Far Cry 4 creative director gets approval for "personal game project"

With Far Cry 4 done and out the door, Creative Director Alex Hutchinson says he's been given the go-ahead to begin work on a new, personal game project. There's no guarantee it will ever see the light of day, but Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat said it's important that smaller, more experimental projects have a place within the studio.

Hutchinson told CVG that the project will be developed by a small team of people from the Assassin's Creed III and IV teams. "The challenge then is to keep costs down and make something that competes at a high level, without saying, 'We need a thousand people for a new IP!'" he said. He didn't reveal any details, but if the game makes it through Ubisoft's internal approval process, he said he hopes the team will be able to reveal it to the world in a year.

It's a noteworthy development, because previous projects of this nature have resulted in games like Valiant Hearts, the upcoming Child of Light, and of course Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Ubisoft has already said that there won't be another Blood Dragon, but the possibility of a new game in a similar vein is exciting.

Despite the hurdles it faces, Mallat said it's important that smaller projects like this one not be "suffocated" by the pressures that Ubi's big franchises face, because it allows the publisher to grow its internal talent and "try new things without breaking the balance financially."

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.