If you didn't already know Ubisoft Nadeo (pronounced NĂ-dā-yō) is a French video game developer founded in 2000. The studio is best known for creating the racing game series TrackMania. Other games developed by Nadeo include the Virtual Skipper series and ShootMania. Nadeo's latest game was TrackMania (2020). Since 2009, Nadeo has been a subsidiary of Ubisoft.
First of all the ShootMania and TrackMania are the two best games I have ever played in their respective genres one a racing game the other an skill-based esports FPS. What makes these games so so special as with all multiplayer games is the community surrounding them. In particular the modding community which did more with the editing tools than I think even Nadeo knew was possible
So why didn't these games garner larger recognition or in ShootMania's case go the distance? Ubisoft is renowned for making their games accessible on every platform they can get their hands on but the reality is however quite different. In having to use Ubisoft Connect, at all, acts as a hindrance, a deterrent even. This is where I should mention that the belligerence of Steams 30% cut for everyone is so detrimental to video games health that overall in the bigger picture making games somewhat inaccessible due to developers/publishers trying to use their own digital storefronts and their efforts to lure people away from Steam. It's a dog eat dog world when on one hand Steams greater monopoly on PC, with an incredibly unsophisticated carpet-bomb approach of 30% cut, only recently reducing for units sold due to competition. But on the other hand supporting Steams platform can only spell ruin for us all, I don't need to spell that out for you with capitalism being the name of the game.
This convoluted access makes for mild confusion at best. Two of the greatest games in their category, at no fault in their undervalued popularity but for corporate greed, they deserve better, they deserved to have flourished to today and beyond.