“This is a momentous change for the franchise,” Cote acknowledged.
“Wewillbe better caretakers of our meta story, and this hub will help us accomplish that promise.”
“Infinity is not a game, per se,” Cote said.
First off, some basics.
Will they be on a disc in a box in a shop?
When I load them up, what do I see?
What will the modern day narrative look like in Infinity?
How will I experience that?
Cote:It’s like you’re the present day protagonist.
You are exploring memories of the past for purposes that will become clearer when we reveal the story.
And you’ll have to see exactly how we do that.
But will there still be a playable portion?
Cote:The Infinity hub will evolve with time.
So it’s it’s meant to grow with our games.
So to confirm, those oppurtunities, in time, will include playable portions?
Cote:With time.
Is there any chance Infinity launches as something I can download and poke around with before Codename Red?
Cote:That is not the plan right now.
It’s for it to be available at the same time as Red.
I loved the Valhalla and Odyssey Crossover Stories.
Is Infinity a place we can see more of those?
I love the discussion it generated among our fan base.
Will Infinity be a better place to hope for this?
Cote:It is.
You’re absolutely right.
Because we have to resurrect our pipelines.
And all this was still running.
He said, ‘Mac, are you really done with Odyssey?’
And I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re done.’
I love the idea of seeing Kassandra pop up again, since she can reappear almost anywhere.
What can Kassandra fans such as myself hope for?
And I’d love to see her come back.
Cote:I’ll answer your questions in two parts.
But your second question goes more to something that I can and am willing to answer.
I’ll let our teams answer to that in the future.
Is there any potential for Infinity to encompass other past games in some way?
How we’re going to do that will be revealed at a later time.
Moving the series' modern day story to Infinity is a big shift for the series.
For people who love the meta story, we’ve never been able to give them enough.
They would love an entire game based on the meta story, with gameplay, and full immersion.
So that’s where we’re trying to change the paradigm with Infinity.
All they see is the DNA Explorer and, boom, they jump straight back.
And I think it’s important to keep that abstraction.
When you talk about Assassin’s Creed, it’s like, ‘oh, it’s complicated’.
‘Coming to Valhalla, I’m interested by the Vikings but the whose this girl Layla?
It’s the third act of her story?’
And it can stop you from enjoying those games.
What has sparked this change?
Cote:The industry is changing, and we’re trying to change with it.
And I think that by announcing earlier, we can have a conversation.
I want us to have a bigger conversation.
We’re a big company, there’s a lot of moving parts.
And all this secrecy is toxic, I would say.
Internally, it’s preventing us from from sharing openly.
I want our teams to collaborate internally, to go away from competition towards collaboration.
I can’t wait to see what the feedback is about this new approach.
It’s something that’s new for Ubisoft.
Clearly, that’s something we’ve not done in the past.
I can’t wait to see what people think of it and see where it takes us.
So, when will we see Infinity launch?
Projects Red and then Hexe - and by extension Infinity - all seem further off.
Tonight’s announcements were dominated by teases fortwo blockbuster Assassin’s Creed projects now in development.
Codename Red will be set in feudal Japan, while Codename Hexe looks to be inspired by European witchcraft.
Ubisoft also saw fit toconfirm a couple of mobile game projects today, including one set in China.
Eurogamer met with Ubisoft at its Paris office this week, for which Ubisoft covered travel and accommodation.
