Ubisoft Leamington (formerly FreeStyleGames Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', ...

based in Leamington Spa. Founded in November 2002 by six industry veterans formerly of

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Oct ...

and Rare, the studios was bought by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

in September 2008. In January 2017, Ubisoft acquired the studio from Activision and renamed it Ubisoft Leamington. Ubisoft Leamington is working on

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and me ...

games, primarily the ''

Tom Clancy's The Division ''Tom Clancy's The Division'' is an online-only action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published in 2016 by Ubisoft, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is set in a near future New York City in ...

'' franchise, in close cooperation with sister studio

Ubisoft Reflections Ubisoft Reflections Limited (formerly Reflections and later Reflections Interactive Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Founded in 1984 by Martin Edmondson and Nicholas Chamberlain, ...

History

Early years (2002–2008)

FreeStyleGames was founded on 29 November 2002 by Alex Darby, David Osbourn, Phil Hindle and Jamie Jackson, formerly of

, and Alex Zoro and Jonny Ambrose, formerly of Rare. Their first title, ''B-Boy'', a game of competitive break-dancing, was published and distributed by

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

in Europe in 2006, and published by Evolved Games and distributed by

SouthPeak Games SouthPeak Interactive Corporation, doing business as SouthPeak Games, was an American video game publisher based in Midlothian, Virginia. Founded on March 1, 1996, as a subsidiary of SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, it was sold and move ...

in North America in 2008. ''B-Boy'' features Crazy Legs of the

Rock Steady Crew Rock Steady Crew is an American breaking and hip hop group which has become a franchise name for multiple groups in other locations. The group's 1983 international hit song " (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew" (from the group's first studio album ...

, as well as many other well known b-boys from around the World. It won the

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

best of E3 2006 award for best PSP music game.

As part of Activision (2008–2017)

On 12 September 2008, FreeStyleGames was purchased by

for an undisclosed sum, following a period of commercial cooperation, mainly involving localised

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

for the ''

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs ...

'' series. The first game the company developed under Activision's ownership was ''

DJ Hero ''DJ Hero'' is a music video game, developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision as a rhythm game spin-off of the '' Guitar Hero'' franchise. It was released on October 27, 2009 in North America and on October 29, 2009 in Europe. The g ...

'' (2009), a spin-off of the ''Guitar Hero'' series, in which players used a turntable-based controller to mimic the actions of a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

across numerous songs. The title was considered successful, and they completed ''

DJ Hero 2 ''DJ Hero 2'' is a rhythm video game and a sequel to ''DJ Hero'', a spinoff of the ''Guitar Hero'' series. ''DJ Hero 2'' uses a special turntable-controller, the same as introduced in ''DJ Hero'', to simulate turntablism, the act of creating a ...

'' the following year, though around that time, the

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press ...

genre was suffering from a glut of releases and was in decline, and Activision had decided to end further production of any ''Guitar Hero'' title. The company had to lay off some employees during this time, but still were financially viable with success of '' Sing Party'' (2012). As ''Sing Party''s development was wrapping up, Activision approached FreeStyleGames to have them consider how to reboot the ''Guitar Hero'' franchise. FreeStyleGames developed a new guitar controller atypical of ones that has been created to that point, and crafted a different approach towards presenting the game to players through a first-person perspective

full-motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information durin ...

. This work culminated in ''

Guitar Hero Live ''Guitar Hero Live'' is a 2015 music rhythm video game developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, X ...

'' (2015), the first new ''Guitar Hero'' title for the

eighth generation of video game consoles The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family in 2017. The gen ...

. While ''Guitar Hero Live'' was praised by critics, it failed to have significant sales, falling short of Activision's projections. On 1 April 2016, it was announced that around 50 staff were made redundant as part of a reshuffle by Activision. Founders Jackson and Osbourn opted to leave the studio at that point, disappointed in how development studios are treated when games are not financially successful, and along with two of the laid-off staff, Jonathan Napier and Gareth Morrison, formed a new studio, Slingshot Cartel. This studio anticipates developing games in a process more akin to filmmaking, something that the studio had to do during the course of development of ''Guitar Hero Live'', which they seem can better streamline the process and reduce costs for game production.

As Ubisoft Leamington (2017–present)

On 18 January 2017, French publisher

acquired the studio from Activision, and renamed it Ubisoft Leamington, referencing its Leamington Spa location. Under this new owner, Ubisoft Leamington will work on AAA titles closely with Newcastle-upon-Tyne-based partner studio

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Activision 2002 establishments in England British companies established in 2002 Former Activision subsidiaries Ubisoft divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2002 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies Companies based in Leamington Spa 2008 mergers and acquisitions 2017 mergers and acquisitions British subsidiaries of foreign companies