Ubisoft is probably set to have itself another big year, with Watch Dogs coming out next month and Assassin's Creed: Unity and Comet as well as Tom Clancy's The Division coming later in the year.
But Ubisoft took a lot of people by surprise last year when they announced that Watch Dogs wouldn't be coming out until this spring, and The Division's managing director David Polfeldt from Ubisoft Massive was encouraged by the publisher's dedication to putting out a quality product.
"It's tremendously important for us as a developer studio, to know that the owner and the publisher are ready to take that hit, and [the Watch Dogs delay] was a massive hit," Polfeldt told Examiner's Game On blog. "I think their shares fell 25% on the day it was announced it was being delayed. It takes so much courage to live through that day and still think that was a good decision. So for us in the development [side of things], that's an important message that ultimately the management will back up the goals that we have, which is the game has to be great."
Polfeldt said that the work environment at Ubisoft is one where the developers are encouraged to try to out-do themselves, but not sacrifice quality for time constraints.
"So there's never a discussion about 'just get it done guys, hurry up, we have a deadline, and it doesn't matter if it's really perfect, just get it done,'" Polfeldt said. "I've never heard that in an internal [meeting], often we come back with a sense of just being challenged all the time, doesn't matter what we do or how good it is, there's always a question of, 'okay great, but what if? Or could you push that further?' That's an inspiring environment to me. I have to say I look forward to going to work everyday, and part of that reason is I know they will ask me to outperform myself as often as possible."
Overall the interview offers a pretty nice look at what it's like inside a Ubisoft studio, even if it sounds a little flowery and PR-speaky. Check out the full interview over at Game On and let us know if you want to work at Ubisoft now.