It’s been a rough few years for Ubisoft. Skull and Bones became a $200 million folly, one of several failed attempts to capitalise on live-service popularity; staff are revolting due to layoffs, studio closures and a mandatory return-to-office command; and after years of trying to curtail the influence of Tencent, the Chinese publisher now controls more than 26% of newly-formed Assassin’s Creed subsidiary Vantage Studios.
Alex Hutchinson, who served as Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed 3’s creative director, before leaving Ubisoft to found Typhoon Studios in 2017, believes the company’s fall is down to several factors, which have been hammering the publisher for a while now—it’s why he left.
Ubisoft’s treatment of Pioneer is the reason Hutchinson left, which allowed him to create his own sci-fi exploration game—albeit with some combat. And even when Typhoon was shuttered when Stadia was killed off, the team reformed under Raccoon Logic, giving us the excellent sequel Revenge of the Savage Planet.
