Who owns the best game developers?

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We find out which publisher wins in the battle of the studios

UBISOFT ENTERTAINMENT

Ubisoft. OOobisoft. Yooobisoft? We're not sure. But, then, it hardly matters much since this particular publisher's games are a far more interesting topic. Assassin's Creed might be flawed, but the sheer level of hype - and marketing - around it tells us just how big Ubisoft has become.

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The Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter series, Rainbow Six Vegas, Splinter Cell: Conviction, all these are resolutely next-gen games, and Ubisoft is one of the few publishers with a proven commitment to embracing the future of games, not strip-mining the past.

PUBLISHER SCORE: 74%

Ubisoftglobal studios| Founded various
Ubisoft has several global studios that produce specific areas of games (say, multiplayer) or for specific platforms. Ubisoft Paris, for instance,developed Xbox 360 versions of the two Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter games, while Ubisoft Shanghai has worked on Splinter Cell projects.
Studio score: 77%

Ubisoft Montreal | Founded 1997
The biggest single studio in Ubisoft's collection, Montreal is traditionally the one original in-house dev that will create all aspects and editions of a single game. The Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia and Rainbow Six franchises all come from this Canadian base - and, of course, Assassin's Creed.
Studio score: 85%

Red StormEntertainment | Acquired 2000
A studio founded by Tom Clancy himself. Which explains the author's superfluous prefix on almost every single game Ubisoft seem to make. Red Storm now acts like many Ubisoft studios, working in tandem with other studios on a single project. Though it was solely responsible for the diabolical Rainbow Six Lockdown.
Studio score: 71%

Reflections | Acquired 2006
Bought from Atari last year, Reflections first game - way back in 1989 - was Shadow of the Beast. It also, as you'll no doubt know, created the Driver series, a franchise that started incredibly well, but has since become a watchword for 'dross me-tooism'. Hopefully Ubisoft can nurture it back into shape with next year's PS3 instalment.
Studio score: 62%

Ben_Richardson

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.