Ubisoft's Editorial Team Facing a Much-Needed Shake-up

Ubisoft is reportedly expanding and restructuring its editorial team in an effort to shed its reputation for formulaic, uninspired games. The shakeup comes following a lacklustre 2019 for the studio involving two underperforming releases (The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint) and the delays of its 2020 game line-up (Gods and Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Watch Dogs Legion).

Previously, the editorial team consisted of 100 or so people, headed up by Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoet and a small team of Vice Presidents, who controlled the direction of every Ubisoft release. Despite the size of this group, the key decision-making roles were consistently filled by the same people, leading to games with recycled ideas and bored players.

While Hascoet is still in charge and the Vice Presidents have maintained their positions, a new roster of VPs have been hired and a unique set of people will be placed in charge of each major release. They will also be given more creative control and less obligation to conform to one design philosophy. This means that, in theory, each future Ubisoft game will have a different creative vision and should differ significantly from any of its peers.

Among the newly hired VPs is Maxime Beland, a 20-year Ubisoft veteran who worked as Lead Game Designer, Game Design Director and Creative Director on franchises such as Rainbow Six, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell. He left the company in 2019 to join Epic Games, but now returns to Ubisoft in this 'overseeing' role.

Fortunately, Ubisoft's underperforming 2019 did not lead to any major employee layoffs, although an unannounced title that was "three years" into development was cancelled late in the year. Drastic changes like these suggest that a continuation of the Ubisoft's current performance could lead to significant loss for the studio and its employees. EA's 350 employee loss in March 2019 serves as an example of how poor performance can impact the individual employees of a company.

The true impact of this shake-up won't be felt for years at the least. Right now, we can only acknowledge it as a promising sign: Ubisoft has produced some fantastically creative works and has changed the industry dramatically. If this change allows them to continue in that direction, it's hard to see it as a negative thing.