Ubisoft explains why so many of their games are open-world

Ubisoft's Julian Gerighty says the company's focus on open-world games is part of a general direction towards games that are designed to take advantage of a constant online connection.

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Ubisoft has been betting big on open world games, and that's no coincidence. From Assassin's Creed to Watch Dogs to Far Cry, the publisher is quite keen on making sandboxes for gamers to play in.

Julian Gerighty, creative director behind Ubisoft's open-world racer The Crew places the blame on the "editorial department" of the French publisher. The goal of editorial is to help shape games in the conceptual stages, and they've been especially vocal about open world.

"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," Gerighty told Polygon. He said the idea of "living worlds" ties into these open worlds, and he sees "more and more projects going down that road" in the near future.

"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," he said. "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."

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  • reply
    July 18, 2013 4:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Ubisoft explains why so many of their games are open-world.

    Ubisoft's Julian Gerighty says the company's focus on open-world games is part of a general direction towards games that are designed to take advantage of a constant online connection.

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      July 18, 2013 7:32 PM

      Actual reason: We want to re-use the Assassin's Creed engine for everything!

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        July 18, 2013 7:47 PM

        Far Cry doesn't use AC engine and they've said neither does Watch Dogs.

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        July 19, 2013 3:39 AM

        Not really ubisoft actually rarely re-uses tech cross franchise.

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          July 19, 2013 3:39 AM

          Meaning that their tech branches with each project.

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          July 25, 2013 8:22 AM

          You basing this on what? They branch the code, that's different from starting from scratch each time. They're definitely re-using most of their engines ever since AC1...

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      July 18, 2013 10:42 PM

      Drming as a feature.

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      July 19, 2013 2:00 AM

      "e said the idea of "living worlds" ties into these open worlds"

      Except that open worlds tend to result in gameplay-thin games like Assassin's creed and Far Cry 3, where you do copy & pastes of the same missions over, and over, and over, resulting in a very fake, non-living feeling world.

      If they really want to create the feeling of a living world, they need to become brave enough to not use such a paper thin method of quest design, and actually write each single mission to be different than everything else that's been in the game. That used to be the norm, but developers like Ubi these days are looking for all the shortcuts they can take. They just don't hear criticism because their games are being played by all the newcomer 10 - 18 year olds who don't yet have better games to compare them to. Look at Gothic 2, or Gothic 1. Just as big a world, more interestingly crafted a world, and yet they managed to have exciting quest writing that doesn't copy and paste itself throughout the entire game. How come developers are less competent nowadays?

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        July 19, 2013 2:04 AM

        [deleted]

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          July 19, 2013 2:37 AM

          Give Gothic 2 a try. Now that, in my opinion, is a living world, where every quest that you encounter feels like a new experience. The world itself feels new everywhere you go. I've sampled all the ACs thus far, and both the quests are the same things over and over, and the world design itself is the same thing over and over. There are numerous, perhaps innumerous, instances of everything in those games. If you reduced it to only one example of each unique instance, the world would be very small and the game very short. Their method to increase size and game length by making tons of copies of each experience is cheating at game development, and dumbing down expectations in the industry.

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            July 19, 2013 3:20 AM

            Except no, because literally nearly every game that exists is an exercise in repetition through the game's playtime. Games that have truly unique and interesting and *varied* gameplay throughout are extremely rare. Most games have a few things you can do, and you end up doing those things, perhaps in different environments or against different enemies, throughout the game's running time.

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        July 19, 2013 4:31 AM

        You're being unfair.

        Plus your paradigm of what makes a successful open world game is dated. In the future depth will come not from the penmanship of the game author but from the systems that interact with the player.

        Example : The most memorable experiences in the GTA games have been the wild moments of chance and circumstance that occur within that world, not because of a particularly well written mission.

        Also we're only one generation into this style of game design (console open world action adventures) and they've already made a lot of progress. The glimpses of Watch dogs & The division look extremely promising and dont appear to be just recycling from Assassin's Creed, but rather learning from it and developing it.

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        July 19, 2013 5:44 AM

        I felt the same way about Fallout 3. It felt like a huge world map with items dropped in, and scripting to trigger quests, random encounters, and exits to more detailed zone maps (subways, towns, etc). The story writing didn't carry it, and the super-depressing world didn't help. It felt like stat roulette, which is part of what western RPGs are, but I have no passion for those mechanics.

        Meanwhile, I found that I really like BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Golden, but that's mostly carried by the story and goofiness, as well as the fighting game mechanics, and turning Persona 4 Golden down to the easiest difficulty.

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          July 19, 2013 6:54 AM

          A lot of mistakes corrected by the much improved New Vegas imo. Obsidian brought a lot more personality to the revamped series where every conceivable element of gameplay was hugely improved. If I'm going to play an open world game that will keep my attention, I want to play something like that again.

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            July 19, 2013 8:37 AM

            [deleted]

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            July 19, 2013 8:51 AM

            Agreed. I'm still obsessed with NV and all of the amazing mods that have been released for it that just keep making it more interesting. I would definitely like to see obsidian make a sequel. I much preferred the style to F3.

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      July 19, 2013 2:32 AM

      Also, why do I want to buy future Assassin's Creeds, Watch Dogs, and future Far Crys (since FC3 now follows the same model), since they're all the exact same experience, just with different locations and colours? They all have maybe 15 missions that are copied and pasted ad nauseum all over the world, and they have you just cycle through doing the same things over, just like the game is one big grind.

      Forget buying all 3, why do I want to buy even a single one of them, since I already experienced the same game but with different sknnings in the previous Assassin's Creeds and Far Cry 3? I've never been able to finish an AC due to the dullness of doing the same crap forever, and FC3 was the same. They need to learn what it is to craft interesting quests and stories. It seems like they're afraid to try to be good at what they do.

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        July 19, 2013 4:04 AM

        In the next Assassin's Creed game you get to make pizzas on the boat - but the pizza dough requires that it is cooked using the heat of a volcano. If you successfully find a volcano and can complete your pizzas - you are then able sail around and sell them. This is Assassin's Creeds first attempt at fast food gameplay.

        Seriously, did you try to do just the main missions? Not sure which AC games you have played, but the gameplay is generally more varied when following the main storyline, and shouldn't take that long to finish afair (I still haven't played AC 3).

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        July 19, 2013 4:34 AM

        Weird I was pretty sure Watch Dogs wasn't out yet, how did you get hold of a copy?

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      July 19, 2013 7:29 AM

      People complain that games like Single Player COD is on rails.

      People complain that games like AC and FC3 are just open world copy and paste.

      Personally, I like the open world games so much more because if I want to go "over that hill" I don't want the game designers to have put a giant rock in the way that prevents it. Open world is where I have the most fun. It is after all a game - made for entertainment.

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