Patrice Desilets Isn’t With Ubisoft Anymore

I like Patrice's idea of 'his game'. The one that a man in a suit paid him one hundred thousand dollars a year to create so that they might sell it to others. And when that man in a suit ran out of money, he sold the game to a different man in a suit. And then Patrice says "you can't do this, it's MY GAME! Just because you paid me for me to create it for you doesn't mean you own it or something!"

Let me tell you, artists. If you want complete creative control, bankroll your own projects. Then you can do whatever you want with them. But once you take a salary for your creative ability, you do not own your work, unless otherwise noted in your contract. Imagine Michaelangelo took the Catholic church's money, and then said "I'm not gonna paint god and angels, I'm gonna paint a bunch of trees!" Imagine a contractor took your money to build you a new deck, and then instead built a gazebo. It may be a great gazebo, but it's not the deck you told them to build.

If Patrice wanted 'his game', he would've bought it at the auction. If he can't afford to self-employ then FUCK imagine this you're just like the rest of us.

I wish I could say this was a surprise, but when the news came out that Ubi bought THQ Montreal I had a feeling it would end this way. After the issues surrounding his leaving Ubisoft post-Brotherhood and him going to start up a new development team for THQ in the same city where he quit from, you had to know when Ubi was going to have a very quick trigger with Patrice.

My guess would be that management was starting to strongarm development of 1666 and Patrice was pushing back. I have a feeling that if they are willing to fire Patrice, the game may be further along than we think.

this is just like the respawn guys getting fired by activision after they spent so many years at infinity ward. When you realize that a person or a group of people have special talent you let them make one game, turn it into a franchise, and then keep those people fucked around in limbo for countless years so they never have the opportunity to make another game until that original franchise has been run into the ground. Fuckin sad!

Ubisoft dicked around with Michel Ancel too, most recently with not letting Rayman Legends release on Wii U when it was already done, so to allow for multiplatform release in September.

Whoah, this is crazy. Security guards escorting out a game developer? He's not like a hardened criminal.

@nicked: That's a pretty presumptive thing to say. I don't agree that they look that much alike, simply being open world doesn't make it 'the same game, just in a near-future setting'. Unless your bar for similarity allows for SR to be AC in a more current setting, you got tackling in that game; albeit using dildos or some other equally ridiculous weapon.

"Ezio, it's your cousin Leo, lets go wenching!"

I can only dream. :(

He's like the.... Good guy version of Dennis Dyack.

The internet is just really dumb.

And they said there was no bad blood.

A universe in which the State is run by President-for-Life Jeff Gerstmann and his loyal lieutenants Davis, Shoemaker, Caravella, and Klepek.

@tescovee: Thank God ! Just for a short while, I feared someone would forget to engage in some uncreative and cheap french bashing. Fortunately, you didn't disappoint. I feel so relieved !

Drama!

It's weird how everyone's ready to bash "Ubisoft/Assassin's Creed" while simultaneously being really excited for Watch Dogs... which basically looks like Assassin's Creed in a near-future setting. They even had a 'chase this guy down and tackle him' segment in that new trailer. The tenor of public opinion seems really incongruous in this regard. It's probably just brand fatigue for AC though.

Something tells me that the game he's referring to are the games that he started in THQ Montreal and not necessarily Assassin's Creed. This whole situation reeks of West, Zampella and co. vs Activision.

He wanted to bring his franchise back to what it was all about, being a silent assassin, and they fired him because they wanna keep it a third person Sims game.

This why I don't trust Ubi with AC anymore, AC3 was disappointing and can't see the next game being any better

Yeah but we all know that she's a cheating slutface ho'bag.

I don't think it would be either of those. If anything, they would want him back, since he was part of the team that made the good AC games, and could maybe turn Black Flag Starring Henry Rollins and The Next Great Installment In The Assassin's Creed Franchise around.

@ninetysevena: Nice.

Patrice leaves Ubisoft and joins another studio then Ubisoft buys said studio and fires Patrice, if that's not a publisher being a complete and utter douche then I don't know what is.

"Contrary to reports, I didn’t leave," he said. "Ubisoft fired me, and I intend to fight them vigorously for my rights, my team and my game."

I think the possibility of 1666 ever actually seeing the light of day has just taken a nosedive.

You've got to be kidding me.

Why stop there, EA, Activision, Ubisoft and Capcom are equally shady and terrible. Not saying you don't have a valid reason to 'boycott', but really, I predict another game crash after all of the strange to terrible business moves recently being commited by everyone in the industry. Stop with the inflated sales expectations and overly safe games, publishers, or else this industry will collapse on itself again.

Not going to lie, this does not surprise me in the least. He left Ubi for a reason, and them buying THQ Montreal was probably the worst possible situation for him.

Also, I'm sure they just wanted him to crank out Assassin's Creed games like there was no tomorrow.

Well fuck you, too, Ubisoft - I ain't gonna buy Splinter Cell Blacklist, AC4 or any of your games (though a proper sequel to Anno that isn't Anno Online might make me break that pledge). Being a bunch of shady businessmen shouldn't be rewarded.

edit: it sucks for the developers who actually bust their ass but hey, no perfect solutions.

I get the feeling Patrice is the Phil Fish of the big publisher world. I imagine he's quite outspoken in his protection of the worlds and properties he's created and I doubt that goes over very well with the Ubisofts of the world. There's a reason people like Fish are indie; they want to maintain control of their ideas and the worlds they create.

It is a conundrum though. It seems Patrice's ideas require resources beyond most indie developers' capabilities. Assassin's Creed has been huge but it's still just one world, maybe that's not enough to cement his place with "triple-A" publishers? I hope he finds a place to grow.

"When [good thing] goes [negative action]" is a naming device used for terrible, over-the-top TV shows that show when good/mundane things go wrong/bad. The business world (open market) is clashing with a seemingly cool artist. That sucks, but if you read the second sentence, you'll see that I acknowledge the open market solution to the problem. Let's not FOX News/MSNBC the situation.

I heard that he slept with Ubisoft's wife.

Wow he really can't catch a break can he? Also this is a dick/genius move on Ubisoft's part. Not only did they kick out a guy who obviously does not want to be associated with their company anymore, but buying out the development team and the IP means they get to keep whatever thing Patrice was cooking up (which may or may not turn out great).

It probably wasn't as colorful an event as that, but I can't imagine it being much else.

how unpleasant.

Probably a safe bet that he walked in to a meeting, said "no more yearly asscreed because the next ones need to not suck" and 5-10 or so greedy old men all spat their drinks in unison and showed him the door.

Come on, dude. In what universe would a state-controlled video games company not be a hundred times worse?

@jodski: yep. If I were him I'd just start my own studio if I had the means and ambition to do it.

Pacifist's Creed, the ultimate stealth game. ;)

With his tweet my guess is this was more a battle over whatever Patrice was working on at THQ, not Assassin's Creed. He obviously has no rights over games he hasn't worked on in two years, but he's probably very invested in the team and stuff he was working on at THQ that was snatched up, especially if Ubisoft was trying to make big changes to them.

I mean, it's possible that it was a fight over Ubi running the Creed series into the ground since he left and battling them to turn it around, but that's not as likely.

I really don't understand why Ubisoft would dick him around like this. He caused the Prince of Persia revival in the PS2 generation and then surpassed his own success with Assassin's Creed in the Xbox 360 generation. I really don't understand a corporation's desire to strangle the goose that lays the golden egg here.

"the good faith discussions between Patrice and Ubisoft aimed at aligning Patrice’s and the studio’s visions have been inconclusive"

Translation: he wasn't a team player so showed him the door.

This has been the latest installment of When Open Market Economics Goes Wrong. Hopefully Patrice will be one of those guys who finds a solid employer, as he seems to have wonderiffical ideas.

That was a low blow for Patrice. Expected better from Ubisoft.

Really not true. Having just finished a HR course and textbook, and also years in office environments, escorting out is common policy even in layoffs. When people leave voluntarily, that's when they have 2+ weeks to tidy up and do a handover. When people are asked to leave there is far too much risk of causing a ruckus, never know how people will react. Postal isn't just a terrible game franchise.

Without an escort, sometimes they don't leave. Sometimes they come back the next day not realising they were let go. Any crazy story you can think of, there's probably somebody that did it.

Pretty great employer, when someone leaves twice eh? Ahh who knows, I'm not going to assume. Maybe Respawn will take him on ;)

I should add that I know he was fired the second time, and didn't "leave".

ah french people being french. I'm surprised one room could handle so much hubris.

That's not necessarily true. In fact, most larger businesses will have ex-employees escorted out of the building. It's a security thing, as well as a liability thing. That person could steal something on their way out, take pictures of unannounced product, or "trip" and "injure" themselves. There are all sorts of reasons companies do it, and it's not like it costs them anything to have a couple of minimum wage security guards walk somebody to the door.

If Ubisoft wants to completely destroy Assassin's Creed - and they're well on their way - let them. Meanwhile, I'm excited to see what work Patrice will do out from under a company that's content to just annualize anything profitable.

I don't doubt that something shady went down, but we really can't be sure. That said, I don't think he has a chance at getting the rights to his game back, as much as I'd like to see it.

What if he goes to Activision and presents them with a game series that can be annualized for the next five to six years? And each game continues an actually good story that hooks billions of people around the world but the game doesn't have multiplayer. Would that blow your mind?

@2kings: security escort for high ranking employees is common practice, when you're let go.
its just to make sure you dont walk out with company material

It's going to be great when Patrice goes to another studio to develop another new IP and Ubisoft buys him again. I believe this is that 'Circle of Life' that was described in The Lion King... Right?