Mike Laidlaw, former boss of BioWare’s Dragon Age series, has joined Ubisoft Quebec to work as creative director on a new project.
You’ll know Ubisoft Quebec as the studio which lead development on this year’s brilliant Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and the enjoyable London-based Assassin’s Creed Syndicate before that.
It’s a fascinating move. Quebec’s Odyssey is an enormous Assassin’s Creed role-playing game clearly influenced by BioWare. It has a main character shaped by your choices, missions with various branching story paths and the ability to romance other characters found in the game.
And now, one of BioWare’s most prominent former staff is working directly on whatever Ubisoft Quebec is building next.
Laidlaw worked on Dragon Age for nearly a decade, as lead designer on Dragon Age 1, then as creative director and overseer of the entire Dragon Age franchise during later installments. Before that, Laidlaw had worked for years as lead writer on other BioWare games such as Jade Empire.