Ubisoft garages TrackMania dev

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Oct 5, 2009 1:54 pm PT

French publisher acquires Paris-based Nadeo, creator of online-enabled arcade racer, for undisclosed sum.

Ubisoft may have picked up Driver studio Reflections Interactive from a floundering Atari in 2006, but the studio has yet to deliver a game to augment the publisher's sparse racing portfolio. Today, Ubisoft made one more move at establishing a firmer hold in the racing genre, announcing it has acquired fellow French company Nadeo. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

F1 racers doing jumps on a dirt track is TrackMania's standard operating procedure.

Founded in 2000 and based in Paris, Nadeo is best known for its racing franchise TrackMania. The most recent installment in the series, TrackMania United Forever, introduced new arcade-style racing environments and cobbled together all previously released tracks. According to Ubisoft, the game enjoys 700,000 unique players each month, with nearly 15 million custom tracks uploaded since 2008.

Last month, Nadeo announced TrackMania 2 as part of the Paris Game Festival. Online reports from the event indicate that the game is expected to be available in 2010 for the PC. A Wii version of TrackMania is also in development. According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, the acquisition was part of the publisher's desire to grow in the online space.

"Through Nadeo, Ubisoft will gain an expert team, one of the best online technologies around as well as a flagship multiplayer game that enjoys an unrivalled reputation among a loyal and committed community," Guillemot said. "We are excited about the idea of introducing TrackMania to an ever-wider audience and sharing the expertise of Nadeo's teams with our company's other developers."

For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of TrackMania.

19 Comments

  • beer_tree

    Posted Oct 28, 2009 3:36 pm PT

    I love Trackmania Nations Forever!!!! I cant wait for this I will buy it right away!!

  • Korado3D

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 1:12 pm PT

    Trackmania Nations is my favorite online game - pure fun.

    I think it looks good, is it enhanced replay or is this a "new generation game" (here I'm doing a gesture for quotation marks with hands ) where you have to buy a new computer as well because your current computer has one ninth of required Ram or GHz

    Better Ubisoft not screw up this game with some endless tuning and so on, for marketing or whatever reasons or we'll send evil spirits on them I hate when they pack menus after menus after menus and instead of racing you have to - wait

    I wish they would release Trackmania for the PSP too, would be great to have that level of perfection on the go, with track editor and online play.

  • AKADreyadigg

    Posted Oct 7, 2009 11:28 pm PT

    maybe they will make a mode that allows collisions of cars, and different starting positions

  • CybermasterX

    Posted Oct 7, 2009 10:37 pm PT

    Nintendo_Man: The game is already fairly casual. Anyone can pick it up and play. It's fun arcade-style racing on creative, intuitive tracks both from the developer and users like us. TrackMania is THE Massively Multiplayer Racing Game; second to none. The only way the game could be ruined is bad collision detection or lack of online multiplayer. (Though it didn't quite ruin Trackmania DS since it had it's local wireless and party play)

  • Fozzlebunny7

    Posted Oct 6, 2009 5:58 pm PT

    wow. TM to consoles would be one of the best things ever done. TM is incredibly good. The track creator is the deepest anything creator ever made. Nadeo do us all a favor AND BRING A TM GAME TO CONSOLES!!!! PLEASE!

  • raahsnavj

    Posted Oct 6, 2009 12:10 pm PT

    I'd love to see TM (or its sequel) come to consoles, split screen multi and online capabilities. I know all the children get confused when cars drive through other cars, but I still want to see it happen.

  • kd_kash

    Posted Oct 6, 2009 11:22 am PT

    I WANT THAT GAME. Nadeo has GREAT engine.

  • Harerazer

    Posted Oct 6, 2009 7:49 am PT

    And to put a jump like that on a high banked U-turn is sick. Simply sick!

  • Harerazer

    Posted Oct 6, 2009 7:48 am PT

    I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that looks equal to or better than Gran Turismo. I know that's comparing true PC graphics to a PS3 but damn, this just looks good. The graphical hit this will take going to the Wii makes me wanna cry right now. I hope it eventually comes to the PS3 so we can stop hearing about GT-this and GT-that.

  • Ground_Zero

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 6:52 pm PT

    So what about Virtual Skipper?

  • Nintendo_Man

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 5:59 pm PT

    in other words they will casualise it like many other series

  • dangk

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 5:22 pm PT

    TrackMania. A fantastic game. A fun game. A sports game. One of the few really arcade games made today. Competitive to the last (micro)second...
    Fantastic online. 1-2 million online says it all....

  • Lockedge

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 4:36 pm PT

    I agree with lamplove.
    I was all "Ok, cars look good, but where's the wacky antics?"
    and then that ramp jump sealed it.

  • LampLove

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 3:46 pm PT

    First reaction: Why is this so realistic? This isn't Trackmania. I like the graphics, but this just isn't what it's about.

    Second Reaction: OH MY GOD

  • sonofcaine4ever

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 3:24 pm PT

    this TM2 IS really going to be som crazy sheat! if they mix these beautiful visuals with the mad tracks alright it is going to be my racing game forever

  • m4rkoca

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 3:10 pm PT

    I love TM, this looks awesome.

  • spudster007

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 2:40 pm PT

    Why did Ubisoft buy Reflections Interactive? Every sequel to Driver was terrible.

  • -BROWNTOWN-

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 2:24 pm PT

    Trackmania...greatest racing game ever :p

  • kkevguy47k posted Oct 5, 2009 2:23 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    kkevguy47k

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 2:23 pm PT (hide)

    i like the concept of these games but none of them have been good. now hopefully there can be some great ones.

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