Asobo Studio SAS is a French video game developer based in Bordeaux and founded in 2002. The studio is most known for developing video game adaptations of several Pixar movies, A Plague Tale: Innocence, and the 2020 and 2024 versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator. To develop most of their games, they use their own game engine called Zouna, which was originally developed in the 1990s by some of their own employees who used to work at Kalisto Entertainment. It was later further developed by Asobo.[2][3] The studio's name is derived from the Japanese word "asobō" (遊ぼう) that means "let's play".
History
In 2002, a group of twelve video game developers purchased the rights to the multiplayer PlayStation 2 video game Super Farm from their previous employer, Kalisto Entertainment and founded Asobo Studio. The game was published in 2003 by Ignition Entertainment as their debut title.[4] During the following years, the studio developed several games for various platforms, until being chosen by publisher THQ to create the video game adaptation of Pixar film Ratatouille.[5] Asobo started increasing its growth-speed, recruiting about 20% new employees a year, leading to two separate production lines. Asobo was selected to develop the video game adaptation of Pixar's following films WALL-E and Up.[6][7]
In 2014, Asobo Studio partnered with Ubisoft to release Monopoly Family Fun pack on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, including Monopoly Plus, My Monopoly and Monopoly Deal,[10] as well as The Crew for Xbox 360.[11] In 2016, Asobo Studio partnered with Microsoft again to release two games on HoloLens: Fragments and Young Conker.[12] Both games are available in the Development Edition, released on March 30, 2016.[13] Asobo Studio was the first independent developer in Holographic Entertainment and won the 2016 French Video Game Creator Prize awarded by Syntec Numérique EY and SNJV.[14][citation needed] In 2017, the studio announced A Plague Tale: Innocence, an adventure game,[15] released for PC and consoles in 2019 and published by Focus Home Interactive.[16] They also worked with Engine Software to develop Monopoly for Nintendo Switch, which came out later that year. On August 18, 2020, their next game, Microsoft Flight Simulator, was released for Microsoft Windows.[17]
In 2021, Sagard NewGen purchased a stake of just over 30% for €20 million, valuing the company at approximately €65 million.[18]
In March 2021, Asobo's Microsoft Flight Simulator won the Pégase for Best French video game of the year.[19] This is the second consecutive year that the studio has been awarded after A Plague Tale: Innocence in 2020.[20] The sequel of A Plague Tale: Innocence, titled A Plague Tale: Requiem, was released on October 18, 2022.[21]
^Asobo developed the Xbox 360 port for this game. The PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows versions were developed by Ubisoft Ivory Tower and Ubisoft Reflections
^The Nintendo Switch port (titled Monopoly for Nintendo Switch) was developed by Engine Software
^Original Xbox 360 release developed by Frontier Developments
