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."