In its continuing efforts to mop up after the lacklustre launches of both Ghost Recon Breakpoint and The Division 2, Ubisoft is restructuring its editorial team, which apparently involves bringing Maxime Béland back to the fold.
Béland has been over at Epic Games for less than a year, but is now reportedly rejoining Ubisoft as an editorial vice president, according to VGC.
In his 20 years at Ubisoft, Béland acted as lead designer and creative director on Rainbow Six: Vegas, and with Assassin’s Creed he took up the role of game design director. He was also the creative director on Splinter Cell: Conviction (2010) and Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2012) and worked on three Far Cry titles.
“We are reinforcing our editorial team to be more agile and better accompany our development teams around the world as they create the best gaming experiences for players,” Ubisoft confirmed in a statement about the editorial changes.
It’s understood that Ubisoft’s chief creative officer, Serge Hascoet, is staying on, with his new VPs being offered a lot more freedom in an effort to mix things up creatively.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s October launch was arguably a dud, and led to a fast and awkward call with Ubisoft’s investors. Breakpoint was assessed as having “been strongly rejected by a significant portion of the community” and it “did not come in with enough differentiation factors, which prevented the game’s intrinsic qualities from standing out.”
As a result, a decision was made to push back the release dates of Watch Dogs: Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine and Gods and Monsters – to soften both the financial blow, and fans’ general exhaustion with Ubisoft’s ongoing problems.
Wireframe #30 is out now
