Ubisoft has a history of involving multiple studios to develop their major pillar releases so it should be no surprise that they have brought on Ubisoft Annecy to join the group of developers currently working on The Division.
The Division is Ubisoft’s next big new IP stemming from the Tom Clancy family of titles. It is an open-world third-person game that was announced back at E3 2013. It has made a few appearances here and there, but has continued to elude fans. It was previously being worked on by three studios, Massive Entertainment being the key developers with assistance from Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy veterans Red Storm, and Ubisoft Reflections who recently worked on The Crew. Now comes word via the UbiBlog that a fourth studio (Ubisoft Annecy) has been brought on board to help with the development of The Division.
If you haven’t heard of Ubisoft’s Annecy, then you may not have looked at the developers listed for Assassin’s Creed 3, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Ubisoft Annecy each had a hand in developing the multiplayer portion of those titles. They also had a hand in Assassin’s Creed: Unity in developing The Cafe’ Theater, including associated missions, the building itself and everything that made it so unique as a player hub in AC: Unity. So of course with their background in multiplayer it makes sense that maybe they are working on the multiplayer component of The Division as well. Their role in development of The Division is currently under wraps, but the UbiBlog mentioned ‘more will be revealed soon’. David Polfeldt, the Managing Director at Massive Entertainment had this to say about Ubisoft Annecy joining the development of The Division:
“We are very happy that Ubisoft Annecy is part of The Division’s family. They are highly experienced and talented developers, adding much value to the project. Being able to work with other studios offers fantastic creative opportunities during development and, in the end, strongly benefits the overall quality of the game.”
Hopefully we will hear more about Annecy’s involvement and more of The Division as we draw closer to E3 2015. The Division is set to release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in 2015.
