To pay homage to the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris partially ravaged by a fire on Monday night, French video game publisher Ubisoft announced Wednesday that it offered a free PC download of its game Assassin's Creed Unity .
For a week, fans of games as nostalgic of Notre-Dame de Paris can walk virtually in the cathedral and the city of 1789, whose buildings have been faithfully reproduced. "Assassin's Creed Unity has been thought of as an ultimate tribute to the city of Paris, and we hope Notre Dame will find its sparkling brilliance as quickly as possible," Ubisoft announced on Twitter.
For a week, we offer the free PC version of Assassin's Creed Unity.
Assassin's Creed Unity has been thought of as an ultimate tribute to the city of Paris, and we hope that Notre-Dame will soon find its most glittering brilliance pic.twitter.com/dOzhtgeeqI
A cathedral reproduced (almost) faithfully
"Ubisoft wants to express its solidarity for Parisians and all the people around the world who were moved by this tragic event," reads a blog post. The publisher of the successful franchises The Raving Rabbids and The Division recalled that to design his game released in 2014, he had "the opportunity to build even closer ties with Paris, as well as with all of its historical monuments. "The virtual reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris required no less than 14 months of research and modeling and 5,000 hours of work, and some 140 stained glass windows were reproduced.
Nevertheless Ubisoft chose to reproduce the arrow that was actually added to the cathedral by Viollet-le-Duc in the middle of the 19th century. It collapsed Monday night when a major fire ravaged the roof and part of Notre-Dame.
A free download and a donation of 500,000 euros
The PC version of the Assassin's Creed Unity album will be available for free on Uplay (here) and on the Ubisoft Store (here). In addition, Ubisoft pledges to donate 500,000 euros for the restoration and reconstruction of the cathedral. Wednesday evening, the national collection for the subscription of Notre Dame amounted to 144.2 million euros: 13.1 million euros from private individuals, 131.1 million euros from major sponsors and companies .