From Mario to Star Wars: What's next for Ubisoft Milan
The third and final DLC for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope arrives this month, and for developer Ubisoft Milan it involves the return of an old friend.
The DLC is titled Rayman in the Phantom Show and, as the name suggests, sees the return of Ubisoft's limbless platforming star. And this character holds real significance for the team in Milan.
"We managed in some way to go back to where we started," says producer Cristina Nava.
"At the very beginning, when Ubisoft Milan was born, we worked on a Game Boy Color game with Rayman. Now the circle is closed."
"We like to build things in the real world. We create puppets, we create plushies"
That Rayman Game Boy Color game was released over 23 years ago, and remarkably many of that team remains at Ubisoft Milan, including creative director Davide Soliani, art director Mauro Perini, and lead artist Fabrizio Von Stibiel. Even those that don't stretch back quite that far have spent upwards of 20 years as part of the Milan team.
"When I entered Ubisoft Milan in 2008, we were 35 people," Nava recalls. "We now have 130 more or less. But the veterans, the ones who were there at the very beginning are still here. Most of them. We went through hardships together because it was difficult at the beginning to make our studio shine and known.
"Some people didn't even know we were here. When I started, I had no idea there was Ubisoft in Italy. I read an advertisement. I was writing for comics TV, movies and things like that. I didn't even know there was Ubisoft in Milan, which was my hometown, although I was living in Rome at the time.
"It was tough at the beginning because we worked on loads of casual games, we worked on Just Dance for a period. It was challenging but also a great
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