{"id":14096,"date":"2011-07-13T14:44:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T04:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/power-up.space\/?p=14096"},"modified":"2011-07-13T14:44:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T04:44:18","slug":"ubisoft%c2%ae-acquires-owlient-and-howrse-brand-strengthening-its-free-to-play-expertise-and-portfolio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/?p=14096","title":{"rendered":"UBISOFT\u00ae ACQUIRES OWLIENT AND HOWRSE BRAND, STRENGTHENING ITS FREE-TO-PLAY EXPERTISE AND PORTFOLIO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney, Australia \u2013 July 13, 2011<\/strong> \u2013 Today, Ubisoft announced the acquisition of free-to-play game developer Owlient.\u00a0 The team at Owlient has extensive expertise in the management of online game-playing communities, and their Howrse brand has almost two million monthly active users.<\/p>\n

Founded in Paris in 2005 Owlient, with its 40 team members is a forerunner in creating free-to-play games. The company set itself apart for its ability to develop the expertise and technology necessary to manage and entertain an online game community.<\/p>\n

“We are thrilled to welcome the talented team at Owlient to Ubisoft.\u00a0 Over the last five years they have developed an architecture dedicated to delivering and monetising games as a service, as well as the skills of attracting and retaining online communities,\u201d said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft.\u00a0 \u201cThis acquisition is the next step in the acceleration of Ubisoft\u2019s free-to-play strategy following last year\u2019s launch of Settlers Online, CSI Crime City and Heroes Kingdoms, as well as the recent beta launch of our ambitious title Tom Clancy\u2019s Ghost Recon Online.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Joining the Ubisoft team will allow us to accelerate our international business and to expand our expertise and our games to new platforms.\u00a0 It also lets us integrate our proven online services architecture with Ubisoft\u2019s so that we can help grow their brands online,\u201d affirmed Olivier Issaly, chief executive officer of Owlient. \u201cWe are proud of what our team has accomplished and confident that joining Ubisoft will allow us to continue that success.\u00a0 We\u2019d also like to thank our shareholder Innovacom, who has accompanied the Owlient team over the years as we developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following acquisitions of Massive Entertainment, Nadeo and Quazal, Owlient represents the continuation of Ubisoft\u2019s focus on expanding its online expertise and infrastructure in order to expand its portfolio using new online business models.\u00a0 The recent launch of AAA project Tom Clancy\u2019s Ghost Recon Online in closed beta, the enthusiasm of the TrackMania community, the success of The Settlers Online in Germany and the Uplay online services platform are the most recent realisations of this strategy.<\/p>\n

Previous Ubisoft acquisitions in the online segment:<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 November 2008:<\/strong> acquisition of Massive Entertainment, renowned for their specialty in creating multiplayer games. Massive is collaborating on or responsible for the development of several ambitious unannounced projects.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 October 2009:<\/strong> acquisition of Nadeo, creator of cult hit multiplayer driving game, TrackMania. TrackMania 2 Canyon and ManiaPlanet will be launched in 2011.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 November 2010:<\/strong> acquisition of Quazal, a leader in the creation of online technical solutions. Assassin\u2019s Creed implements Quazal technology for its multiplayer mode, which received the Game Critics Award for “Best Online Game”<\/em> at E3 2010.<\/p>\n

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and <\/span>is expected to close in Ubisoft\u2019s second quarter of fiscal 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney, Australia \u2013 July 13, 2011 \u2013 Today, Ubisoft announced the acquisition of free-to-play game developer Owlient.\u00a0 The team at Owlient has extensive expertise in the management of online game-playing communities, and their Howrse brand has almost two million monthly active users. Founded in Paris in 2005 Owlient, with its 40 team members is a<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14103,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14096\/revisions\/14103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}