The Division director leaves Ubisoft, joins Hitman dev IO Interactive

Hitman Square

That man up there is not Ryan Barnard, former game director on Ubisoft's The Division, but for all we know that's how he strutted out of the building on his final day at work for the company. Which is to say, the game director of Ubi's surprisingly massive (and Massive Entertainment-developed) MMORPG has left to join Hitman developer IO Interactive.

Barnard actually left Ubisoft in February, according to his LinkedIn page (ta, MCV), and joins IO Interactive in a brand new role:as gameplay director. IO's publisher Square Enix says he'll oversee three of its core teams: "gameplay", "online" and "world".

“Ryan’s contributions to game design over the years show he’s the ideal person to spearhead the coming efforts,” Square said in a statement. "We are very happy to add his talent to the pool of great people working at IO.”

Check out our reviews of The Division and Hitman, if you're thinking of picking either up.

TOPICS
PRODUCTS
Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.

Latest in Games
Gallywix wears an uneasy smile as he's confronted by Xal'atath in WoW: The War Within.
After 12 days and 100s of wipes, World of Warcraft's latest world first raid ends in anticlimax: 'That's the boss?!?'
Larian CEO Swen Vincke brandishes a sword at the camera and smiles.
Larian’s Swen Vincke subtweets anyone still fixated on singleplayer games’ commercial viability: 'They just have to be good'
Assassin's Creed Shadows Imai Sokyu location - Imai Sokyu sitting down at a table with his head turned to his left.
Where to find Imai Sokyu in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows Makino Kurumazuka Kofun - Yasuke holding a large red explosive jar.
How to enter Makino Kurumazuka Kofun in Assassin's Creed Shadows
A man holding a gun drives a boat as money flies out the back in GTA Online
Rockstar hornswoggles lapsed GTAO players with $3 million welcome-back offer that actually requires you to spend money to get most of it
A citizen of a city
Cities: Skylines 2 celebrates 10 years of Cities with more nuanced homelessness and six new DLCs
Latest in News
Public Eye trailer still - dead-eyed police officer sitting for an interview
I'm creeped out by this trailer for a generative AI game about people using an AI-powered app to solve violent crimes in the year 2028 that somehow isn't a cautionary tale
Gallywix wears an uneasy smile as he's confronted by Xal'atath in WoW: The War Within.
After 12 days and 100s of wipes, World of Warcraft's latest world first raid ends in anticlimax: 'That's the boss?!?'
A photograph of the opening slide of a Microsoft lecture on Cooperative Vectors at GDC 2025
AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and Nvidia are all excited about cooperative vectors and what they mean for the future of 3D graphics, but it's going to be a good while before we really see their impact
Larian CEO Swen Vincke brandishes a sword at the camera and smiles.
Larian’s Swen Vincke subtweets anyone still fixated on singleplayer games’ commercial viability: 'They just have to be good'
Machinery tools and equipment,Rolls of galvanized steel for production metal pipes and tubes for industrial ventilation systems in factory.
New super-thin '2D' metal sheets could enable ultra-low power chips and can you guess how they're made? Yup, by squishing stuff really hard
Split Fiction trailer still - Zoe and Mio staring into a large pipe
'People like to hate EA, I don't know why': Split Fiction's Josef Fares says he has a good relationship with his publisher, but 'nobody believes' him