Jason VandenBerghe, creative director at Ubisoft Montreal and the lead behind games such as For Honor and Red Steel 2, has officially left the company to join ArenaNet, famous for their work on the MMO Guild Wars 2.
VandenBerghe explained in a public Facebook post about this new role where he was convinced to make the move thanks to Guild Wars 2 Isaiah Cartwright. His new role at the studio involves will be less directly involved in creating games. “”It’s a big step,” he said.
“I won’t be making games directly any more — I’ll be studio level, shepherding teams and growing people. I’m sort of thrilled about how difficult that sounds. It’s exactly what I want to be doing right now.”
VandenBerghe is leaving Ubisoft on good terms, stating that it was “the best experience of [his] career”.
The state of his last game with Ubisoft, the unique melee brawler For Honor, is worrisome however. Player numbers have plummeted heavily post-launch, with the lacklustre online infrastructure and need for boatloads of grinding to gain every cosmetic items have soured most players. Even with new content drops like two new characters to play, upcoming ranked matches and a one-on-one tournament may be too little too late.
But we have seen Ubisoft making the long tail model work. Rainbow Six Siege saw significant growth despite a rocky launch. Both For Honor and Siege are developed and maintained by Ubisoft Montreal, so there’s still hope to see this unique game championed by VandenBerghe make its comeback.