Following Amazon's decision to gut its video games division in October as part of a 14,000 job cut at the company, Ubisoft announced the acquisition of one of its studios, Amazon Games Montreal, which is currently working on the MOBA March of Giants.
According to Announcement from UbisoftThe acquisition includes the rights to March of Giants and will also see the Amazon Games Montreal team join the company. This includes exes Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege creative director Xavier Marquis, who joined Amazon in 2021 after leaving Ubisoft two years earlier.
As for why Ubisoft wants March of Giants and its team, the company says the global MOBA game market is expected to “continue to grow year-on-year for the rest of the decade, with total revenue approximately doubling by 2030” – and it believes its newly acquired game is “an innovative and differentiated project with the potential to offer something new to current MOBA fans, attract new audiences, and grow into a successful live competitive game.”
“March of Giants has a real opportunity to bring players something fresh and dynamic, and help Ubisoft compete in one of gaming's biggest arenas,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot added in a statement. “We look forward to Alexander's return. [Parizeau]With Xavier and many of the experienced March of Giants team having previously worked at Ubisoft, the ambition, creativity and talent of the entire team aligns perfectly with our desire to create bold new experiences for players. We look forward to supporting them as they shape the future of this promising new IP.”
Ubisoft notes that the terms of the acquisition deal are “not disclosed,” but says the agreement includes a commitment from Amazon to provide marketing support for March of Giants in the future. Twitch.
The sale of Amazon Games Montreal follows sweeping changes to Amazon's video game strategy in October, when Bloomberg reported the company gutted its gaming division as part of mass layoffs. At the time, Stephen Boom (Amazon's VP of Audio, Twitch and Games) reportedly told employees that the company had “made the difficult decision to halt a significant portion of our AAA game development work, particularly in the MMO space,” resulting in “significant reductions in roles across our Irvine and San Diego studios, as well as our central publishing team.”
Following Amazon's announcement, this was confirmed. current work on MMO New World will ceaseand the word appeared suggesting his Lord of the Rings MMO has also been canned.
