Stepping into Ubisoft Montreal felt like wandering into a building of my past dreams. A place so storied, I half-expected the walls to hum with echoes of digital legends. Imposter syndrome clung to me like a cosmetic skin. Many of us have our own hallowed studios, the ones whose games have marked the calendar years of our lives, sometimes for decades.
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Ubisoft Montreal is that studio for me. Ever since I was 13 and played the first Splinter Cell game, the studio has gone on to make all the Tom Clancy Rainbow Six games, all the original Assassin’s Creed games (including Origins and Valhalla), and every mainline entry for Far Cry (other than 6).
And that’s merely scratching the surface. Their presence in the gaming world is nothing short of legendary. So when word reached me about March of Giants, the title itself seemed sculpted to honor the towering reputation this studio has built over nearly three decades.
A few years ago, Rainbow Six Siege director Xavier Marquis decided to take on a new challenge. He’d always been fascinated by the MOBA genre and decided the time was right.
Opening a studio under Amazon, Xavier and many veterans of the Siege franchise began work on March of Giants. Emilien Lomet (former Game Designer of Siege), Alexandre Parizeau (Former Managing Director and current Studio Head for March of Giants), and even Laure Guilbert, who was the Product Director for Siege and is now March of Giants.
Needless to say, competition is at the heart and soul of March of Giants.
One thing led to another, and Amazon, which couldn’t keep up with the pace of game development, let the studio go. However, before the studio closed, Ubisoft swooped in, saved the project, and brought people back home to the studio they could yet again call home.
After getting a chance to play March of Giants, I am more than happy Ubisoft did. But one final remark before diving into the game. I’m going to Quentin Tarantino this a bit and leave you with this for a while: “Who the hell is Aaron?”
So, what is March of Giants?
March of Giants blends MOBA and RTS, with the former leading the way. Think League of Legends, then imagine minions you can control and deploy, plus items you can build on the map. The game’s lore draws loosely from the trenches and turmoil of World War I, but with a fantastical twist.
March of Giants both adds to and takes away from the standard MOBA formula in ways I absolutely love.
Each side commands colossal giants, titans who loom above the battlefield as myths come to life. There are no strict historical allegiances here, no “Germany versus Europe.” Instead, the sides are purely invented, a stage for the gameplay to take its curtain call. March of Giants both adds to and takes away from the standard MOBA formula in ways I absolutely love.
RTS Elements in my MOBA? Taking on other MOBAs
When I spoke with Emilien Lomet, Senior Game Designer, I asked how they felt about taking on the Giants in the space, like League of Legends, Smite, and Dota. Did they believe they had enough to take some away and make them fans of March of Giants instead?
“We're very excited about the game. We have a team that loves multiplayer online competitive experiences. A lot of people that were on Siege and the Siege team drew inspiration from some MOBA mechanics when they built Siege as well. Xavi is a big fan of MOBAs and RTSs.”
Siege is one of the more complicated games in the industry in terms of mechanics. With a total of 77 operators, all using different weapons, gadgets, and their own unique abilities, it’s not a wild comparison to make at all!
Emelien continued, “We love MOBAs, and we want to bring innovation to the space. I'd say there are three main things that we feel are very distinctive. The number one is the soldier system. You have thousands of soldiers on the battlefield. You, as a giant, can get close to soldiers. They'll rally around you.”
Minions are the soldiers on the battlefield. Militia, tanks, and even cavalry. Your standard-issue riflemen make their way down lanes like in any MOBA, as do the tanks, but any soldiers under your influence can be commanded to charge toward and around units.
Players can send them after foes to tangle them up, or head off another player's set of soldiers. When coming toward turrets, the player even gains speed when making their way alongside their own men.
Even more beautiful is the ability to recall or divert your units. Send them around a barrier or wall, and you can redirect them toward another player or unit to take out.
You can even pick up resources like gold and supply crates, which grant players the necessary resources to deploy troops manually, or even better, build Battleworks.
Emilien added, “The other one we have is what we call Battleworks. We have a set of army reinforcement commands that you can use, and those are sort of light RTS elements. They allow you to modify the map or the battlefield. One of them is calling soldier reinforcement, one where you can build trenches to protect your soldiers and defend against other waves of soldiers. We have cannons that help you against units and soldiers, etc.”
Battleworks are March of Giants’ answer to the classic RTS building. Streamlined, yet brimming with tactical possibility. Forget the granular micromanagement of farms and villages; here, players carve trenches for their troops, drop Anti-Giant cannons like thunderbolts, and send cavalry charges booming across the map.
We have a set of army reinforcement commands that you can use, and those are sort of light RTS elements. They allow you to modify the map or the battlefield.
Emilien Lomet, Senior Game Designer
Battleworks also lets you manually call in soldiers or tanks to take Bastions. Basically, they’re freaking sweet, and somehow feel right at home in a MOBA.
“Then the third one, I think, is sort of like our universe. We have a sort of military fantasy universe that's inspired by the technology from, like, World War I a little bit, but with a bunch of stuff thrown in, a little bit of steampunk fantasy stuff in there. And I feel like that also gives our game a very distinct feel and aesthetic.”
I couldn’t agree more. Among March of Giants’ many charms, its aesthetic stands out. A visual identity that’s crisp and unmistakable, yet invitingly familiar. It sidesteps the uncanny valley of other live-service games, striking a balance between originality and comfort.
You get to play soon!
When asked about the possibility of expanding Battleworks, Lead Producer Alexandre Parizeau said these things start and end with player feedback, which players will have the opportunity to give in just a few days.
Alexandre started, “So it's a live game. We have a ton of ideas that we want to build and grow. Starting with our playtest, we have our 16 playable giants. We have the battleworks. We have our Warshell progression system. All those things and everything around it are things that we hope to be able to grow and scale with player feedback.”
“That's also why we're starting this sort of release plan with a Pioneer play test to get feedback and see what people use and like. And so we can observe that as well and sort of shape the game with player feedback and determine what needs to scale over time based on that.”
All those things and everything around it are things that we hope to be able to grow and scale with player feedback.
Alexandre Parizeau, Lead Producer
Starting on October 7, players will have their own chance to try out March of Giants during their Pioneer playtest. We will have — and I say 'we' because I’ll be playing too — until October 18, when the playtest ends.
What else separates March of Giants from other MOBA titles? Everything else is Lasifaire: standard equipment layouts, great abilities, and an Ultimate ability. But there’s one thing missing that I actually prefer: there’s no core!
That’s right, there’s no main core for the players to take out. Instead, the first team to destroy two Bastions is the winner, meaning most matches take just that much less time than other MOBAs. To top it off, rather than the standard 5v5 format, March of Giants is 4v4! This makes for smaller, tighter matches and shorter queue times!
Quick-fire matches and inventive spins on a beloved formula. This game was pure, unfiltered fun. Every round felt like a new chapter in a book I couldn’t put down.
Why was I having so much fun?
New MOBAs are rare, and most of the ones that show up feel like reskins. Deadlock, a hybrid shooter, is one of the few recent exceptions that stuck. Everyone else stays with League of Legends, Dota 2, and Smite 2.
Novelty is its own thrill, but March of Giants lingered after the screens went dark. Few playtests have left me with that itch: one more match, one more shot at glory. Every round I wanted to try someone new, and I was afraid I’d find a giant more fun than the one I was trying to master.
A bunch of (content creators) asked us to play our game until midnight. And it turned into a little LAN party in our studio.
Laure Guilbert, Marketing Director
Near the end of our time, I thought back to Laure Guilbert, marketing director for MoG. At the close of every interview, I asked if there was one thing they wanted said about the game. Her answer matched the room.
“So we had some content creators with us the night before you came, and a bunch of them asked us to play our game until midnight. And it turned into a little LAN party in our studio. I got home at 1 a.m., and here I am this morning! And it felt like the second paycheck at the end of the day. It was absolutely incredible. And I think that's been the highlight of the three years I've been working on this project. It's like they just wanted to keep playing.”
“They wanted one more game. They played against the devs! We have yet to be defeated. And it was an amazing experience. And that's a testament to the hard work of this entire dev team, the vision of this project, the love and care. It's a game that I think is made by tremendous talent and that by far was the most incredible thing I've experienced in the last three years of games.”
“It felt like the old days of, like, you're sitting, you're ordering pizza, and you're doing a LAN party together, and you're just all playing together. Shout out to everybody that believes in our game.”
As someone in their 30s, I can’t tell you how much I miss those nights. Staying up until the crack of dawn with 16-year-old buddies, sweating over Call of Duty and Halo, slamming Monster.
The only thing that used to ruin those nights was cheaters. I have good news on that front, and it deserves its own piece right after this one. With the technology cheaters have today, they should be nonexistent here. Which leaves the other question I walked in with, and the match that answered it. Who the hell is Aaron?
Find out with the story of my more personalized final match, coming tomorrow.
March of Giants Pioneer playtest launches on October 7, 2026, and runs until October 18. The game will be available exclusively on Steam.
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