Ubi Soft by Doug Flowe Profile During the period of the Commodore 64, Atari and Amstrad prominence in the mid 1980's, five brothers began to turn Ubi Soft into an international company. Publishing many European games and bringing them to worldwide markets, Ubi Soft soon began to create its own games in the early 90's. In 1994, the first in-house production studio was created in Montreuil, France. Soon after, Ubi Soft found its niche and created a recognizable mascot for themselves - the energy ball throwing, limbless, helicopter eared wonder Rayman. As studios opened in other parts of the world including Montreal and Shanghai, Ubi Soft grabbed a few strategic licenses such as Donald Duck, The Jungle Book and Batman. Futhermore, the growing company snagged decisive production studios like Red Storm, the company responsible for the highly acclaimed Tom Clancy games, Sinister games and Blue Byte, a PC strategy gaming company based in Germany. Ubi Soft now boasts presence in 19 countries around the world including the USA. Coming Soon:
	Ghost Recon (Xbox/PS2) In the latest of Ubi Soft's "badass soldiers take on an entire country" games, you take control of an elite group of six soldiers. Sent in to topple Russia's new government that has set out to reclaim Georgia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Ghost Recon is classic Tom Clancy with an enticing storyline, thrilling team based tactical combat and chilling covert operations. Judging by the quality of the PC version and the ability of the Xbox controller to handle the genre, Ghost Recon should storm the console world with guns blazing November 13.
	Rocky (Xbox/PS2/GCN/GBA) Ever since I checked out the Rocky demo and watched Mr. T sign autographs and dance around the Rage booth at E3, I knew this game would be the answer to the pugilism fan in all of us. Knockout Kings has grabbed hold of the boxing torch but Rocky dodges and swings a knock out hook with crisp graphics, beautiful character models and more blood than you'll ever see on the EA's sim. Let's just hope this knock out punch lands and dislocates the jaw of the industry. It's been far too long since boxing has been appropriately honored in the game world. This game will feature many known characters from the Rocky movies and especially our favorites Clubber Lang and Apollo Creed. We'll see in mid November if this one is a contenda'.
	Splinter Cell (Xbox) Giving Metal Gear some much needed competition and breaking game barriers, Splinter Cell is poised to be the next classic hit to define 2002. Beyond the obvious graphical improvements and wonderfully crafted environments is an array of stealth and action game play elements that make Splinter Cell one of the most versatile games of it's kind. Sam Fisher gears up and checks into a land of espionage and infiltration to fight cyber terrorism and stop the world from hurling itself into WWIII.
	Projection Ubi Soft has become a huge force in the gaming industry. Most notable is their knack for publishing and developing unique games. Other titles to look for this year include Tom Clany's The Sum of All Fears, Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair and Evolution Worlds. With such an arsenal of quality titles and the continuation of their strong Tom Clancy series Ubi Soft is definitely having an exciting year.