There’s big changes afoot at Ubisoft, who – if recent reports are to be believed – are responding to the failure of Ghost Recon Breakpoint (among others) in drastic fashion. One of the ways they’ve done this is overhaul their lead editorial team, which makes all the creative decisions, in order to encourage their studios to pitch projects with more individuality and uniqueness.
Joining that restructured editorial team is Maxime Beland (via VGC). Beland’s LinkedIn profile shows that he has rejoined Ubisoft, after having spent a few months at Epic Games (whom he joined after a long stint at Ubisoft in the first place).
During his first stint at Ubisoft – which lasted over 20 years – Beland worked on various big projects, including the likes of the first Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry 4, Far Cry Primal, and Far Cry 5. He was also the creative director on several major projects – Rainbow Six: Vegas, Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist – while he also co-founded Ubisoft’s Toronto studio.
It remains to be seen how Beland’s addition to their new editorial team will impact Ubisoft’ output in the future, but there’s no doubting that Beland’s track record speaks for itself.
As for his greater involvement spells positive things for Splinter Cell, a franchise he has been deeply involved with in the past- one can only hope. When last Ubisoft mentioned the stealth series, it didn’t sound like they had any major plans for it in the imminent future.