Ubisoft Community Involvement Every Step of the Way

Over the past 36 years, Ubisoft has amassed a fan base filled with passionate players, content creators, and outstanding community members. From pre-production to brand outreach, players are key to the success of Ubisoft games and a source of inspiration and motivation for development teams around the world. Several Ubisoft programs, including the Ubisoft Star Players Program and community developers for each game, involve fans in game creation and updates. Community developers and community advocacy experts, for instance, help facilitate a two-sided relationship with fans, bringing their worlds and ours more closely together.

Ubisoft Star Players Program: A Fan-Centric Experience
Created in 2015 as an opportunity to give back to some of Ubisoft’s biggest fans, the Star Players program fosters relationships with fans and content creators who display passion, drive, and expertise with a positive impact on their communities. Since its inception, the program has evolved to include over 500 members from 46 different countries. Star Player engagement can also take many forms, ranging from fan artists, streamers, cosplayers, board moderators, and more.

Ubisoft Star Players Project Manager Pierre Sanchez works with players that are among the most devoted fans of major Ubisoft titles. Sanchez organizes events and surprises for Ubisoft’s Star players and helps ensure their input is included in major game-making decision. Project Manager Oliwia Chrzanowskahas been on the Star Players program for four years. Together, she and Sanchez work to manage the Star Players Discord server, organize events and meetups, and act as a liaison between Ubisoft and its most dedicated fans.

In contrast to the oft-found follower-driven online culture, Ubisoft’s Star Player program focuses on passionate fans regardless of social media follower count.“It’s important for our Star Players have a real love for Ubisoft and a passion for our games,” says Chrzanowska. “We also pay attention to fans who are providing us with constructive criticism, because it means they’re interested in games and have put in time playing them. In turn, we pass this feedback on to other team members so that we can learn and grow together with our fans.”

Ubisoft Star Players World Tour

Let’s Talk Perks
Of course, becoming a Ubisoft Star Player comes with a few perks (in addition to some sweet street cred). “We want our Star Players to have a win-win relationship with us,” explains Sanchez. “Our Star Players get a lot of benefits, such as learning from developers about how their favorite games are made, attending conferences, and of course receiving goodies and swag bags. More than anything, we want to give our Star Players all the tools they need to grow as creators.”

The Star Players committee regularly hosts membership workshops on gaming- and tech-related topics, including a recent talk sharing streaming tips and tricks used in the industry. For this talk, Sanchez and his team led discussions on setting up streaming channels and equipment Ubisoft teams use to create professional livestreams. “We often ask our members, ’What can we do for you?’” Sanchez says. “Sometimes, Star Players receive early access to games, or they have questions they’d like answered by team members working on their favorite games.”

The Star Players team also recently hosted a workshop with representatives from Ubisoft’s HR teams about creating and tailoring resumes and cover letters for members interesting in working in the industry. Sanchez would know: He was a Star Player himself before turning his passion into a career by joining Ubisoft. In addition to working as the Star Players Project Manager, he regularly hosts cosplay events by request of members of the Star Players group.

Learn more about Sanchez and his passion for light... or rather, laser sabers and Assassin’s Creed in this profile video:

Over the past 36 years, Ubisoft has amassed a fan base filled with passionate players, content creators, and outstanding community members. From pre-production to brand outreach, players are key to the success of Ubisoft games and a source of inspiration and motivation for development teams around the world. Several Ubisoft programs, including the Ubisoft Star Players Program and community developers for each game, involve fans in game creation and updates. Community developers and community advocacy experts, for instance, help facilitate a two-sided relationship with fans, bringing their worlds and ours more closely together.

Ubisoft Star Players Program: A Fan-Centric Experience
Created in 2015 as an opportunity to give back to some of Ubisoft’s biggest fans, the Star Players program fosters relationships with fans and content creators who display passion, drive, and expertise with a positive impact on their communities. Since its inception, the program has evolved to include over 500 members from 46 different countries. Star Player engagement can also take many forms, ranging from fan artists, streamers, cosplayers, board moderators, and more.

Ubisoft Star Players Project Manager Pierre Sanchez works with players that are among the most devoted fans of major Ubisoft titles. Sanchez organizes events and surprises for Ubisoft’s Star players and helps ensure their input is included in major game-making decision. Project Manager Oliwia Chrzanowskahas been on the Star Players program for four years. Together, she and Sanchez work to manage the Star Players Discord server, organize events and meetups, and act as a liaison between Ubisoft and its most dedicated fans.

In contrast to the oft-found follower-driven online culture, Ubisoft’s Star Player program focuses on passionate fans regardless of social media follower count.“It’s important for our Star Players have a real love for Ubisoft and a passion for our games,” says Chrzanowska. “We also pay attention to fans who are providing us with constructive criticism, because it means they’re interested in games and have put in time playing them. In turn, we pass this feedback on to other team members so that we can learn and grow together with our fans.”

Let’s Talk Perks
Of course, becoming a Ubisoft Star Player comes with a few perks (in addition to some sweet street cred). “We want our Star Players to have a win-win relationship with us,” explains Sanchez. “Our Star Players get a lot of benefits, such as learning from developers about how their favorite games are made, attending conferences, and of course receiving goodies and swag bags. More than anything, we want to give our Star Players all the tools they need to grow as creators.”

The Star Players committee regularly hosts membership workshops on gaming- and tech-related topics, including a recent talk sharing streaming tips and tricks used in the industry. For this talk, Sanchez and his team led discussions on setting up streaming channels and equipment Ubisoft teams use to create professional livestreams. “We often ask our members, ’What can we do for you?’” Sanchez says. “Sometimes, Star Players receive early access to games, or they have questions they’d like answered by team members working on their favorite games.”

The Star Players team also recently hosted a workshop with representatives from Ubisoft’s HR teams about creating and tailoring resumes and cover letters for members interesting in working in the industry. Sanchez would know: He was a Star Player himself before turning his passion into a career by joining Ubisoft. In addition to working as the Star Players Project Manager, he regularly hosts cosplay events by request of members of the Star Players group.

Learn more about Sanchez and his passion for light... or rather, laser sabers and Assassin’s Creed in this profile video:

Becoming a Star Player
In 2014,Avery- better known as @LittleSiha in the Just Dance online community - woke up to an email inviting her to become a Star Player and join the Just Dance team at E3. “I was so happy when I received the news,” she says. “I remember just sitting up in bed thinking that I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. It was a really special moment.” Since then, Avery has been involved in several Ubisoft events and featured in many videos, including hosting several Q&A sessions for Just Dance fans and dancing on stage for two years at E3.

Avery has been professionally creating Just Dance content on social media for nearly eight years after discovering the Just Dance World Dance Floor online weekly tournament. “When they originally announced the tournament, I thought it sounded fun to just compete,” Avery explains. “I didn’t know if I was good enough to go all the way. But I qualified for the top round and was flown to Paris to compete in person at Paris Games Week 2014! I’ll never forget the first time I was on stage with other Just Dancers performing for a huge crowd of people.”

It was there Avery discovered Twitch and began streaming Just Dance content. Only six months later, it turned into her full-time job. “It’s been amazing to be able to take this passion I have for the game and turn into a career. T

hrough my Twitch community, we’ve been able to raise money for charity and connect with others who love the game as much as I do.”

If Avery were to give advice to players who hope to join the program, it’s“Make sure you’re creating.” She adds, “As long as you’re making content that you’re passionate about, whether through videos, streaming, cosplays, or fan art.” She shares that it’s equally important to make unique content to stand out from the crowd. “Getting creative with your content creation can be both fun and rewarding. It’s important to brainstorm creative ideas for the content you want to make.”

Ubisoft’s Community Teams: Creating the Link
Ubisoft’s various Community teams help build Ubisoft-player relationships by communicating player feedback and hosting open, creative, and honest conversations. These Community teams exist for several of Ubisoft’s popular franchises, including Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, Anno, Riders Republic, The Division, and Far Cry.

An essential aspect of Ubisoft’s Community team is its Community Developers, who act as the strategic leaders for a game’s community team. Dubbed “comdevs,” they represent players to Ubisoft’s partners by gathering research from their community and help drive new initiatives and programs for fans based on the community’s needs and requests.

Oliver Walz, an Anno 1800 comdev, has been a part Ubisoft’s Community teams for five years. “I’m deeply connected to Ubisoft’s Anno fanbase and our players in general,” Walz says. “Whether it’s through scheduling posts, replying to comments online, or gathering player data, all the roles of the Community team members are centered around player experience.”

Ubisoft’s comdevs work with both the internal teams within their respective games and the larger Global Publishing worldwide teams. Being well-integrated and connected with various departments, from game design to creative direction and quality assessment, means comdevs can ensure player voices and concerns are understood and integrated into the development plans. A big part of player involvement concerns playtests, and comdevs regularly host small-scale sessions for specific feedback on game design and more broad, technical tests for release and throughout the whole post-launch period.

Players are also involved in games’ pre-release, as comdevs communicate with game developers about community insights, surveys, and polls. Feedback gathered through the process can inspire adjustments or even partial reworks of features. “For example, the design of the ’New World’ region in Anno 1800 was completely overhauled after hearing feedback,” says Walz. “We also changed an early game production chain, as our veteran players wanted the first food production building to be a fishery, as in previous titles. Our players really appreciate when we approach problems head-on rather than pretend that they didn’t happen.”

So, What Are the Benefits?
For Ubisoft’s communities, one of the most rewarding aspects of this relationship is having opportunities to learn about behind-the-scenes development of some of their favorite titles. “Comdevs work to not only inform players about the game and its features, but also share about the ’how,’” explains Walz. “Giving explanations into processes, explaining timelines, challenges we’ve overcome, discussing why certain things are happening in a certain way... We talk about all these topics to inform players about game development in general.”

Being involved in a Ubisoft community also leads players to make connections with their fellow community members: Getting help, sharing tips and tricks, or simply talking about the game they love or other topics of interest. “Having fun and socializing with others are great components of gaming communities like the ones for Anno,” Walz says. “Bringing together people with shared interests is really cool, and we can see them chatting about all kinds of topics on Discord and Reddit.”

Walz’s team also prioritizes sharing outstanding community and user-generated content. “In the past, we’ve done livestreams where we asked players to send in their games for us to show on stream,” he says. “It’s really fun to look around the cities and see what players like to use the most. We also have regular blog posts and live streams with community spotlights where we share screenshots from players’ games that feature outstanding or fresh ideas. It provides a lot of feedback for us and it’s a great way to connect with our community members.”

Joining a game community, creating content, and sharing your thoughts and ideas online are great ways to let your voice be heard by Ubisoft developers around the world! Share your dedication, team spirit, and creativity to become a stakeholder in our worlds and meet other passionate community members.

Learn even more about Ubisoft’s Star Players program and Ubisoft’s open Player Interaction positions.