…1984: Texas Instruments is bringing its last home computer onto the market: After the Ti 99/4A, this division of the “Texans”, which had recently written deep red numbers, is over.
… 1986: Ubisoft was founded on March 28, 1986 by five Guillemot brothers in France. It is starting to sign publisher deals with EA, Sierra and Microprose to distribute their games in France. The first published game is called Zombi and dates back to 1986. At the end of the 1980s, the company began to expand to Germany, the USA and England. From 1990 onwards, Ubisoft founded its own programming studios in order to move away from the pure publisher image. For example, in 1994 a studio was opened in Montreuil-sous-Bios, France. This will later also become Ubisoft's headquarters. In 1996, Ubisoft went public, followed by further branches in Shanghai and Montreal. Today we have studios and branches all over the world. Ubisoft is number 3 on the market in Europe and the USA. It has 6,300 employees, 1,000 of whom work in administration and the rest in development.
Further information can be found in our special about Ubisoft's development.
… 2008: The battle was short but fierce and unlike the 1980s battle (VHS vs. Betamax), this time the format preferred by adult entertainment did not win. After HD-DVD pioneer Toshiba said goodbye to the HD-DVD business on February 19th, the HD-DVD Promotion Group dissolved on March 28th, 2008, thus sealing the end of HD-DVD and the victory of the Blu-ray format.