Ubisoft turns 40 with something few publishers can genuinely claim: four decades of games that have changed with the industry, survived multiple console generations and become part of millions of players’ gaming history.
Founded in 1986 by the five Guillemot brothers, Ubisoft grew from a family-run publisher and distributor into one of the biggest names in gaming. Along the way came Rayman, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Watch Dogs, Rainbow Six Siege and plenty more.
The anniversary celebrations are already under way, with retrospectives, community features, a “40 years in 40 seconds” video and a major Ubisoft Store promotion.
For me, though, this isn’t just a publisher anniversary. I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing Ubisoft games on Xbox, and I’ve had Ubisoft+ for years. A fair chunk of my own gaming history is tied up in these franchises.
From five brothers to a global publisher
Ubisoft’s story starts in 1986, when the five Guillemot brothers set up the business to create and distribute video games around the world. Early releases included Zombi, before the company expanded internationally and began building the studio network behind many of its best-known games.
Ubisoft’s own company history charts that growth through the late 1980s and 1990s, as new subsidiaries and internal studios turned the business into something far bigger than its beginnings suggested.
The first real breakthrough arrived in 1995 with Rayman. Ubisoft describes it as the company’s first major hit, and the character still stands as one of the clearest links between its early years and the Ubisoft we know today.
Rayman proved Ubisoft could be more than a distributor
Rayman mattered because it showed Ubisoft could build an identity of its own. According to the company, the character was created at Ubisoft Montpellier in 1995 and went on to appear across more than 40 games and over 20 platforms.
From there, the catalogue widened quickly. Over the years Ubisoft added and developed major names including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Watch Dogs, The Division and the wider Tom Clancy line-up.
That range is one of the reasons a 40-year retrospective is worth doing. Ubisoft has never been tied to one type of game. Platformers, rhythm games, stealth, tactical shooters, sprawling open worlds and long-running online titles have all carried the name.
The early 2000s changed the shape of Ubisoft
The early 2000s were a turning point. In 2002, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell introduced Sam Fisher and built its identity around stealth, shadow and controlled movement. Ubisoft has since highlighted the original game’s lighting systems as one of the technologies that helped define its approach at the time.
Then came Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2003. Wall-running, fluid traversal, environmental puzzles and the ability to rewind mistakes gave it a rhythm that stood apart from plenty of other action-adventure games of the period.
Ubisoft’s own retrospective on The Sands of Time makes clear how important the project became to the Montreal studio. Some of the ideas explored there would soon feed into an even bigger series.
Assassin’s Creed became a defining Ubisoft series
If Rayman helped establish Ubisoft’s creative identity, Assassin’s Creed helped define its modern one.
The roots of the first Assassin’s Creed go back to the team behind Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Ubisoft has previously explained that in 2004 the Montreal team was asked to prepare for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation while rethinking the action-adventure genre. That work eventually became the first Assassin’s Creed, released in 2007.
Since then, the series has taken players from the Crusades and Renaissance Italy to ancient Egypt, Greece, Viking England and beyond. It has also changed its structure, combat and scale more than once. Few Ubisoft franchises show the company’s willingness to rework its biggest ideas quite as clearly.
Assassin’s Creed has been a huge part of my Ubisoft history
I’ve put a ridiculous amount of time into Assassin’s Creed over the years. Odyssey is the standout: 259 hours and 32 minutes, level 81, the main progression finished and 80 of 93 achievements unlocked.
I didn’t finish the story and move on. I kept going back to ancient Greece, clearing side content, exploring and chipping away at whatever was left. That sort of time only happens when a game gets its hooks into you properly.
It wasn’t just Odyssey. I’ve put 107 hours and 54 minutes into Assassin’s Creed Origins, while Valhalla sits at 130 hours and 24 minutes with 94% total progress. Those numbers tell their own story about how much bigger and more open-ended the series became compared with the earlier city-based games.
I’ve put another 42 hours and 3 minutes into Assassin’s Creed Mirage, 17 hours and 43 minutes into Shadows, and enough time into Unity to unlock 34 of its 57 achievements. More recently, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced has added another 55 hours and 52 minutes, with 26 of 49 achievements unlocked.
That’s what makes the series interesting to me. I’ve played the tighter city design of Unity, the huge RPG worlds of Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla, the more focused approach of Mirage, the newer ideas in Shadows and the pirate adventure of Black Flag. They do not all feel like the same sort of game. That is part of the appeal.
We recently revisited that pirate era in our Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced review, which gave me another excuse to spend dozens of hours sailing the Caribbean.
Far Cry and Watch Dogs helped shape the Ubisoft open world
As console hardware became more capable, Ubisoft became increasingly associated with large, systemic worlds built around exploration, objectives and player choice. Far Cry grew into one of its major action franchises, while Assassin’s Creed kept expanding its historical settings across successive generations.
Watch Dogs brought a different flavour when it arrived in 2014. Its connected version of Chicago turned cameras, traffic systems and other technology into tools. The launch was huge: Ubisoft recorded more than four million sales in the game’s first week, making it the company’s best-selling game ever in week one at the time.
I’ve played all three Watch Dogs games on Xbox, and the series has stuck with me. I’ve put 72 hours and 2 minutes into Watch Dogs: Legion alone. The original, Watch Dogs 2 and Legion all take the same hacking idea in noticeably different directions, which is one of the things I like about the series.
They are not carbon copies of one another, but together they helped shape a recognisable Ubisoft style: large environments, plenty to do, interconnected systems and enough freedom to choose your own route through them.
Just Dance reached a completely different audience
Not every defining Ubisoft game involved rooftops, guns or enormous maps. Just Dance launched on Nintendo Wii in 2009 with a much simpler idea: pick a song, follow the choreography and get moving.
It became one of Ubisoft’s biggest success stories outside its traditional action catalogue. Ubisoft says the series has reached more than 135 million players. That is a big reminder that the company’s history goes far beyond the franchises most often associated with it.
Rainbow Six Siege and The Division changed the relationship with players
The next shift was not just about what Ubisoft made, but how long its games were expected to last.
Rainbow Six Siege launched in December 2015 and grew into a long-running competitive platform. Siege X launched on 10 June 2025 as a major evolution of the game, while Year 10 Season 4 marked its 10th anniversary with a special in-game event. New Operators, map updates, balancing changes and anti-cheat work have kept Siege moving long past the lifespan most games ever reach.
The Division followed in March 2016 and immediately showed the appetite for Ubisoft’s online worlds. Ubisoft reported that The Division sold more copies in its first 24 hours than any previous game in the company’s history, while also setting a new internal record for first-day digital sales.
That period established another version of modern Ubisoft: games built to evolve after launch, with communities expected to stay for years rather than move on after one campaign.
Assassin’s Creed isn’t the whole story
I’ve put 84 hours and 43 minutes into Star Wars Outlaws, with 39 of 59 achievements unlocked. It’s another Ubisoft game I kept coming back to rather than playing once and moving on. It also shows how Ubisoft’s open-world experience can be applied to a completely different universe.
I’ve put 29 hours and 30 minutes into South Park: The Fractured but Whole, with 27 of its 35 achievements unlocked. It is about as far removed from Assassin’s Creed or Watch Dogs as you can get, and that is part of what makes Ubisoft’s catalogue so varied.
Ubisoft+ has played a part in that too. I’ve had the subscription for years, so Ubisoft releases have been a regular part of my Xbox gaming rather than an occasional purchase. It has made it easy to jump between familiar series, revisit older games and try something I might otherwise have left for later.
Ubisoft marks 40 years with anniversary celebrations
Ubisoft formally kicked off its 40th-anniversary celebrations on 3 July 2026, framing the programme as a look back at the games, characters and player memories that have shaped the company since 1986.
The launch included a short retrospective video built around 40 references to Ubisoft’s history. It moves quickly, packs in plenty of familiar faces and worlds, and shows just how much ground the publisher has covered.
Ubisoft’s official anniversary announcement set out a programme of content running through the following weeks and into September, with more surprises also teased.
The anniversary sale gives players another reason to look back
The latest part of the celebration is a major store promotion. Ubisoft’s UK customer email advertises savings of up to 80% across games and DLC, while the wider anniversary promotion also includes an extra 20% off eligible purchases with the code UBI40.
The additional code is scheduled to remain valid on selected titles until 13 October 2026 at 10am UTC. Ubisoft also states that UBI40 does not apply to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, so check the individual product page before buying.
The sale is useful. The history behind it is more interesting.
Four decades of Ubisoft means a catalogue spanning several generations of hardware, changing design trends and very different eras of the games industry. Few publishers get to look back over that much history with so many recognisable series still in the conversation.
Forty years of familiar worlds — and constant change
Ubisoft has changed enormously since 1986. Its current company profile lists more than 17,000 employees across 50+ locations, while its entertainment work now stretches beyond games into film, television, comics and more.
The games have changed just as much. The Ubisoft of Rayman is very different from the Ubisoft of Splinter Cell, which is different again from the publisher behind huge open worlds such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Watch Dogs, or the long-running communities around Rainbow Six Siege and The Division.
Not every experiment has worked. Ubisoft has had its misses, changed direction more than once and, like any publisher this size, sometimes pushed an idea further than players wanted. But standing still has rarely been the problem.
That constant change is exactly why different generations of players will associate the Ubisoft name with completely different games.
A milestone worth celebrating
Forty years is a rare milestone in an industry that moves this quickly. Studios close, publishers merge, hardware generations come and go, and successful series can vanish surprisingly fast.
For me, the anniversary puts some of those years into perspective. I’ve put hundreds of hours into Assassin’s Creed, played through the Watch Dogs series, spent plenty of time with Star Wars Outlaws and kept Ubisoft+ for years. Ubisoft games have not just been something I’ve followed — I’ve been playing them for years.
That is why Ubisoft’s 40th anniversary feels bigger than another sale banner. It is four decades of hits, reinventions, missteps, huge worlds and games people have poured hundreds of hours into.
Forty years in, Ubisoft is still changing. That might be the most Ubisoft thing about it.
