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Asobo Studio SAS

Company type	Private
Industry	Video games
Founded	17 October 2002; 22 years ago (2002-10-17)
Founders	Sébastien Wloch David Dedeine Ralph Musti Martial Bossard Nicolas Coquard Cédric Rousseau Frédéric Seiss Franck Manon Alain Guyet Nicolas Becavin Patrice Bourroncle Andreas Nick
Headquarters	Bordeaux, France
Key people	Sébastien Wloch David Dedeine
Revenue	€7 million (2014)
Number of employees	250 (2022)
Website	www.asobostudio.com

Asobo Studio SAS is a French video game developer based in Bordeaux and founded in 2002. The studio is most known for developing video game adaptations of several Pixar movies, A Plague Tale: Innocence, and the 2020 and 2024 versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator. To develop most of their games, they use their own game engine called Zouna, which was originally developed in the 1990s by some of their own employees who used to work at Kalisto Entertainment. It was later further developed by Asobo. The studio's name is derived from the Japanese word "asobō" (遊ぼう) that means "let's play".

History

In 2002, a group of twelve video game developers purchased the rights to the multiplayer PlayStation 2 video game Super Farm from their previous employer, Kalisto Entertainment and founded Asobo Studio. The game was published in 2003 by Ignition Entertainment as their debut title. During the following years, the studio developed several games for various platforms, until being chosen by publisher THQ to create the video game adaptation of Pixar film Ratatouille. Asobo started increasing its growth-speed, recruiting about 20% new employees a year, leading to two separate production lines. Asobo was selected to develop the video game adaptation of Pixar's following films WALL-E and Up.

During the 2008 Games Convention, the video game publisher Codemasters announced Fuel, a racing game developed by Asobo Studio. Fuel was released in 2009 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The studio worked on Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure for Xbox 360 Kinect between 2010 and 2012. The game features a scanning process, enabling the player to create their own Pixar avatar, looking like them. It features characters from Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Cars, Up and Toy Story. The game was published by Microsoft and Disney Interactive Studios in March 2012.

In 2014, Asobo Studio partnered with Ubisoft to release Monopoly Family Fun pack on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, including Monopoly Plus, My Monopoly and Monopoly Deal, as well as The Crew for Xbox 360. In 2016, Asobo Studio partnered with Microsoft again to release two games on HoloLens: Fragments and Young Conker. Both games are available in the Development Edition, released on March 30, 2016. Asobo Studio was the first independent developer in Holographic Entertainment and won the 2016 French Video Game Creator Prize awarded by Syntec Numérique EY and SNJV. In 2017, the studio announced A Plague Tale: Innocence, an adventure game, released for PC and consoles in 2019 and published by Focus Home Interactive. They also worked with Engine Software to develop Monopoly for Nintendo Switch, which came out later that year. On August 18, 2020, their next game, Microsoft Flight Simulator, was released for Microsoft Windows.

In 2021, Sagard NewGen purchased a stake of just over 30% for €20 million, valuing the company at approximately €65 million.

In March 2021, Asobo's Microsoft Flight Simulator won the Pégase for Best French video game of the year. This is the second consecutive year that the studio has been awarded after A Plague Tale: Innocence in 2020. The sequel of A Plague Tale: Innocence, titled A Plague Tale: Requiem, was released on October 18, 2022.

Games developed

Notes

1. Asobo developed the Xbox 360 port for this game. The PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows versions were developed by Ubisoft Ivory Tower and Ubisoft Reflections
2. The Nintendo Switch port (titled Monopoly for Nintendo Switch) was developed by Engine Software
3. Original Xbox 360 release developed by Frontier Developments

References

1. "A Plague Tale Requiem Presentation: Tribeca Games Spotlight 2022". Tribeca Games Spotlight. June 11, 2022. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
2. "Engine:Zouna - PCGamingWiki PCGW". www.pcgamingwiki.com. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
3. "Game Engine: Zouna". MobyGames. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
4. César, Nicolas (January 22, 2013). "Asobo, le studio de jeux vidéo français qui a séduit Microsoft". La Tribune (in French). Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
5. Casamassina, Matt (July 31, 2007). "Ratatouille Review". IGN. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
6. "Disney•Pixar WALL-E on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Archived from the original on February 19, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
7. Clayman, David (July 24, 2009). "Up Review". IGN. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
8. VanOrd, Kevin (June 10, 2009). "Fuel Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
9. Whitehead, Dan (April 6, 2012). "Kinect Rush Review". Eurogamer.net. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
10. Wright, James (December 12, 2014). "Monopoly Family Fun Pack XBox One Review - Impulse Gamer". www.impulsegamer.com. Archived from the original on April 28, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
11. "The Crew". IGN. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
12. Saed, Sherif (March 1, 2016). "Fragments sounds like the most exciting game for HoloLens". VG247. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
13. Martin, Matt (2016-02-29). "Microsoft HoloLens dev kit costs $3,000, Young Conker revealed in new video". VG247. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved 2022-09-12.
14. "6ème édition du Top 250 des éditeurs et créateurs de logiciels français | Numeum". Archived from the original on 2021-08-01. Retrieved 2022-06-27.
15. Foxell, Sam (7 January 2017). "Focus Home Interactive and Asobo Studios collaborate on new adventure game, The Plague". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on August 8, 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
16. Reiner, Andrew (24 January 2019). "A Plague Tale: Innocence Launches This May". Game Informer. Archived from the original on August 8, 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
17. "Microsoft Flight Simulator Set for Launch on August 18 for PC, also with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta)". Microsoft Flight Simulator. 2020-06-13. Archived from the original on 2020-07-13. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
18. "Jeux vidéo : la pépite française Asobo valorisée 65 millions d'euros". Les Echos (in French). 2021-01-21. Archived from the original on 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2021-01-24.
19. "Pégase 2021 : «Flight Simulator» sacré jeu vidéo français de l'année". LA VDN (in French). 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
20. "Flight Simulator, du studio bordelais Asobo, sacré jeu vidéo français de l'année". LEFIGARO (in French). 17 March 2021. Archived from the original on 2023-08-28. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
21. Stewart, Marcus (June 23, 2022). "A Plague Tale: Requiem Gets October Release Date And 10-Minute Gameplay Demo". Game Informer. Archived from the original on July 14, 2022. Retrieved 2022-09-12.
22. "Microsoft Flight Simulator | Asobo Studio". Archived from the original on 2019-09-30. Retrieved 2019-09-30.

External links

• Official website

• French companies established in 2002
• Companies based in Bordeaux
• Video game companies established in 2002
• Video game companies of France
• Video game development companies
• Privately held companies of France