Massive Entertainment

Not to be confused with Massive Development.

Massive Entertainment AB
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded1997; 27 years ago (1997)
FounderMartin Walfisz
Headquarters
Malmö
,
Sweden
Key people
Thomas Andrén[1] (managing director)
Number of employees
750+ (2023[2])
Parent
Websitemassive.se

Massive Entertainment AB is a Swedish video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Malmö. The company has been fully owned by Ubisoft since 2008. The studio is known for Tom Clancy's The Division, The Division 2, Ground Control, and World in Conflict.

History

Massive Entertainment was founded in 1997 by Martin Walfisz. In June 2000, Massive released the award-winning PC action-strategy title Ground Control, published by Sierra Studios. The same year an expansion was released named Ground Control: Dark Conspiracy.

In 2002, the studio was acquired by Vivendi Universal Games through their NDA Productions subsidiary.[3] In October 2007, they released the game World in Conflict, described as a further development of the real-time tactics gameplay formula from the Ground Control games, but set on Earth during an alternate history late Cold War. The game was released on 18 September 2007 and won critical acclaim, including nominations for one of the best games of 2007. It was followed by an expansion, World in Conflict: Soviet Assault. In December 2007, the studio moved into new offices on Drottninggatan in Malmö, employing 130 people at the time.[4]

Massive's former headquarters on Drottninggatan in Malmö (pictured in 2008). During its occupancy, from December 2007 to April 2020, the studio grew from 130 to more than 650 employees.[4]

On 6 August 2008, Activision Blizzard put up Massive Entertainment for sale after the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games and the subsequent internal reorganization.[5] On 10 November 2008, Ubisoft acquired Massive Entertainment. In March 2009, following the acquisition, the former CEO Martin Walfisz left the company.[6]

In December 2010, Ubisoft confirmed that Massive would be working on an Assassin's Creed project. On 5 May 2011, it was announced that Massive Entertainment was collaborating on development of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, developing the Desmond's journey sequences in the game, which was released in November 2011. Massive also collaborated on the development of Far Cry 3, which was released in December 2012.

At E3 2013 Massive announced their next game, Tom Clancy's The Division.[7] The game was released on 8 March 2016 and sold more copies in its first 24 hours than any game in Ubisoft's history, the biggest first week for a new game franchise, generating $330 million in its first five days.[8]

In March 2017, Massive announced that their next major title would be based on James Cameron's Avatar.[9][10] The game was revealed at E3 2021 to be titled Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and released on 7 December 2023.[11]

In April 2020, Massive and its more than 650 staff moved from the offices on Drottninggatan to Kvarteret Eden, a former textile factory in Malmö's Möllevången district.[4]

In January 2021, the newly reformed Lucasfilm Games announced that Massive started work on a new Star Wars open world title. This would be the first Star Wars game outside of Electronic Arts since they acquired a May 2013 contract to produce all Star Wars related titles.[12] This would later be revealed as Star Wars Outlaws, and it released in August of 2024.[13]

Technology

Main article: Snowdrop (game engine)

Games developed

Year Title Platform(s) Ref.
2000 Ground Control Microsoft Windows
Ground Control: Dark Conspiracy
2004 Ground Control II: Operation Exodus
2007 World in Conflict
2009 World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
2014 Just Dance Now Android, iOS, Tizen, tvOS
2016 Tom Clancy's The Division Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
2019 Tom Clancy's The Division 2 Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
2023 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
2024 Star Wars Outlaws Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
TBA Tom Clancy's The Division 3 TBA [14]

References

  1. ^ Entertainment, Massive (6 July 2021). "Thomas Andrén appointed as Massive Entertainment's new Managing Director". Massive Entertainment.
  2. ^ "Lead Technical Animator [Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora]". Ubisoft. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Vivendi Universal Publishing announces the acquisition of a Sweden based development studio: Massive Entertainment". SPOnG.
  4. ^ a b c Drakeus, Emilia (9 April 2020). "Welcome to Kvarteret Eden: A Massive New Beginning". Massive Entertainment.
  5. ^ Thang, Jimmy (6 August 2008). "Massive Sell Off". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  6. ^ Martin, Matt (17 March 2009). "Massive Entertainment founder leaves studio". GamesIndustry.biz. Gamer Network. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  7. ^ Goldfarb, Andrew (10 June 2013). "E3 2013: Open World Tom Clancy RPG The Division Announced". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  8. ^ "The Division Has Biggest First Week Ever for New Game Franchise - UbiBlog - Ubisoft®". 17 March 2016. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Avatar Game from Division Developer Massive". ComingSoon.net. 28 February 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  10. ^ "Massive Entertainment And Ubisoft's Avatar Game Releasing Before April 2023, Before Their Star Wars RPG". PlayStation Universe. 10 February 2021. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  11. ^ "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora launches December 7". Gematsu. 12 June 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  12. ^ Orland, Kyle (14 January 2021). "EA's hold over Star Wars games ends with Ubisoft's open-world announcement [Updated]". Ars Technica. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  13. ^ "Star Wars Outlaws™ Opens Up a Galaxy of Opportunity". news.ubisoft.com. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  14. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (21 September 2023). "Ubisoft announces Tom Clancy's The Division 3". IGN. Retrieved 21 September 2023.