Ubisoft open-world design has often been criticized for flooding players with unnecessary markers and pick-up quests scattered across massive maps, prompting debate over whether less is really more. Among other things, when the developer announced his Scalar project to help build “bigger and richer worlds”, many people expressed concern about what this means for future Ubisoft games. In an interview with Games Industry, however, the company has admitted that games do not have to be bigger.
What Ubisoft has to say about open worlds
Ubisoft Stockholm CEO Patrick Bach, part of the Scalar team, argued that this new technology will not force developers to create larger worlds because its purpose is to remove constraints instead of dictating design. “Do we need games to get bigger? No,” he said. “Should some games benefit from being able to get bigger? Absolutely. No part of a game should be driven by ‘more is better.’ This is technology, and it does not dictate what games you build, but there are games that completely will certainly benefit from being larger, more detailed, scalable and larger than they are today. ”
Meaning: Ubisoft games certainly do not need larger worlds
Zarmena writes … One can not argue that Ubisoft’s open-world game has performed better in terms of player engagement compared to its more linear experiences. You only need to look at the Assassin’s Creed series to get proof of this. But as someone who used to love Ubisoft games and now drive the other direction to see their card sizes, I just ask that the vast landscapes do not power players to invest hundreds and hundreds of hours in exploration. What happened to concise campaigns? Do we really have to travel from one corner of a map to another to find a material to make a component to complete a task? Ubisoft games do not need larger worlds. They need better world design.
In other news, Rockstar Games has removed some controversial content from GTA 5’s next-generation versions, and Guerrilla Games is already thinking of a Horizon Forbidden West sequel.
[Source: Games Industry]