14 DAY TRIAL // The video game industry seems headed for a two-tier future, with high-profile, well-funded titles with little ambition facing off against smaller indie titles that rely more on feeling, but at least one veteran developer believes that this separation is bad for the players.
Jade Raymond, who is the current leader of the Ubisoft Toronto development team and who has previously worked on the Assassin’s Creed series, told CVG that, “I really do feel it’s time for our medium to grow up.
“I think we don’t need to make the equivalent to a Michael Bay flick in order to sell five million copies. I think things can be exciting, have meaning and hit important topics, and I’m not the only one that thinks that.”
The developers believes that video games need to try and balance commercial success with higher goals, like inspiring their audience or making them think about a specific subject.
Raymond added, “Games, I think, have even more potential than that given that on top of the narrative side we do have all of the gameplay mechanics and we create rule sets from scratch which can have any kind of meaning embedded in them.
“It’s not easy to do that, because it requires breaking our recipe and trying to find new recipes, but I think it’s an important thing for us to strive for.”
The new Ubisoft Toronto studio will be working on a new Splinter Cell video game while also creating their own intellectual property and, when it is fully staffed, more than 800 people will work on the two projects.
Jade Raymond was the leading developer on the first Assassin’s Creed video game and the series is now ready to get its third full installment.
It will make the move to North America during the time of the Independence War and will star a character that is half Native American.