LONDON — Games company Ubisoft, the producer of the Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance and Far Cry franchises, has hired M&C Saatchi PR as one of its UK PR agencies to support game launches.

The agency’s first project is the launch of Ubisoft’s new action-adventure game for young gamers, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, in time for Christmas.

M&C Saatchi PR has put forward a blended team including editorial and content specialists, as well as planners and creatives; to support the international media launch event and the game launch in mid-October. The account will be led in the UK by associate director Lauren Hunt-Morgan.

Ubisoft senior PR manager Stefan McGarry said: “With M&C Saatchi PR, we found an agency who can build on this, driving strategic insight, combined with their passion and gaming experience. We felt that they were the right agency to help us deliver for Starlink: Battle for Atlas.”

The win comes as the agency’s holding company, M&C Saatchi, released its interim results showing that gross profits across the group increased by 5% to £127.2 million, with like-for-like gross profits up 8%, pre-tax profits up 26% and operating margins up 1.5% to 12.4%.

Like-for-like gross profits rose by 10% in the UK and Asia and Australasia, 4% in Europe and 27% in the Middle East and Africa, but was flat in the Americas.

The group’s PR businesses, M&C Saatchi PR and Talk.Global (formerly Talk PR) were reported to have outperformed the rest of the group.