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Published on February 2nd, 2022 | by Andrew Bistak

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES NEW GLOBAL “ESPORTS AND COMPETITIVE GAMING” DIVISION  

Today, Ubisoft announced the reshape of its internal esports teams into one “Esports and Competitive Gaming” division, a newly consolidated global team which, while continuously developing Ubisoft’s competitive gaming activity in local territories through regional and local experts, will work towards one common objective, shaping the future of esports and competitive gaming at Ubisoft, and deliver on the company’s mission: enrich players’ lives by creating memorable and meaningful experience, on all levels of competition.

“Building upon six years of experience drawn from our competitive gaming activities on titles such Tom Clancy’s® Rainbow Six Siege, Brawlhalla®, Trackmania® or For Honor®, and looking at the evolution of our industry across the board, the revamp of our internal structure will give us the adequate tools to enter the next chapter of our journey and shape the future of esports and competitive gaming at Ubisoft.”, shared Geoffroy Sardin, Senior Vice President, Executive Publishing at Ubisoft.

François-Xavier Deniele, at the forefront of all strategic topics since the early days of esports at Ubisoft and orchestrating the company’s esports operations in the EMEA region for the past 6 years, has been appointed Senior Director, Esports and Competitive Gaming. He will now oversee all aspects of esports and competitive gaming at Ubisoft and lead the team as it takes on current and upcoming challenges and opportunities across all esports and competitive gaming strategic topics.

“We are proud of what our teams have accomplished over the past years in all regions, and of the milestones we have reached on our competitive portfolio in such a short time.” said François-Xavier Deniele, Senior Director, Esports and Competitive Gaming at Ubisoft. “Now our focus turns to 2022 and beyond. Strengthening esports and competitive gaming as a key pillar of Ubisoft’s culture, our streamlined internal organization will allow us to gain in agility, ultimately benefiting all our competitive ecosystems across Ubisoft’s portfolio of brands.”

The Esports and Competitive Gaming division is dedicated to:

  • Building thriving and inclusive competitive ecosystems for Ubisoft’s portfolio of competitive games, for fans to engage and take part in, and for organizations and sponsors to grow in. Whether looking at our most mature esports scenes such as Rainbow Six Siege’s, Brawlhalla’s and Trackmania’s, or other existing and future competitive games, we are dedicated to grow each competitive ecosystem into reaching its full potential.
  • Creating a multi-year plan with competitive activities, tournaments and leagues adapted to all, and a clear path from amateur to professional play, that inspires and engages players across the world.
  • Providing superior entertainment value and service to Ubisoft’s audience, through a diverse esports product offer, premium broadcast and event production, entertaining content, and a strong local presence allowing local communities to enjoy activities and content tailored for them.
  • Leveraging new opportunities by accompanying early on Ubisoft’s development and editorial teams across Ubisoft’s worldwide network of development studios, to collaborate on competitive games’ vision, scope and features, as well as revenue-sharing in-game items strategies.
  • Implementing, in collaboration with partners and organizations, healthy and sustainable esports business models and revenue streams, that contribute to create a mature and virtuous environment for all.

Within the perimeter of the aforementioned strategic mission and objectives, some of the team’s key areas of focus in the coming months and years will be to work their way towards going back to international esports events with live audience whenever the situation allows it, and to keep on investing in the growth of Ubisoft’s existing esports titles. Ubisoft has recently announced exciting plans for the Year 7 of Brawlhalla Esports and will make much anticipated reveals for the Year 7 of Rainbow Six Siege, for the game and its esports scene, during the upcoming Six Invitational.

In addition to the existing competitive activities on the company’s esports titles, the Esports and Competitive Gaming division is also looking to broaden the portfolio of games offering competitive experience to fans. Already in discussion with the development teams of some of Ubisoft’s upcoming games, the team is looking to build competitive ecosystems across a diverse range of game genres, and to build upon their success and experience with the R6 SHARE program on Rainbow Six Siege to create revenue sharing strategies for other projects.

Alongside broadening its portfolio, a key development axis will be to make competitive gaming more easily accessible to players, by embedding competitive gaming at the core of their regular gaming routine. To achieve this, Ubisoft will accompany platforms to offer direct ‘plug and play’ competitive experience on its games, whether it’s playing or watching, directly embedded in their platform.

“Our partnership with PlayStation to have Rainbow Six Siege be part of their native Open Series Tournaments is a great success and a great showcase of the ultimate grassroot activity.” explained François-Xavier Deniele. “It allows a different audience than the one taking part in our professional and semi-professional circuits to engage in competitive gaming and we are looking forward to multiply similar opportunities.”

And finally, the broadcast studios in Sao Paulo, Paris and Las Vegas, will also play a pivotal role as the showcases of Ubisoft’s competitive activities.


About the Author

When he's not trying to save the world, Andrew enjoys travel (although loathes turbulence), going to the movies, reading and being a dad to his two dogs (and now twins) with his wife.


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