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While the rainbow logo adopted in 1994 served Ubisoft well, the new logo more effectively targets its current stakeholders, including a wider group of mainstream, adult players. The company released its first game, Zombie, in 1986, followed by Rayman® and POD later in the 90s. Today, Ubisoft stands for each of these games as well as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell™, Rayman®3: Hoodlum Havoc and a whole new generation of top-selling, blockbuster titles.
The new corporate image better reflects Ubisoft's increasingly competitive market position. Up by some 40% each year since the company's initial public offering in 1996, net revenue reached a record $491 million last fiscal year. And with an average of at least three games under their belts, Ubisoft's development and marketing teams have never been more experienced or better prepared to meet ever-changing market demands.
Ubisoft also sees the re-branding as a chance to further its consumer-centric approach to business, while reinforcing its commitment to the core business strategy that has driven its growth all along. The pillars of this strategy include choosing quality over quantity, focusing on the creative potential of in-house development activities, catering to the demands of different players around the world and investing in the company's worldwide teams.
Says Yves Guillemot, president and CEO of Ubisoft: "I want the Ubisoft brand to be one of the most seen and recognized in the industry. Yes, the new look reflects our growing renown among players and industry professionals. But it also symbolizes some of our most basic beliefs, including building both our company and games to last, and constantly raising the bar to offer our best. Along with the re-branding comes an invitation to discover - or rediscover - just who we are and what we stand for."
1. Why did you decide to change your visual identity?
Three reasons: to adapt our image to better reflect who we really are, to be in line with our industry and consumers and finally to reinforce Ubisoft’s image and renown. Our current logo has served us well, but it no longer expresses Ubisoft’s current personality.
2. Why change your logo now?
Our company is evolving quickly: we have a catalog that is more diversified, studios and development teams that are also at a point where they have attained great maturity and our distribution network is stronger than ever. So this is a good timing for Ubisoft as we are ready to release hot titles for this Christmas season : Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six 3, XIII, Uru, etc..
3. Has this new logo been conceived to touch a different target / more adult?
Yes. We think our best-selling games such as Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Rayman 3, etc. already appeal to a more mature group of gamers as well as a growing number of mainstream players. We wanted to extend and reinforce this appeal by making sure that our logo and visual identity reflects our relationship with these targets. Our previous logo had been conceived for younger gamers, at the time when our catalog of games contained many edutainment games.
4. Ubisoft is known for its original titles. Did you want the new logo to reflect that?
The idea behind this logo is to push the “creative” aspect of the company, and to underline our game development activity. By affirming this creativity, we are also pushing the know-how and expertise of our production teams.
5. What are the new values behind this new logo ?
There are no new values conveyed by our logo. It is merely emblematic of the core values that have been with Ubisoft from the very beginning: playing fair, building a winning spirit, challenging oneself, initiating, sharing and driving customer satisfaction – all of which are based on a close and open relationship with our players.
6. Why don’t you use the word “Entertainment” anymore ?
We removed “entertainment” in our title because we believe that our international renown as a game publisher and developer is strong enough so that people no longer need to be reminded that we are in the entertainment business. That’s the bottom line. This decision does not change our strategy in any way, nor does it reflect a decision to move beyond the entertainment business.
7. When will the new logo appear on all your game packaging?
With the launch of XIII, end of October, and also Beyond Good & Evil, Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm and Uru: Ages Beyond MYST.