Creating Game Soundtracks: Insights from Ubisoft’s Head of Music

At Ubisoft, music plays a central role: it shapes the atmosphere, accompanies the player’s experience, and contributes to the reputation of many franchises, such as Assassin’s Creed. From original creation to composing global playlists for Just Dance, and even winning a historic Grammy Award, music shapes players’ experiences far beyond the credits.

How is an immersive soundtrack developed? How do you manage the diversity of styles, international licensing, and technical challenges? We met with Alkis Argyriadis, Head of Music at Ubisoft, for an overview of the stakes, evolutions, and the growing recognition of video game music.

Ubisoft’s music department is a small team of 14 experts spread across Montreal, Shanghai, and Paris, for a group that nevertheless employs 17,000 people. Concretely, we manage everything related to music in Ubisoft productions, in some thirty countries.

The team is divided into two poles: original creation and licensing/business. Our main mission, and the one that connects us to IDOL, is the creation of original music for our experiences. Whether it’s open-world games like Assassin’s Creed, certain mobile games, or animated series like Splinter Cell Deathwatch for Netflix, we are involved in all stages of music creation.

On the licensing side, we acquire the necessary rights to integrate existing music into our projects: music games like Just Dance or Rocksmith, but also in-game radio, trailers, or marketing.

We also act as a label: we produce, publish, and distribute our music in partnership with IDOL, and keep these soundtracks alive through campaigns, making-ofs, or vinyls. Finally, we manage artist partnerships for games, marketing, and e-sport, because the specificities of music law require sharp expertise.

Ultimately, our playground is immense: we explore all styles, from the pop hits of Just Dance to the more immersive worlds of Rainbow Six or Assassin’s Creed, and this diversity captivates us every day.

It’s a bit strange to say, but I’ve been at Ubisoft for more than half my life. I arrived in 1999, a young student at the time, as a sound designer, then quickly became audio director.

I worked on the soundtrack of numerous games within the Ubisoft Paris studio: voices, sound effects, ambiences, and of course music. I specialized in interactive music systems, which make compositions dynamic and adapt to player actions. What fascinates me is the blend of art and technology: collaborating with composers, but also developing innovative tools.

After ten years in audio direction, I became creative director on music games, notably a Michael Jackson project in 2011, then the Just Dance franchise. This role, similar to that of a film director, allowed me to discover the music industry, from licensing to artist partnerships. It was exciting to combine creativity and business.

After twenty years of production, I joined Ubisoft headquarters to redefine and lead the music team, with the desire to give new ambition to this department within the company.

As in cinema, music has several functions. The first is “score” music. Through the emotions it evokes, it illustrates the narrative, reinforces immersion, develops characters, and gives meaning to the image.

The second use is “diegetic” music, or “source” music. It is an integral part of the game, heard by the characters themselves: a song played on the radio, a street musician encountered, or even the pirate chants in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, sung by the ship’s crew. This type of music helps make worlds tangible and alive. This is particularly important in games like Assassin’s Creed, where you explore different eras and cultures. In the latest opus, set in medieval Japan, for example, we find traditional instruments like the shakuhachi or koto, chosen for their historical and cultural relevance.

Finally, the third use is specific to video games: it’s the “functional” aspect of in-game music. It provides indications to the player about the action, signals danger, or celebrates success, and constantly evolves thanks to interactive systems. These uses have existed since the 80s, as in Mario Bros when you catch the star, or in Tetris when time is almost up and the music speeds up, but they have become enormously sophisticated.

This mix of functions makes music a central element that reinforces the immersion, credibility, and interactivity of the gaming experience.

At Ubisoft, we are lucky to work on a variety of games, both in terms of universe and gameplay experience. Our method varies according to the projects, profiles, and desires of the development teams.

If a game requires strong interactivity between action and music, we may look for composers willing to get involved on a technical level. We will then collaborate closely with developers to create interactive musical bricks that adapt to the game’s action. Conversely, if the project requires a large orchestral score with epic themes and melodies that require long and complex developments, we will give them maximum artistic freedom by trying to mask the technical constraints, in order to preserve the fluidity of the composition. We like to cross-reference experienced composers and young talents, to enrich the final result.

On Assassin’s Creed Shadows, for example, the British duo The Flight composed the original soundtrack, blending traditional Japanese instruments and modern orchestral production. But to reflect the duality of the two heroes, we also created original songs directly integrated into the game. The Japanese psychedelic rock band TEKE=TEKE thus accompanies the character of Naoe, while the London collective Thunderdrum, associated with rapper Tiggs Da Author, created the songs around Yasuke, imagining a unique musical style blending psychedelic rock, East African rhythms, Morricone-esque guitars, and Swahili singing!

This mix of profiles, universes, and styles is at the heart of our approach: it allows us to create unique sound experiences that enrich the identity of video games.

Winning the first Grammy Award for video game music in 2023 was a great source of pride. It finally marks the integration of video game music into pop culture. The victory of Stephanie Economou, a composer from the classical world, also symbolizes the sector’s openness to greater diversity. It was also important for us to see a woman honored because this environment remains very masculine, even if things are changing.

For this project, we wanted to see her evolve outside her comfort zone. We suggested she integrate black metal influences into her music, a style she was unfamiliar with, while also incorporating sounds inspired by Nordic cultures.

The result is a powerful and original soundtrack for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök. Since then, we have been nominated several times, and I have joined the voting professionals of the Grammys and BAFTAs.

A Just Dance game is like a wedding playlist: no one likes all the tracks, but everyone finds something they enjoy. The recipe for a good opus is a balance between major global hits but also more unexpected titles, like songs from the 50s or 60s, those songs everyone knows without always knowing where they come from. And then we also slipped in independent or emerging artists that we had noticed in concert.

Ultimately, there were many original creations in Just Dance. Some even achieved real success, reaching tens of millions of listens, even though they were born from a moment of inspiration between two brainstormings. That’s also the spirit of Just Dance: a combination of global hits, musical curiosities, and homemade creations born from the pleasure of making people dance.

IDOL helps us make our original soundtracks accessible everywhere and maximize their visibility in playlists on every platform. Distributing our music allows us to extend the game experience, maintain the emotional connection with our universes, and highlight the work of composers and developers. It’s also a formidable promotional tool: music becomes a vector of attachment, memory, and emotion.

IDOL brings us valuable expertise in distribution, which is not yet a reflex in the video game industry. Our collaboration is enriching: IDOL is entering the world of video games, and we are benefiting from their best practices in distribution. Their recommendations also help us invest intelligently and identify the most relevant opportunities.

Since 2018, this relationship based on mutual learning and trust has contributed to the progress of both our teams. We are very happy to continue this adventure, eagerly anticipating what the future holds.