Paying it forward may pay it big for Ubisoft as appreciative fans flooded Assassin’s Creed Unity with positive comments.
This was after the publisher donated $500,000 for the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
The Cathedral burned down last week as reports claimed that the fire started at the roof. Flames and smoke allegedly were seen at the base of the spiral. Notre Dame was actually in the middle of a restoration on the iconic spire when tragedy struck.
Although Ubisoft’s $500,000 donation to the restoration efforts of Notre Dame, it’s a pittance compared to the other donations. In fact, just the four of France’s wealthiest families already accounted for more than $500 million of the total.
For instance, Bernard Arnault donated about $220 million to the efforts. But the donation won’t even make a dent to his estimated $90 billion fortune.
However, Ubisoft still announced its small contribution to the worldwide effort to restore a historical landmark. Construction of the Cathedral started in 1160, and it took more than 180 years to be completed.
It was also the site where Napoleon Bonaparte has crowned Emperor of the French in December 1804.
Apart from the half a million dollar donation, Ubisoft also gave Assassin’s Creed Unity for free. Players can download the game until 3 a.m. on April 25, at least. The publisher won’t also take it back after the deadline. The game will stay forever in your Uplay library.
According to PC Gamer, after the generous donation, appreciative players flooded Steam with positive reviews. You may think that it’s only a coincidence. But the article correctly pointed out the Steam page only received an average of 10 reviews per day.
Some fans were also able to explore Notre Dame Cathedral in all its glory when they play Assassin’s Creed Unity. One commenter quipped that restoration experts can go to the game for accuracy’s sake when they restore Notre Dame.
But there’s a certain truth to this statement. Designers of Assassin’s Creed Unity took great pains to depict old France as accurately as possible.
In a 2014 interview, level artist Caroline Miousse told The Verge that they spent a couple of years modeling. They took photographs and scanned exterior and interior of Notre Dame. Every little detail was on there. In fact, she said that 80% of her time in the game was designing the Cathedral.
Nevertheless, most of the commenters on the Steam page just expressed their gratitude to Ubisoft.
