Ubisoft Entertainment is a French computer and videogame developer and publisher with headquarters in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. It was founded in 1986 by five brothers, of which Yves Guillemot serves as chairman and CEO. The company consists of 26 studios spread across 18 countries.
As of 2011, it was the third most valuable independent videogame publisher in the world, and the second largest in terms of in-house development staff with over 6,900 staff worldwide. Ubisoft also ranked 26th on the list of the largest software companies in the world. Their most famous games and franchises are, The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time series, Rayman franchise, Assassin’s Creed franchise, Brothers in Arms and the Tom Clancy franchise which includes the Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell series.
Soon after founding, the company acquired publishing deals with companies like Electronic Arts, Sierra On-Line, and LucasArts, and exclusive rights to distribute their games in France. Their first internally developed game, Zombi, was released in 1989, and over the next several years Ubisoft expanded expanded their distribution to United States, Germany and United Kingdom as well as forming development studios in Paris (France), Montpellier (France) and Bucharest (Romania). In 1995 the company developed and published Rayman for the Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, and Sony Playstation. The game became the best selling Playstation title of all time in UK.
Ubisoft has expanded heavily through the years. Between 1996 and 2000 the company established development studios in Shanghai (China), Annecy (France), Montreal (Canada), Casablanca (Morocco), Barcelona (Spain) and Milan (Italy), and distribution offices in Spain, Italy, Australia, Belgium, China and Denmark. Ubisoft also acquired Red Storm Entertainment (Tom Clancy franchise), Blue Byte Software (The Settlers), and the games division of The Learning Company (Prince of Persia, Myst).