we can share and quickly move ahead together".


http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/index.php?p ... 658ac9e774

[GD]

Or as CDB puts it: Gay finally finds Gay Partner...

I sure hope this is good news in the long run.. but it could also mean disaster for Nadeo. Big companies care about money making. If the product doesnt make enough dow, where will Nadeo be then? On the other hand, Nadeo will have more money to spend on TM2.. hope that translates in better interfaces and graphics

[CDB[SWE]]

The new "American" environment car model


or with good backup they might just get it right

[TopTrog]

lol CDB, it´s a distinct possibility it will turn out that way . Nevertheless, I´m optimistic they won´t botch it that badly. Basically, Ubisoft bought a huge player base and brand name based on an (afaik) thus far unique online and community-based racing game. Let´s just hope it will mean more resources for and a long-term continuity of the TM world. As I see it, the combination of the free TMN and TMU together with the unique community and its user-based content and accessible arcade-style gameplay is what makes TM. So I rate the chances pretty low of TM degenerating into some nightmarish version of "NfS XXXXVIII or Test Drive MCLMXXXII using 25 pad buttons and simulation game physics with extra charged online content" or "monthly subscription services". Otherwise, we´d be stuck with occasionally playing TMU for the next 20 years .

[ripbox]

Hi Slamdunk

you can be scared :roflol:

Without the information behind, you can say that this is dangerous. The fact is that I believe it will go well but I can't ask you to think the same. I have taken many decisions over the last ten years for the team that led us and our games where they are. I think this one is carefully approached for the next period of time coming at the studio.

Since the release of United in 2006, we are internally talking about Nadeo 2: new offices, new projects (TM2, SM, QM) and new steps to reach for the engine. For some reasons, the partner on this upcoming strategy is Ubisoft. I think it brings a new dimension to it and I am even curious to see how big it could become.

The most important thing I would like to say is for players to avoid to reach early conclusion, would they be bad or good, like for games. Personally, with the time I spent on the subject, I took the decision because I believe it could be constructive. The team also see it as a way to communicate knowledge since we are now 'united' with with our inter'nation'al partner.

I did not had time to communicate much recently. When it is the case, it could be for personal reasons, lack of time, confidential stuff or things we prefer to be more certain before moving forward. I think I will have a little more time to communicate, at least, but my phone is ringing and my mailbox growing with this new release.

the month of September was 'intense' with TM2 and this :roflol:

Florent

thanks guy

I think we will keep the Nadeo name for at least some years. I am more attached at other things than that, but I think it is a good name.

So I hope they'll still let you be the stubborn head of the dev team without trying to influence things too much, because TM wouldn't be what it is now without that :mrgreen:

edit: And does this explain the strange "paying for TM2 alpha" comment? :shock:

this post is really cool :1

and this one was awesome, people commented it internally
http://www.tm-forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=161536#p161536

about the alpha thing, it is simply that we think that it is better for the people to buy an alpha instead of the game if they want to participate during all the test&dev phases. If we open to everybody, it can not be moderated and the game while if we close to some player, I doubt they will like it. It is not for large test just before release to 'test' if it works, but to have constant feedback over a long period of time in order to go toward some direction for some really community related features such as block import and maniascript. I don't know if we will do it, but that's a solution for little trouble I have seen in making a long and open test phase. My goal is also to re-create a pre-launch community, which was always good time so far. we will see, but the idea is on the planning since before the discussion with Ubisoft.

I think that it is the best for everyone that the transition go well. I hope to be in the middle but I am afraid of this ^_^ I think everybody prefer the players to be happy, and that is what I want as well, and Focus too, because they made great thing for TM since six years and Ubisoft because I want them to do this for the next years as well.

I think that one of my role will be to help communicate our expertise based on communities with our new partners.
I spend a lot of week ends to exchange with the community. I wrote more than 5000 messages in the forums and probably read more than 200 000. If I had the stupid games, it multiplies by ten :mrgreen:

I will try to share this in order to bring TM2 in a good situation. I don't say I will succeed, but it is obviously my target to create a good environment for players. I often say that there is as much work to make around a game than in a game. It may takes some time, but I also think that the community handles many things by itself. Servers are really low cost nowadays and I am quite sure we will find a right way to deal with this. In fact, Nadeo has a lot of server power, but I think it is really a small subject that could have better solutions.

Nadeo stayed the same size and have the same passion to make TM2. I have changed nothing in my opinions so far, you can still type United Nations Forever in google. Maybe it can people like Mistral to understand. Another important point is the team, for which I also have an ideal. And if the team is happy to this happening, this is for good reasons. And I did what what responsible toward them at that moment as well. And what is good for the team, with people passionate like them, is probably good for the players.

cheers