Did you know that Asobo stands for Let’s play in Japanese? This kind of philosophy has been a part of this video game developer studio ever since they were founded, back in 2002 in Bordeaux, France. Their first steps already seemed promising – in 2003 they released Super Farm, followed by the development of several games for different platforms in the upcoming years. Despite these milestones Asobo Studio was overcoming in the first years of its existence, the year 2008 sounds crucial for their further progress and achievements. They have developed and released Fuel, an open world racing video game that was adapted in the next year for both PlayStation and Microsoft Windows users.

Upcoming collaborations with Ubisoft and Disney have brought us video games such as Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Up, and Monopoly Plus. Among 17 video games that Asobo Studio developed since 2002, two of them had a major impact on the worldwide gaming community: A Plague: Innocence Tale and Microsoft Flight Simulator, their latest product, which was one of the nominees in IGN Entertainment’s Game of the Year awards in 2020.

Now, when they have more than 200 people in their team creating astonishing gaming experiences more than ever, we couldn’t be prouder of being a part of their journey and having the opportunity to grow together!

Role of BPS World

BPS World became Asobo Studio’s partner in 2018. Since then, we were working together on expanding both of their artistic and technical teams. From day one, our approach and methodology were based on their values: it was all about fun, talent, and commitment. Finding a perfect cultural and technical match was never easy but our persistence and passion for gaming were the key players in hiring each of the assigned roles.

Within these three years, BPS World had the opportunity to watch their constant growth and development of Microsoft Flight Simulator, a game on which most of our candidates worked on, including positions such as:

Associate Producer

Gameplay Programmer

UX Game Designer

3D Animator

Environment Artist

Challenges

Recruitment for an international client is always a challenge. However, interpreting talent behaviors and understanding the way they seek and engage with employment opportunities is what modern recruitment is all about, independently of the geographic area. The methodology we at BPS World used was always based on quality over quantity and this kind of approach was also noticed by Asobo Studio’s HR department, giving us additional energy to keep seeking the best talent in the world of games:

„What I really like with BPS is that they take the time to fully understand the culture of the studio and our specific needs in order to propose candidates as close as possible to our expectations. The philosophy is quality over quantity and this is very valuable as an in-house recruiter.”

Understanding of both Asobo Studio’s needs and candidates’ expectations was crucial in this process, which is why we at BPS World managed to deal with all the obstacles such as language barriers and different time zones within our delivery team, whose passion for gaming and dedication to each candidate pushed us forward in creating perfect teams for Asobo Studio’s projects. The process for each hire was exciting and challenging at the same time but looking back at the achieved results BPS World couldn’t be prouder of our joint accomplishments.

Future of HR

Despite the uncertainty that the last year brought us, Asobo Studio proved once again that true passion cannot be stopped no matter what. Releasing Microsoft Flight Simulator in summer 2020 was their big achievement and success stories just continued in the following months. However, in discussion with their HR department, as a summary of the previous year and expectations for the one ahead of us, two things require caution and a well-thought approach, regardless of the continuous success:

Recruitment during a global pandemic,

Hiring more senior profiles.

In addition to these common problems many companies are facing at the moment and being aware that strategic thinking is now important more than ever, BPS World is working hard to continue hiring the most passionate and dedicated experts and help create extraordinary gaming experiences together in the future.