Ubisoft grabs twin racing rights

Ubisoft will release games from Italian publisher Black Bean in the UK.

The deal means that the Assassin’s Creed publisher can add licensed racing games to its roster, including motorbike franchise SBK and rally series WRC.

The firm will also release Black Bean’s other titles, such as its National Geographic line-up of software, and dance title Let’s Dance with Mel B.

For the past 12 months Black Bean’s games had been released in the UK by Tradewest – the publisher set up by former Midway staff in 2009. Black Bean has often switched UK partners, having also worked with Codemasters and Koch in recent years.

Ubisoft is no stranger to Black Bean. It was already handling the firm’s products in the Nordic regions and has also worked with the firm on its NewU range of fitness titles.

The first game to arrive under this new partnership is SBK 2011, which hits shelves on Friday, May 13th for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.