In the few days after the world nearly lost the beauty of the Notre Dame Cathedral forever, thousands of people and companies have been getting together to donate money to save the church. This includes Ubisoft.
The company announced Wednesday it is making a contribution of 500,000 Euros (about $565,000) to the rebuilding of the cathedral. And the Paris-headquartered game maker said Wednesday it will make its virtual rendition of the cathedral that was used in their Assassin’s Creed game available to those involved in the rebuilding of the church.
Also for the upcoming week, Ubisoft is making “Assassin’s Creed Unity” available for free to players on PC. (Note, the game does have a ton of glitches so be warned if you get this game on your PC.)
“As the smoke clears on the events that unfolded on Monday at the Notre-Dame de Paris, we stand in solidarité with our fellow Parisians and everyone around the world moved by the devastation the fire caused,” the publisher said on its website on Wednesday. “Notre-Dame is an integral part of Paris, a city to which we are deeply connected. Seeing the monument in peril like this affected us all.”
In addition to encouraging others to donate to the restoration efforts, the company said, “We want to give everyone the chance to experience the majesty and beauty of Notre-Dame the best way that we know how.”
The company, which is known for the Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs franchises, is headquartered in Montreuil, a suburb of Paris, and also has studios throughout the world, with locations in Montreal. Toronto, San Francisco, Malin, Barcelona, and Shanghai.
For over 14 months, the game company’s designers recreated the interior and exterior of Notre Dame Cathedral for “Assassin’s Creed Unity,” which was set in 18th century France.
Experts have been wondering in the wake of the fire, which destroyed most of the roof and the spire, whether or not the technology that Ubisoft used to create the virtual cathedral might be useful in rebuilding the church.
“It is important to keep in mind that what we did for the game was not a scientific reconstruction but rather an artistic vision,” Ubisoft said in a statement. “While we wanted to be very precise with details, there are some differences in terms of scale and with some elements. That being said, we would be more than happy to lend our expertise in any way that we can to help with these efforts.”
Photo from PBS
