Op-Ed

Editor's Note 58

I remember the days we were brainstorming ideas for the current editorial calendar. We were going through our Seekrit Process of Editorial Calendar Making, with the obligatory calls for scotch and cigars, as well as a whiteboard in my office covered with scrawled ... words, if you can call them that, which likely made sense only to those in the room.

As we went back through them to narrow down the topics into something resembling an order with a purpose, we came across Ubisoft. We paused. Several said, "Why?" Well, because they're huge. They've been around forever and who doesn't own at least one Ubisoft title? And, well, I don't know anything about them. How does that happen? Who is Ubisoft, anyway?

Our interest was piqued, and so, hoping we weren't cats, we ran with the curiosity. We began looking for one of our stars to write a profile of this prolific giant that lived in shadows. We knew it would be hard (Sorry, Spanner!).

What we didn't know is how hard it would be to get anything at all from Ubisoft. There's a reason no one knows anything about Ubisoft - they don't talk to journalists. I'm not complaining; I'm really just not sure what to make of it. In a world of people, businesses, countries all spending as much time clamoring about the good things they do as they spend actually doing them, a silent one screams louder than the rest.

And so we scrounged what we could from Ubisoft games, our memories and the dark corners of the internet (yes, we go there so you don't have to) in order to bring you "Ubisoft: Ubi, Uber, Uni." Spanner, good lad that he is, took on the task of profiling Ubisoft and came back with a great read and some interesting conclusions. Joe Blancato spoke with an ex-Frag Doll to get the real scoop of the Ubi-sponsored gaming clan. And Jim Rossignol waxes a bit philosophical about underrated Beyond Good & Evil, which I now want to go and play.