This is a really interesting piece of news on this fine Saturday morning. Ubisoft Montreal chief executive Yannis Mallat has recently said that he “looks forward to working with” Patrice Désilets, the former game director of the Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia franchises.
If you need a quick bit of catching up, Désilets left his post at Ubisoft in 2010 before joining up with THQ in 2011 in order to lead the firm’s new Montreal studio.
But since the world works in really funny ways sometimes, and this week’s major THQ IP auctions saw Ubisoft emerging as the winning bidder for THQ Montreal, which means that Patrice Désilets could possibly return to Ubisoft, that is if he doesn’t run far away.
Mallat, in a recent interview with the Financial Post, expressed his personal optimism at the idea.
“As a matter of fact, I’ve known Patrice for a while,” he said. “I’ve known Patrice for 13 years and I know him very well, he’s a great talent and I respect him as a creator.
“We’re very happy to look forward to working with him again. As a matter of fact, he’s actually in France right now because he’s giving a speech at a University. He’s coming back tonight and I’m having dinner with him tonight,” he added in the interview which reportedly took place yesterday.
However, Mallat refused to confirm for certain whether Désilets will accept returning to Ubisoft by remaining with the Montreal studio. Maybe he will see it as fate, or just being unable to escape his past.
Ubisoft paid $ 2.5 million to acquire the Montreal studio which, if official auction results are believable, is working on two games; 1666 and a new game called Underdog.
Désilets is believed to be leading development on 1666.
Personally speaking, if there is to be another Assassin’s Creed title in the future, then this man seriously should return to the franchise, because it went downhill ever since he left, finally hitting rock bottom, in my opinion, with Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Assassin’s Creed III. The latter was hugely disappointing and ended the series badly, so only Gordon Freeman knows where it will go next.