Ubisoft Montreal
The establishment of Ubisoft Montreal is considered to have significant impact on Montreal. The Mile End area over the next several years transformed from a low-rent area to a commercial hub with new businesses, stores, restaurants and other attractions for the young workforce. For the city overall, Ubisoft Montreal was the first major video game studio and helped to establish its position as a creative city. Several other publishers, including Electronic Arts, Eidos Interactive, THQ and Warner Bros., established studios in Montreal following Ubisoft, with the Quebec and federal governments continuity to offer subsidiary programs to support high-tech job creation. In exchange, the studio has spent up to in the province of Quebec, and with their parent publisher, helped to open Ubisoft Quebec in Quebec City in 2005 and Ubisoft Saguenay in Saguenay in 2018 to help support Ubisoft Montreal's efforts, using similar tax incentives from the providence to help found these.
Steep (video game)
The game was developed by Ubisoft Annecy, a French studio which had previously worked on the multiplayer modes of the "Assassin's Creed" franchise and the "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" franchise as well as assisting in the development of "Tom Clancy's The Division". The game was co-developed by Ubisoft studios in Kiev and Montpellier. "Steep" became the first original game created by them. Development of the game was started in late 2013. The concept was inspired by the developer's close proximity to the Alps, and another Ubisoft game, "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands", whose large open world forced developer Ubisoft Paris to implement transport methods such as paragliding. The "Trials" series also influenced the game's design. Ubisoft originally was not convinced by the development team, but they later greenlit the project's development, mainly due to the huge popularity of extreme sporting videos on the video sharing website YouTube. The developers were also inspired by the renewed interest in the skateboarding game "Skate 3" after it was re-popularized through Let's Play streaming events performed by YouTubers and others. According to Igor Manceau, the game's director, the team pitched the project to Ubisoft as they believed that the game's online structure and open world are elements that are new to the sports genre.