'Assassin's Creed' Executive Producer Marc-Alexis Côté: "Video Games Can Change The World" By "Changing People"
'Assassin's Creed' Executive Producer Marc-Alexis Côté: "Video Games Can Change The World" By "Changing People"
Ubisoft’s Executive Producer for its Assassin’s Creed franchise Marc-Alexis Côté revealed that the company is attempting to use video games to “change the world” by “changing people.”
In a keynote interview at XDS24, Côté revealed that the first question that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot always asks is, “What will players learn?”
He then explained why he asks this question, “What I think has driven Yves for 36, 37 years now is this idea that video games can change the world. And you start changing the world by changing people.”
“And if you give them something to think about even while they’re having fun, right, if they can learn something, then you can like change one person you can change the world,” he added.
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He was then asked a question about how he keeps the traditional Assassin’s Creed fanbase satisfied while also bringing in new players.
Côté said, “I have the chance to have what I call an evergreen franchise. And it’s a great honor to be able to steward that because the playground that I have in front me is the entirety of humanity history. So it’s diverse. It can be inclusive. We can tell different stories that will have a pull for different people in different parts of the world and we’re not stuck telling the same story over and over again with the same heroes.”
“So each time you pick up an Assassin’s Creed game I want you to learn something new, which is very important, but to discover another part of the world, another part of our shared history. And that’s what I like about Assassin’s Creed because it can feel always fresh because in each game that you play-. … It’s both a plus and a minus because each time you can start fresh, but there’s risk to starting fresh every time. You need to [be] building these protagonists so that they’re engaging. So that people relate to them.”
Speaking specifically to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, he said, “I think that’s one of the things people will notice starting with Shadows is that we’ve tried to make the game, the franchise more welcoming by focusing differently on-.
“Because Assassin’s Creed is two stories at the same time, it’s always been that way. You’ve got the present day. So the how you’re going into the past as its own story and you have the past itself. So we’ve bundled those two stories very differently for Shadows that will allow us to have more flexibility into the future to make the franchise more welcoming so we avoid the Star Wars issues like, ‘Who’s the dude with the black helmet?’ And try to make it more about your own experience within the franchise,” he said.
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Côté’s comments are not surprising. He made similar remarks in an interview with The New York Times.
He said, “We want people to be passionate about history. What does that mean? Stay true to well-documented moments and historical figures, but not shying away from having a critical point of view and defying clichés to go beyond what is the accepted truth.”
Furthermore, the company’s VP of Global Diversity and Inclusion Raashi Sikka makes it clear that the company is attempting to inject the divisive and corrosive agendas of diversity and inclusion into its games.
Sikka writes on the company’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility page of its website, “For Ubisoft, putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do means providing an environment where employees can thrive, building open-minded communities where players can connect, and creating games that reflect the diversity of the world we live in.”
“We will not accomplish all these goals overnight” she adds. “Just as it takes years of iteration to develop a AAA title, we will only become a more diverse and inclusive company by continuously improving, trying new ideas and learning from the results. It’s a long-term commitment, one that we will tackle with the same passion and dedication that we bring to our games.”
Furthermore, the company states, “We will create gaming experiences that push representation forward by embedding diversity and inclusion across our processes, increasing representation in our teams, and offering access to resources that help teams to build more authentic inclusive, and accessible gaming experiences.”
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