There has been a lot of speculation about how Patrice Desilets would be welcomed back to Ubisoft since his former employer picked up THQ Montreal in their fire sale. That speculation has ended, in a rather unfriendly way. Desilets had worked for Ubisoft up to 2010, helping to create and develop the Assassins’ Creed franchise during his tenure with them. After THQ’s financial collapse, he found himself working for his former employer again on projects he had created at THQ, namely 1666 and Underdog. According to an Ubisoft statement earlier this week, “Unfortunately, since the acquisition, the good faith discussions between Patrice and Ubisoft aimed at aligning Patrice’s and the studio’s visions have been inconclusive. As a result, Patrice has left the studio. Our priorities remain with the teams already hard at work on projects in development. They are at the root of Ubisoft Montréal’s past and future successes.” Which doesn’t make it sound so bad. Desilets’ own statement, however, is not as friendly:
“Contrary to any statements made earlier today, this morning I was terminated by Ubisoft. I was notified of this termination in person, handed a termination notice and was unceremoniously escorted out of the building by two guards without being able to say goodbye to my team or collect my personal belongings.
“This was not my decision.
“Ubisoft’s actions are baseless and without merit. I intend to fight Ubisoft vigorously for my rights, for my team and for my game.”
An interesting, but not entirely surprising turn of events. Desilets’ and Ubisoft didn’t exactly have a clean break the first time around. Jean-Francois Boivin, a producer who followed Desilets from Ubisoft to Montreal and back again, was also fired. Hopefully this will not impact the games in development in any significant way. Although that’s not likely, as two of the biggest creative minds behind their projects are gone, while Ubisoft apparently has the rights to the IP.
EA was recently awarded a lucrative publishing deal from Disney, being named the sole provider for “core” Star Wars games. Which is probably unnecessary for the publisher, as they’ve clearly got big plans for this year already. An investor’s call earlier this week revealed at least some of their plans for this fiscal year (ending in March 2014). All of the standard sports titles are in the plan: Madden, FIFA, FIFA Manager, NHL, and NCAA Football. NBA Live is supposedly back on the release schedule, while Tiger Woods will be taking a year off. Fuse and a new Battlefield have also been previously announced. But the call did reveal that new titles from Bioware and DICE will be announced at E3 in June. Dragon Age 3 is the obvious bet from Bioware, but that’s not entirely certain. A new Need for Speed is expected, but it might not be coming from Criterion. Despite three EA studios being tied to the Star Wars franchise (DICE, Bioware, and Visceral), it was confirmed that no Star Wars titles are coming in this fiscal year.
Capcom’s upcoming Remember Me has gotten its preorder incentives. Ordering from Best Buy or Amazon will get you some extra combat moves inspired by another famous Capcom franchise, Street Fighter. Nilin apparently won’t be throwing hadokens, but she can do a Spinning Bird Kick and Dragon Punch. Alternatively, ordering from Best Buy scores the prequel comic from Dark Horse. Preorders are available now and the game releases June 4, 2013.
Having recently revealed Wolfenstein: The New Order, Bethesda has no provided some details on what to expect with this return to a classic franchise. Players will see the return of BJ Blazkowicz in an alternate history timeline. BJ is in an asylum following his takedown of Robo-Hitler, but he didn’t exactly save the world. It’s now the 1960s and the Nazis have won WWII as well as the space race. Expect to fight plenty of Nazi robots, including dogs. Which is all well and good, but how are they working the multiplayer? Simple, they aren’t. That’s right, a first person shooter coming in fourth quarter 2013 is actually going to be single player only. Kind of a bold move for Bethesda, but it’s still a safe bet that they won’t bother making the PS3 version functional.
How are you liking the Lobo DLC and the extra skins for Injustice: Gods Among Us? Does it have you excited for the recently confirmed Batgirl add-on? Long time comics fans might be even more excited about the other add-on coming with Batgirl: the Killing Joke pack. Seems a bit obvious now, doesn’t it? I haven’t confirmed everything that will be included the extra pack, which will not be part of the season pass (Batgirl will be), but it will definitely include Joker’s Hawaiian shirt outfit that proved a crippling sight to Barbara Gordon. No dates or prices confirmed yet for the add-ons, but I’d expect them soon and run the same cost as this week’s releases.
Rockstar seems to have done well with releasing their older GTA titles as classics on PSN. They’ve now slated two of their other titles to get the same treatment. Manhunt will be coming next week ($9.99), followed soon after by The Warriors. First released in 2003, Manhunt got a lot of (justifiable) heat for its extreme levels of violence and the rewarding the player for prolonging kills. No word yet on a date for The Warriors, a beat ’em up based on the 1979 film.