Ubisoft has announced Scalar, a new cloud-native technology that it claims “changes the way games are made and experienced.”
Scalar is led by Ubisoft Stockholm in Sweden in collaboration with teams in Malmö, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; Bucharest, Romania and Kyiv, Ukraine.
Per Ubisoft, Scalar will reduce dependency on game engines, which are used to create games, to open up game development possibilities. The company says this will enable developers to avoid traditional production constraints to focus on game design and player experience.
Using a microservice architecture, Scalar breaks down components and systems of traditional game engines, like AI and physics, independently in the cloud. This creates a distributed model across a “potentially unlimited” number of machines. In theory, this can then allow developers to leverage a “virtually infinite” amount of computing power to create digital worlds that “were previously unachievable.”
Additionally, Ubisoft says the tech is capable of dynamically starting and stopping services based on both player and developer activity so it only uses required computing power in real-time. This removes the need for developers to recompute what has already been computed.
Given that it’s still early, it’s unclear how this might impact specific Ubisoft games, like Assassin’s Creed or even the upcoming Splinter Cell remake. On a broader level, though, Ubisoft explained how this can impact the player experience.
For one, Scalar will allow developers to update and improve one service without affecting others, or add features to a game while people are playing, no download required. Additionally, the company teased how this might impact social games.
“Natively cross-platform and scalable, [Scalar] allows [players] to gather by the millions in a singular, shared virtual environment for new types of games and massively social experiences,” says Ubisoft. “And with cloud-accelerated systems, game worlds also reach a new level of persistency where players’ actions can have an immediate and lasting impact on their environment, opening the doors to new forms of emergent gameplay.”
For now, Ubisoft says its Stockholm studio is using Scalar to make a brand-new IP, although it will gradually expand the tech to all of its studios. The publishing giant has a significant Canadian presence, with major studios in Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto, in particular.
Companies are becoming increasingly invested in game streaming technology. In addition to the streaming-only platforms Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox and PlayStation have optional streaming services, Xbox Cloud Gaming and PlayStation Now, respectively. Nintendo also leverages the cloud to bring select games to the Switch, including Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and theKingdom Hearts series.
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