Ubisoft's greatest successes "derived from a technological breakthrough"

CEO Yannis Mallat of Ubisoft Montreal points to breakthroughs in technology as their ‘secret sauce’ for successfully landing new franchises. Dynamic lighting led to the stealthy Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell.

The ability of a character grasping onto the environment birthed free-running in videogame form, which led to Assassin’s Creed. Studios must ”embrace technological evolution” to flourish.

Not losing the drive to pursue creativity above all constantly haunts Yannis Mallat, he admits. ”If there is one question thing that keeps me awake at night it’s this one.”

”It’s an everyday concern in terms of studio DNA and how we approach production. There is no magical recipe to making successful new games – you can only ever adopt the best practices,” the CEO tells The Guardian.

”Actually, the only recipe I know is that you take the best team, you give them the means, you give them faith and confidence and you give them incredible challenges to tackle – and they usually come back with great stuff.”

Ubisoft managed to raise many gamer eyebrows when they unveiled Watch Dogs, which is all about technology in the modern age and how it can dictate our lives so utterly without us consciously thinking about it. This new IP is in part thanks to their technological pursuits in always trying out new things.

”As for creating new experiences, we really believe in our Breakthrough Strategy, which is linked with technological evolution,” he continued. ”Our successes in the past, whether that was the first Splinter Cell, or the first Assassin’s Creed, each time we found a technological breakthrough that led to a new way to play that no one had experienced before.”

”It was dynamic lighting that allowed the stealth gameplay in Splinter Cell; when you think about the free-running in Assassin’s Creed, the ability of a character to grasp and climb any architectural detail, that was also derived from a technological breakthrough.”

”This new way to play through technology, was a minimum guarantee to the players of a new game experience. I don’t think technology will impair our ability to be creative. On the contrary, you have to embrace technological evolution.”

Watch Dogs is in development at Ubisoft Montreal and releases on Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Wii U and PC in Q4 2013.