„They came from toothpaste companies.” Assassin’s Creed creator explains how Ubisoft differs from EA, and why it’s so important

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Alex Hutchinson, the creative director behind games like Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4, recently spoke with FRVR. He highlighted Ubisoft, his previous employer, for being open to trying new things, and believes this willingness to take risks is a key reason why the Assassin’s Creed series has remained so successful.

Something rare in triple-A

Hutchinson notes that this is unusual for major game franchises. It’s typical for a series to decline after its original development team moves on. Often, new teams are hesitant to make significant changes because they don’t fully grasp what originally made the game special.

Ubisoft did something unusual. They took a risk by completely changing their popular stealth-action adventure games into large-scale, open-world role-playing games. It’s rare for a company to reinvent a well-known series like this, and even more unusual for it to work.

Managers from toothpaste companies

Hutchinson doesn’t look back on his time at Ubisoft with entirely positive feelings, but he highly praises the company’s willingness to try new and innovative ideas. He believes this stems from the unusual fact that Ubisoft is still run by its original founders, who have a lifelong passion for and experience with video games. As he puts it:

Despite their flaws, some companies still prioritized quality and weren’t afraid to take chances. In contrast, companies like EA had leadership with no gaming experience – often coming from completely unrelated fields like consumer goods. These executives seemed to believe a project had to be instantly perfect to be worthwhile, and they lacked the ability to foster creativity.

Hutchinson worked on, among other things, Assassin’s Creed III.

Taking risks doesn’t always pay off, but it’s admirable to try. Recently, Ashley Hutchinson acknowledged that the initial, ambitious design of Assassin’s Creed III didn’t quite work as planned.

While it might appear Hutchinson is praising Ubisoft, he actually offers a balanced view, pointing out both the good and the bad. He recently shared, for instance, that Ubisoft once overloaded Assassin’s Creed III with content simply to discourage players from immediately reselling it at stores like GameStop, which could hurt initial sales of new copies.

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2025-11-04 15:32