Massive has packed up and is now ready to move to its new offices at Möllan in Malmö. In this article, MD David Polfeldt shares some memories from our 12 years at Drottninggatan and talks more about our future at Kvarteret Eden.
There’s a stillness in the corridors of the Massive red building on Drottninggatan in Malmö. Where, for the last 12 years, a rapidly growing number of game developers have filled the building with life, the desks now stand empty and moving boxes with brightly colored labels line the hallways.
It’s time for Massive to move to our new home Kvarteret Eden.
When Massive moved to the office at Drottninggatan in December 2007, we were around 130 people. Today, we have grown to over 650 employees from more than 50 nationalities. It’s been a long and eventful road in many ways. David Polfeldt, MD, remembers those first moments in the building at Drottninggatan back in 2007.
… it was hard to see through the wall of uninspired grayness.
“The very first memory I have of the office is stepping into the building when it belonged to someone else. We had just signed the lease, and a few of us visited with an interior decorator to start planning the next steps. The companies that were in the building before us apparently liked to keep things charmless and boring, so at first it was hard to see through the wall of uninspired grayness,” he says.
“But as we walked across the floors and began emotionally making the place our own, possibilities, inspiration and ideas emerged, and ultimately, the more we embraced the building, the more it felt like home – even before we had moved in.”
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
As we get ready to move to our new office building Kvarteret Eden this week, those 12 years at Drottninggatan have been carefully packed in bubble wrap and prepared to move with us on our continued journey.
We are – of course – leaving a lot of memories behind.
… I really cherish special moments like packing up my office and leaving it.
“I like the image of life as a journey, and I really cherish special moments like packing up my office and leaving it. I like such occasions for their timeless quality of inevitability, the enhanced drama they provide, the nostalgia, and the symbolic illustration of ending a decade to make space for a new future,” explains David.
It was at Drottninggatan we were acquired by Ubisoft in 2008. We have worked on World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, FarCry 3, Just Dance Now, and, of course, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and the Avatar Project in these corridors. This is where we as a game studio grew up, matured, and in some ways found our identity.
This is were we as a game studio grew up, matured, and in some ways found our identity.
“I could share so many moments, from the Vivendi days to where we are today,” says David.
“My all-time highlight is coming into the office around midnight to watch the launch of The Division in the war room on the sixth floor. Those of us who were there were tired, exhausted even, and at first we were following the evolution of the global launch on the wall of screens with fear rather than joy. But as the minutes ticked by and everything just worked to perfection, it was like watching someone performing a perfect bicicleta in serene ultra-slow motion. We opened a bottle of champagne, too tired to say much, but we still knew that we had just managed to pull off the biggest and the most successful launch in Ubisoft’s history.”
We knew that we had just managed to pull off the biggest and the most successful launch in Ubisoft’s history.
But no matter how many memories we are leaving behind, we know that we can look forward to creating a thousand more, together, at Kvarteret Eden.
A NEW BEGINNING
About one kilometer south of Drottninggatan, Kvartetet Eden is waiting for us. Its scarlet brick walls carry their own memories – more than 100 years of them.
Originally, Kvarteret Eden housed a textile factory that manufactured ribbons, thread, yarn, lace and buttons. The courtyard used to feature two buildings where textiles were dyed, washed and bleached.
When the factory closed in the mid-1970s, those buildings were torn down to make room for parking. Since then, the building block has been the home to many kinds of companies, industries, and crafts, including mechanical and engineering workshops, photography studios, graphic designers, and even video game studios.
Originally, Kvarteret Eden housed a textile factory that manufactured ribbons, thread, yarn, lace and buttons.
In 2016, Massive and Ubisoft purchased the building.
Since then, extensive work has gone into adapting the old building to our studio needs, and when you walk through the massive wooden entrance doors today, you walk straight into a top modern game studio, wrapped in those red brick walls and held up by rustic industrial beams.
As the light hits the courtyard, the reception’s glass walls reflect the April sun, and the plants in the rooftop garden connecting the three house bodies sway in the breeze.
Inspired by Scandinavian design, Kvarteret Eden is an urban oasis where nature is constantly present.
Inspired by Scandinavian design, Kvarteret Eden is an urban oasis where nature is constantly present, whether it be in the form of our atriums, the rooftop garden, or the natural ventilation in the Forum. It’s a calm meeting point where we can create legendary game experiences together.
For David, the move symbolizes not just our growth as a studio, but also a rejuvenation of everything that Massive is.
“My hope is that moving to Kvarteret Eden will generate a new dawn – a spark of new energy, of new ways of thinking. I think the move will rejuvenate and inspire us as a group. On a personal side, I truly look forward to walking through the beautiful entrance and seeing the vast space of the Forum every morning,” says David.
My hope is that moving to Kvarteret Eden will generate a new dawn – a spark of new energy, of new ways of thinking.
“On sunny days, the light-shafts will make the place look like a strange cathedral. And I look forward to simply sitting at a new place, actually. In hindsight, it seems I spent way too much time in that one room on the first floor of the office at Drottninggatan,” he says, laughing.
- Want to learn more about the journey to Kvarteret Eden? Click here to read the article “The Journey to Eden: Finding Our New Home”
