March of Giants has been described as being an “ambitious new entrant” in a genre that has largely been dominated by two games—Valve’s Dota 2 and Riot Games’ League of Legends. Much like these two, the gameplay revolves around lane-based combat where two teams vie for victory over each other by destroying each others’ bases, and will have a focus on “tactical depth” and “meaningful team play”.

Ubisoft’s acquisition of the rights to March of Giants also comes shortly after the title’s closed alpha tests, which was revealed as seeing quite a positive response. According to this announcement, 98 percent of the closed alpha participants described March of Giants as bringing something new to the genre. The team behind the MOBA include veteran developers Xavier Marquis as creative director and Alexandre Parizeau as senior production leader, who have also worked with Ubisoft in the past. Marquis, for instance, was the original creative director for Rainbow Six Siege, while Parizeau had worked at Ubisoft Toronto.

“Returning to Ubisoft brings things full circle,” said Marquis in a press release. “We built some of our most meaningful work here, and we’re excited to continue developing March of Giants from within Ubisoft. This game has enormous potential, and I know Ubisoft can help us take it to the next level.”

“My thanks go to Amazon for their commitment during the first chapters of March of Giants,” said Parizeau. “Our closed alpha was an important milestone and showed a glimpse of the game’s real promise. Now, by joining Ubisoft, we’re uniting behind a shared vision to build March of Giants into one of the next great, enduring MOBAs.”

Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot has described March of Giants as being a “real opportunity” for the company that would help it expand into one of the most-played multiplayer genres in gaming. Along with this, he also welcomed back veteran developers Marquis and Parizeau to Ubisoft.

“March of Giants has a real opportunity to bring something fresh and dynamic to players, and to help Ubisoft compete in one of gaming’s biggest arenas,” said Guillemot. “We’re looking forward to welcoming back Alexandre, Xavier, and many of the seasoned March of Giants team who have previously worked at Ubisoft, and the entire team’s ambition, creativity and talent align perfectly with our desire to build bold new experiences for players. We look forward to supporting them as they shape the future of this promising new IP.”

March of Giants is being developed for PC and doesn’t yet have a release date.

Amazon has been attempting to make big moves in the games industry for a while not, and it’s just made another one. It’s announced the opening of a new studio in Montreal, Canada, named simply Amazon Games Montreal. It becomes Amazon’s fourth game development studio, joining studios in San Diego, Seattle, and Orange County.

Amazon Games Montreal is focused on the development of a new online multiplayer IP, and it’s certainly hired talent that has experience in that area, bringing in several people in leadership roles who were previously involved with Ubisoft’s immensely popular Rainbow Six Siege. That includes creative director Xavier Marquis (who takes on the same role here), fellow former creative director Romain Rimokh (who joins as content director), former development director for technology group Luc Bouchard (who is now the head of productions), and former brand and esports director Alexandre Remy (who is the head of product at Amazon Games Montreal).

“Building upon 8 years of experience with Siege, we are excited to start with a blank page and the creative freedom to create a completely unique experience in the multiplayer space,” says Xavier Marquis. “From our first discussion, we felt a true connection with the people at Amazon Games, their approach to gaming and the sheer amount of knowledge, expertise and technology available there. It is quite humbling and we couldn’t be more excited to start a studio with them.”

Amazon’s track record in the games industry has been far from the best. Free-to-play multiplayer third person shooter Crucible launched in May of 2020, but proved to be a failure of all fronts, being shut down merely months later. Amazon is currently also working on the ambitious MMORPG New World, which is due out this August.