Ubisoft is, reportedly, ‘absolutely passionate’ about open, and connected worlds like that of Watch Dogs, The Division and The Crew, and at the same time the Crew creative director expects it to be industry-wide.
Sharing his views over this, with the media, The Crew creative director Julian Gerighty said, “The editorial department and Serge is shepherding the creation of these things, and open world is something that he absolutely passionate about. If you see certain similarities between the projects, it’s because of the nature of open worlds, I guess, and it’s also because there is an editorial department. It’s a real editorial department that helps us prepare the projects.
I think you’re going to see more and more projects going down that road in the years to come. I think even the console manufacturers are going down that road. This generation for me is always going to be about this seamless online and what better way to make that live than open world games.
It’s one of those things where the online aspect, the seamless aspect, the living, breathing world aspect, that is provided by the online adds so much to the experience that it’s a shame to be able to say, ‘OK, you can play the game, but you can’t have that part of it. It’s a really key part of it, much like World of Warcraft. I genuinely think the open world game without the seamless aspect to it is going to feel a little artificial, a little forced in a few years time. Today it can still work.”