The Division will be out this year for Xbox One, PS4 and PC – though rumours have been getting out that it may be delayed into 2015. Ubisoft Reflections managing director Pauline Jacquey has revealed a rather interesting fact. “About 40 percent” of the studio, which was behind Driver: San Francisco, is apparently helping Massive Entertainment with The Division.
Speaking in an interview with Develop, Jacquey said, “We’re working on all of the game’s systems: main characters, enemies, RPG pillars, building Manhattan, online components, and so on. It gives us a very broad and wide input on the game, but it’s not as limited as the naval battles on Assassin’s Creed III.”
“We’ve brought a very good design and technological strength to The Division. Massive’s team is bigger, but ours is still significant, and its competency in art, technology and design is really showing. There’s so much love for this game at Reflections. Our guys are absolutely crazy about it. So for some of them it’s a life achievement being able to participate in the development of the game.”
This doesn’t mean The Division’s development is in trouble. “That’s absolutely not the case. This is part of a global model that Ubisoft has been deploying in the past seven or eight years.” This was the same model seen with Assassin’s Creed as well, which employed numerous studios including Ubisoft Toronto (which worked on Splinter Cell: Blacklist).
“It’s also classic team size management. You don’t want your team to be too big when you’re in the initial phase of conception, when you need a lot of agility. But when you’re in full production – and given that the game’s scope is gigantic – it needs a big team behind it.”
Will The Division’s reach extend its grasp? We’ll find out when it releases.
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