Ubisoft has introduced an ambitious new proprietary technology called Scalar, which the company says will "utilize the power of the cloud" and allow developers to build bigger worlds than ever before and support an unlimited number of players.
During a Ubisoft panel at GDC which GamesRadar+ attended, Ubisoft explained that Scalar is able to get past hardware limitations by storing a bulk of the processing power that goes into running games in the cloud. Scalar apparently leverages an as yet untapped potential in the cloud to give developers "unprecedented freedom, scalability, and flexibility."
The core concept behind Scalar seems to be removing the technical barrier of having to run games 100% from local hardware, giving developers the ability to make bigger games that support more players. The result? "Gigantic game worlds at a scale far greater than anything that has come before ... Imagine a game world vast, rich, and fully simulated, populated by an unlimited number of players, all sharing and shaping a single reality together."
During a Q&A session following the GDC panel, product director Per-Olof Rommel stressed that Scalar isn't going to be streaming games like Google Stadia or Microsoft xCloud. The difference, Rommel said, is that game streaming increases accessibility to games while Scalar is trying to increase the quality of games and the possibilities afforded to developers.
Rommel clarified that Scalar isn't a new game engine, but rather an alternative technology that supercharges existing engines. Without getting too deep into the tech jargon, Scalar achieves this by separating game engines into various "pieces," each of which can tackle a certain job without needing all of the other pieces to be running. Holmqvist said that will have a huge impact on iteration speed and the developer's ability to test changes.
As for what it means for players, beyond the potential for much bigger worlds and player counts, technical director Christian Holmqvist explained that Scalar will allow developers to change their games' worlds while people are playing them. The hope is to draw a closer connection between players and developers.
The Scalar initiative is being spearheaded out of Ubisoft Stockholm, where the company confirmed a brand new IP is in development that makes use of the tech. That said, Rommel added that the tech is "decentralized," meaning it's available across all of Ubisoft.
For all of the confirmed games on the horizon, check out our guide to new games of 2022.
