Ubisoft Reflections logo |
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| Type | Subsidiary of Ubisoft |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer and video game industry |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Founder(s) | Martin Edmondson |
| Headquarters | Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom |
| Products | Driver series Destruction Derby series Shadow of the Beast |
| Owner(s) | Ubisoft |
| Employees | 120[1] |
| Parent | Ubisoft |
Ubisoft Reflections Ltd.,[2] formerly known as Reflections Interactive,[3] is a video game developer based in Newcastle, United Kingdom. The studio focuses on racing games and it is best known for creating the award winning Driver series.
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Martin Edmondson started developing games for the BBC Micro with Nicholas Chamberlain in 1984. Their first game was a Paperboy clone called Paper-Round that took two years to develop but was never released.[4] While working on that game, they started Ravenskull which would be their first published game, released in 1986 by Superior Software. This was followed by Codename: Droid and an Acorn Electron conversion of Stryker's Run in 1987.[4]
The name Reflections was first used for their 1989 hit Amiga game, Shadow of the Beast, published by Psygnosis which spawned two sequels. The original Amiga game was partially written by Paul Howarth, and started out life as a parallax test of the Fat Agnus bit blitter chip on the Amiga, Paul later went on to work for Deep Red Games, a UK video game company based in Milton Keynes. A number of other Amiga and Atari ST games followed including Ballistix (1989), Awesome (1990) and Brian the Lion (1994).
In 1995, they became known for Destruction Derby, which was critically acclaimed for its realistic physics and destruction, which later become Reflections' specialty.[5] Due to the success, the game had four more sequels over the years. In 1999, Reflections became well known for the game Driver, which was inspired by '70s cop shows like Starsky and Hutch and movies like Bullitt and The Driver. It has been followed by four sequels and four spin-offs.
Their logo was designed to complement the Psygnosis owl, so that they would look good together on the back of game cases. It is one fancy written "R" which is then rotated and mirrored, thus reflecting upon their name, "Reflections".
In 2004, studio founder Martin Edmondson left Reflections and sued Atari due to the poor reception of Driv3r and "constructive unfair dismissal as a result of Reflections alleged repudiatory breach of a contract of employment that necessitated Mr. Edmondson's resignation."[6] Martin's brother, Gareth Edmondson, took his place as the studio manager. In August 2006, Atari announced that it had transferred all of the staff and most of the assets of Reflections Interactive Limited, including the intellectual property and technology rights to the Driver series, to Ubisoft for $24 million.[7]
Reflections Interactive Limited was subsequently renamed Ubisoft Entertainment Limited trading as Ubisoft Reflections. The first Reflections' game after becoming a Ubisoft studio, was Driver 76, released in 2007.
Martin Edmondson returned to Reflections for the development of Driver: San Francisco, released in September 2011.
Gareth Edmondson, studio manager, left Reflections after more than a ten-year presence at the studio in November 2011, two months after the launch of Driver: San Francisco.[8]
| Title | Year | Platform(s) | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ravenskull | 1986 | BBC Micro, Acorn Electron | Superior Software |
| Codename: Droid | 1987 | BBC Micro, Acorn Electron | Superior Software |
| Stryker's Run | 1987 | Acorn Electron (conversion of BBC Micro game)[4] | Superior Software |
| Shadow of the Beast | 1989 | Commodore Amiga | Psygnosis |
| Ballistix | 1989 | Commodore Amiga, Atari ST | Psygnosis |
| Shadow of the Beast II | 1990 | Commodore Amiga, Atari ST | Psygnosis |
| Awesome | 1990 | Commodore Amiga, Atari ST | Psygnosis |
| Shadow of the Beast III | 1992 | Commodore Amiga | Psygnosis |
| Brian the Lion | 1994 | Commodore Amiga | Psygnosis |
| Destruction Derby | 1995 | PlayStation, MS-DOS, Sega Saturn | Psygnosis |
| Destruction Derby 2 | 1996 | PlayStation, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows | Psygnosis |
| Thunder Truck Rally | 1998 | PlayStation, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows | Psygnosis |
| Driver | 1998 | PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Game Boy Color | GT Interactive |
| Driver 2 | 2000 | PlayStation, Game Boy Advance | Infogrames |
| Stuntman | 2002 | PlayStation 2 | Infogrames |
| Driv3r | 2004 | PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Xbox | Atari |
| Driver: Parallel Lines | 2006 | PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Xbox, Wii | Atari, Ubisoft |
| Driver 76 | 2007 | PlayStation Portable | Ubisoft |
| Emergency Heroes | 2008 | Wii | Ubisoft |
| Monster 4x4: Stunt Racer | 2009 | Wii | Ubisoft |
| Driver: San Francisco | 2011 | Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X | Ubisoft |
| Far Cry 3 | 2012 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows | Ubisoft |
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