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Ubisoft and Tencent form new subsidiary, Vantage Studios, to lead development for the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six franchises
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Ubisoft and Tencent form new subsidiary, Vantage Studios, to lead development for the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six franchises

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The breakout game development business co-owned by Tencent and Ubisoft finally has a name: Vantage Studios. Eurogamer understands from a source that it’s starting operations today, and will be responsible for new games across many of Ubisoft’s biggest IPs, such as Far Cry, Rainbow Six Siege, and Assassin’s Creed.

Vantage Studios is composed of 2,300 employees across multiple Ubisoft game development teams, including those from Montreal Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Sofia, and Barcelona. The studio will be run by the duo of Christophe Derennes and Charlie Guillemot.

Vantage Studios operate under a less centralised model compared to Ubisoft proper, with each development team having more ownership over its own respective project. This in theory would allow developers to be more fluid, and pivot according to industry changes and player expectations, per Eurogamer sources.

Check out Eurogamer’s video review of Assassin’s Creed Shadows here.Watch on YouTube

The formation of Vantage Studios comes as the climax of a tumultuous period for Ubisoft, which reportedly was considering this new venture with Tencent in January of this year following years of lacking performance. This new venture, which would bring many of Ubisoft’s biggest IPs under a new roof, was officially announced in March with Tencent taking a €1.16bn stake in the new business entity.

As for Tencent’s involvement, the Chinese company will have a 25 percent stake in Vantage Studios, and will act in an advisory role to the subsidiary’s leadership team. However, Guillemot and Derennes will retain control over both creative and business decisions. Ubisoft hopes this will allow its teams to have a better degree of creative freedom, per a source familiar with the subject.

How other studios, most notably Massive Entertainment, will operate going forward currently remains unlear. Eurogamer understands the publisher wants its devs to operate in a more decentralised way, with developers taking more ownership of the titles they’re working on – the company employs approximately 20,000 staff at the time of writing (per its site), and how the other ~17,000 staff will fit into this new vision remains to be seen.



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Forza Horizon 6 Has The Franchise's Biggest Open World Yet
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Forza Horizon 6 Has The Franchise’s Biggest Open World Yet

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On Thursday, after a lot of rumors and leaks, Xbox officially announced Forza Horizon 6. And yes, as many expected, the next Forza Horizon game is set in Japan and will launch in 2026. We haven’t seen much of the upcoming open-world racing sequel, but we do know that it will have the franchise’s biggest open world, and you can expect a lot to see and do in this big ol’ map.

In a new interview with Gamesradar, Forza Horizon 6 art director Don Arceta claimed that the open-world racer will have the “biggest map yet” in the history of the series. Considering the fact that Forza Horizon 5 was twice the size of the game before that, it seems players will have a lot of digital Japan to explore. But don’t expect Horizon 6‘s Japan to be empty or boring, as Arceta told the outlet that the new map is Playground’s “most full.”

“Like, obviously, we can’t go bigger without filling it with things to do and see,” explained Arceta. “And I think this map that we’ve created for Japan, or Horizon’s version of Japan, is big, but also dense. There’s always something around the corner for you to discover and see. But yeah, it’s bigger. I won’t put a number on it. It is bigger.”

And inside this large open world is Forza Horizon 6‘s version of Tokyo, which the game’s art director calls the “biggest city” the studio has ever created.

“[What] I’m really excited about that is also bigger, is our urban area, which is Tokyo city. That’s the biggest city that we’ve done in a Horizon game yet,” said Areta. “I think people will be most surprised about the city, Tokyo city, because I think it is probably our most ambitious. It’s really layered and complex. And I think players will just enjoy that space. It’ll be something new and fresh.”

Interestingly, as revealed in Gamesradar’s interview, the elevated roadways players will find in Forza Horizon 6′s version of Tokyo were built using the tech the studio created for the Hot Wheels tracks in Forza Horizon 5. Don’t expect any orange plastic tracks around Japan at launch, though. Forza Horizon 6 will arrive sometime in 2026 on Xbox Series X/S and PC, with a PS5 port coming at a later date.



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Only nine franchises make up the top 20 all-time best-selling PlayStation chart in the US - can you guess how many are Call of Duty games?
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Only nine franchises make up the top 20 all-time best-selling PlayStation chart in the US – can you guess how many are Call of Duty games?

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In honour of PlayStation’s 30th birthday yesterday in the US, data company Circana has dug out figures showing the top 20 best-selling PlayStation video games ever (date-range Jan 1995 to July 2025). Don’t get too excited.

Call of Duty dominates it, occupying nine of the top 20 spots, though Rockstar’s games lead the list, with Grand Theft Auto 5 top, Red Dead Redemption 2 fourth, GTA San Andreas fifth and GTA Vice City ninth.

The surprise performer for me is Insomniac’s relatively recent Marvel’s Spider-Man series, with the debut 2018 game in sixth and the PlayStation 5-launch-adjacent Miles Morales expandalone in 12th.

Elsewhere you’ll spot Minecraft, The Last of Us, God of War, Skyrim, and Rainbow Six Siege.

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The top-20 best-selling PlayStation games in the US ever, according to Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, are as follows.

Best-selling PlayStation games (all PlayStation platforms, US)

  1. Grand Theft Auto 5
  2. Minecraft
  3. Red Dead Redemption 2
  4. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
  5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
  6. Marvel’s Spider-Man
  7. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
  8. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War
  9. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
  10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
  11. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
  12. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  13. The Last of Us
  14. God of War (2018)
  15. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
  16. Call of Duty: Black Ops
  17. Rainbow Six: Siege
  18. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
  19. Call of Duty: WW2
  20. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

The list changes when you re-order it according to dollars made. There are now 11 Call of Duty games in the top 20, though GTA 5 still leads and Red Dead Redemption 2 is now third. The older GTA games San Andreas and Vice City drop down, presumably as they were less monetised, as does the cheaper Minecraft. But Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man series gains a third entry with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 showing up in 18th.

The most welcome change to this list, though, is Guitar Hero 3 appearing in 10th – its income presumably buoyed by the expensive plastic pack-in guitar peripheral and buyable, downloadable song packs. I miss that series.

Here’s the top-20 highest grossing PlayStation games in the US ever (date-range Jan 1995 to July 2025).

Highest-grossing PlayStation games (all PlayStation platforms, US)

  1. Grand Theft Auto 5
  2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
  3. Red Dead Redemption 2
  4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
  5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
  6. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War
  7. Minecraft
  8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
  9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
  10. Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
  11. Marvel’s Spider-Man
  12. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
  13. Call of Duty: Black Ops
  14. Call of Duty: WW2
  15. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
  16. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
  17. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
  18. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  19. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  20. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

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But that’s not all, stats fans! While spelunking in the archives, Piscatella dug up two other notable best-seller lists. One of them was for PlayStation 1 games only, which is relevant because it was the 30th anniversary of PS1 yesterday (9th September) in the US. And the other was for the best-selling Dreamcast games ever. Why? Because the Dreamcast was released on the same day, 9th September, albeit four years later than PS1, in 1999.

In the PS1 list we see the origins of some of PlayStation’s longest-running series, such as Gran Turismo and Metal Gear Solid – series I’m somewhat surprised not to see in the best-selling all-PlayStations list above. We also see Spyro doing well, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater doing well, and the Driver series doing well – which has since disappeared. The most recent game in that series was the somewhat overlooked Driver: San Francisco from 2011, in which you could body-shift from car to car. Also present: Final Fantasies 7 and 8, and Crash Team Racing.

The best-selling PS1 games of all time (Jan 1995 to July 2025) in the US are as follows.

Best-selling PS1 games (US)

  1. Gran Turismo 2
  2. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
  3. Gran Turismo
  4. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
  5. Jampack Series: PlayStation
  6. Frogger (1997)
  7. Spyro the Dragon
  8. Crash Bandicoot
  9. Tekken 3
  10. Driver
  11. Final Fantasy 7
  12. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
  13. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
  14. Metal Gear Solid
  15. Namco Museum: Vol. 3
  16. CTR: Crash Team Racing
  17. WWE Warzone
  18. Driver 2
  19. Final Fantasy 8
  20. Spyro Dragon 2: Rage

On Dreamcast, meanwhile, we see an alarming amount of sports games. But besides them there are some absolute classics: Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi – I didn’t realise it was this popular. There’s SoulCalibur of course, Bass Fishing, Resi Code Veronica. What a console!

The best-selling Dreamcast games of all-time (Jan 1995 to July 2025) in the US are as follows.

Best-selling Dreamcast games (US)

  1. Sonic Adventure
  2. NFL 2K
  3. Crazy Taxi
  4. NFL 2K1
  5. NBA 2K1
  6. NBA 2K
  7. SoulCalibur
  8. Ready 2 Rumble: boxing
  9. Shenmue
  10. World Series Baseball 2K1
  11. Sonic Adventure 2
  12. Virtua Tennis
  13. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
  14. Bass Fishing
  15. Resident Evil Code Veronica
  16. The House of the Dead 2
  17. NFL 2K2
  18. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
  19. NHL 2K
  20. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation



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Nintendo Only Creates New IP When Gameplay Doesn’t Fit Existing Franchises, Former Dev Says
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Nintendo Only Creates New IP When Gameplay Doesn’t Fit Existing Franchises, Former Dev Says

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The more things change, the more they stay the same, and for Nintendo, the company still relies on its legacy IP when it starts to develop new games. While we’ve seen multiple studios and publishers launch new brands over the years, Nintendo has largely stuck to the classics for its new releases, and it often doesn’t see a reason to build a new IP. Why? According to a former developer, gameplay comes first and the “wrapper” is chosen based on which franchise fits the project best.

“New franchises haven’t come out simply because there’s no real need to make them,” former Nintendo software developer Ken Watanabe said to Bloomberg. “When Nintendo wants to do something new, it’s basically about the gameplay mechanics first–about creating a new way to play. As for the skin or the wrapper, they don’t really fuss over it. They just pick whatever fits that new gameplay best.”

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Now Playing: Kirby Air Riders Is Faster, Deeper, and Cleaner Than The Original

“Nintendo will then find the right franchise that fits with the new gameplay mechanics that it has developed, but in the rare instance that it can’t, the company will consider making a new IP. One of its newest properties–technically–is Splatoon, which first launched in 2015 for the Wii U. While Nintendo attempted to use familiar faces in the third-person shooter game, it simply didn’t work out, and the company decided to create the cast of Inklings to carry the series forward and better communicate the ideas of the game to players.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year and early 2026, Nintendo’s upcoming first-party games are all based on established franchises. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Kirby Air Riders, and Splatoon Raiders are all on the way, and this year has seen the release of new Mario Kart and Donkey Kong games.

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