Hugues Ricour

HUGUES
RICOUR

Creative Leader, Innovation manager

BIO & KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Hailing from France, Hugues produced several best seller and award-winning games
on notorious franchises: Need For Speed, FIFA and Assassin’s Creed. 

He joined the game industry in 1999 working for Infogrammes, producing Racing
games. He then joined Electronic Arts Blackbox studio as Associate Producer and
designed the Drag mode of NFS Underground. After managing the pre-production of
NFS Most Wanted, he joined EA Sports and the FIFA team to produce FIFA 06 and FIFA
07, leading the rewriting of the physics and AI. He then produced and launched FIFA
Online 1 and 2 in Asia, first EA Sports PC Free To Play games, in collaboration with
Korean developer Neowiz. The sports cards trading and monetization system, which
later inspired the famous Ultimate Team mode, was born. 

He then joined Ubisoft Singapore in 2009 to lead Ghost Recon Online, a PC Free To
Play game. As he became Director of Production, Hugues Ricour oversaw the Ubisoft
Singapore, Ubisoft Chengdu, and Ubisoft Philippines collaboration teams to co-
develop Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed Rogue,
Assassin’s Creed Unity, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Assassin’s Creed Origins and
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, partnering with Ubisoft Canadian studios, to innovate and
produce high-quality content such as the acclaimed Naval Battle gameplay. In 2018,
Hugues Ricour became Ubisoft Singapore and Ubisoft Philippines Managing Director.
The studios released, in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

CV PROFILE

Gaming Director focused on innovation management and operational excellence, with
a track record of successful development of ambitious video games. Experienced and
inspiring leader who has demonstrated coaching and mentoring abilities to create and
grow teams capable of delivering high quality, fun and social experiences.

SKILLS

. Strategic vision with a strong focus on the user experience, P&L ownership 
. In depth knowledge of the gaming businesses and the ARM cycle 
. Management of development studios: creation, growth then maturity phase 
. Solid production experience, team organization and software project management
. Leadership, communication and teamwork skills, including under high pressure
. Entrepreneur: initiated the creation of studios, intellectual property and partnerships
. Culture shaping: Team engagement, teleworking, change management

https://www.linkedin.com/in/publicprofilehricour/

EXPERIENCE

2021/present  Production Intelligence Director - Ubisoft Production Internationale, HQ, France
Transversal management of our Production KPIs for all AAA HD projects. Creation of a new service including
process, standards and dashboards to support data informed strategic decision making and  operations
improvements. 
2018/2020 Managing Director – Ubisoft Singapore & Ubisoft Philippines
Re-organization of the studios as a development and engagement platform for our 600 employees.
Creative teams management to produce memorable and innovative games. Delivered Assassin’s Creed
Valhalla and Immortals Fenyx Rising in collaboration with Ubisoft Canadian studios.
Creation of two departments: “Production Services” and “Data as a Service” (Data Science) to modernize our
processes and improve our development practices.
Management of our relationships with the Singaporean government (EDB) and local universities
Launched Ubisoft Entrepreneurs Lab in Singapore to support the start-up ecosystem.
2015/2017 Director of production – Ubisoft Singapore, Chengdu and Philippines
Managed the strategy, the teams (over 300 people) and the co-development of the projects: Skull & Bones,
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, AC Origins & AC Odyssey
2009/2015 Senior Producer – Ubisoft Singapore 
Co-developed and shipped the projects Assassin’s Creed III, AC IV Black Flag and AC Unity 
Developed the Naval Battle gameplay and a physics-based ocean simulation for ACIII and ACIV, the latest
having sold over 30 million units
Managed the product strategy, development and live operations of Ghost Recon Online (Free To play)

2007/2009   Studio Director – Asia Studios – EA Singapore 
Built the studio, managed the strategy, development and launch (in Asia) of
FIFA Online 2 & NFS World Online, PC, based on an innovative Free To Play
business model. Co-developed an online services platform to support the
initiative. With Neowiz (Korea), defined and implemented a new monetization
design for FIFA Online based on micro-transactions, which will later be ported
to console versions in the FIFA Ultimate Team game mode.
2004/2006  Producer - FIFA 06 & FIFA 07 – EA Sports - Vancouver, Canada
Managed the product, the team (100 people) and the development of the
game. Managed the gameplay engine rewrite (procedurally based animation
tech and AI) for the new console generation.
Managed the P&L, the partnerships and the Licensing of the product
2003/2004  Associate Producer - Need For Speed - EA BlackBox -
Vancouver, Canada
Project management and Production team management for NFS Underground
& NFS Most Wanted. Best-selling titles of the franchise to date.