Ubisoft Originals Branding Could Mean Big Changes Are Coming

Ubisoft has announced that it's rolling out new branding for all of the games it makes in-house. Those titles will now be known as "Ubisoft Originals," and considering the number of studios Ubisoft has under that umbrella, we're probably going to be seeing a lot of that branding in the future. The first game this branding will appear in is Tom Clancy's The Division: Heartland.

Following the announcement of that game, Eurogamer asked Ubisoft just what that label meant. In reply, the company said, "Moving forward 'The Ubisoft Original' mention is attached to all of Ubisoft's games created in-house by our talented developers."

As Eurogamer points out, what's particularly interesting about that statement is the fact that Ubisoft doesn't currently publish games made by studios it doesn't already own. Ubisoft has a huge number of subsidiaries around the world, whether those are formerly-independent studios that it has acquired or regional studios carrying the Ubisoft name that it has opened throughout the years.

The number of games its subsidiaries put out each year is already enough to make Ubisoft one of the biggest publishers in the world, so perhaps now the company will turn its attention to publishing games by studios from outside its portfolio? If so, then that "Ubisoft Originals" branding could make a lot of sense, as it could distinguish Ubisoft's in-house titles from the games it's merely acting as publisher on.

Of course, that's all just speculation – Ubisoft may just be rolling out this branding because it likes the sound of "Ubisoft Original." We'll see what happens from here, and we'll let you know if Ubisoft does indeed decide to branch out to publishing big releases from independent studios.