As the job descriptions for Narrative Director, World Director, and Brand Director indicate, a AAA Might & Magic game is well and truly in development at Ubisoft Shanghai, whose claim is to “reinventing one of the greatest fantasy franchises in video game history“, can we read. We also note the mention of a “lively, responsive open world full of fantasy and magic.“
With 600 employees, Ubisoft Shanghai has a long history since 1996 as a support studio on franchises like Just Dance, Far Cry, The Crew, Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell and Might & Magic, but the descriptions leave to think the team might have landed their first major project as studio director. In recent years, Ubisoft had only used the franchise for free-to-play like Might & Magic: Era of Chaos and Might & Magic: Chess Royale.
A first-person RPG designed by Jon Van Caneghem in 1986, the Might & Magic saga has a long history of spin-offs, including turn-based strategy games Heroes of Might and Magic. The main saga has 10 games, the latest of which, Might & Magic X Legacy, was released in 2014 under the impetus of a certain Julien Pirou, creative director and scriptwriter of this component. The game was developed by Limbic Entertainment, but the German studio hasn’t worked with Ubisoft since 2016, so it’s no wonder Might & Magic’s return is happening in-house. The franchise was first owned by the New World Computing studio, which was swallowed up by 3DO in 1996. It was then in August 2003 that Ubisoft took advantage of the collapse of 3DO to buy the rights to the brand against $1.3 million.
“Since 1986, the Might & Magic franchise has delivered countless epic fantasy stories and unforgettable gaming moments for generations, with genre classics like Heroes of Might & Magic III, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, Might & Magic Clash of Heroes, and hit mobile titles like Might & Magic Era of Chaos. Today, Ubisoft Shanghai’s Might & Magic brand brings together a new team whose ambition is to reinvent and advance the franchise, creating exciting new worlds and genre-defining gaming experiences. We want to redefine the meaning of fantasy gaming for a whole new generation of players“, can we also read.