A new report from Jason Schreier sheds fascinating insight behind the scenes at Ubisoft. Especially in regard to Serge Hascoët’s past controversial period as the Chief Creative Officer at the large publisher.
NEWS: Fans have long wondered why Ubisoft hired Dragon Age designer Mike Laidlaw only for him to leave after just a year. The answer: Laidlaw's King Arthur game was canceled because former Ubisoft creative chief Serge Hascoët didn't like the setting https://t.co/tIMHfrMgza
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) July 28, 2020
Jason Schreier has published a greatly informative piece over at his new job at Bloomberg where he explains the reasons why Mark Laidlaw, a prominent game writer, quickly left Ubisoft after arriving with great fanfare. Apparently, Laidlaw immediately went to work by creating an ambitious and high-budget fantasy-RPG that revolved around King Arthur and his Round Table codenamed Avalon.
The people who worked on Avalon said the project had been progressing well. It featured a cooperative multiplayer world similar to Capcom Co.’s popular Monster Hunter series. The game’s developers were shocked to see the project impeded simply because the chief creative officer didn’t like its setting, they said.
The reason no one ever heard of that project is Serge Hascoët. The long-time Chief Creative Officer at Ubisoft. According to the report by Schreier, Hascoët had immense control over every game and could greenlight or cancel anything at a whim. It was him who didn’t like Laidlaw’s project and thus no fruits of Mark Laidlaw’s short tenure at Ubisoft ever materialized.
There’s sadly a much darker and more grim story to Serge Hascoët with him allegedly fostering an environment of sexual harassment at Ubisoft. Hascoët resigned from his position earlier this month due to stories breaking out of this.
As the CCO with unusual powers for his position, Hascoët is now being also attributed with one particular aspect of Ubisoft games many gamers have criticized the company for. That their games simply feel too similar between each other. Reading how harsh Hascoët acted in his position it makes a lot of sense that with his departure, a lot of creative change can be expected for Ubisoft titles.
