Ubisoft Quebec has added a big name to its ranks in the form of Mike Laidlaw, formerly of BioWare. Laidlaw made the announcement on his Twitter earlier this morning that he was joining the company and getting back into Triple-A game development. Laidlaw left BioWare last year on October 12.
Mike Laidlaw was at BioWare for 17 years, during which he was involved in a large number of different games including the Mass Effect series, the Dragon Age series, Jade Empire, and more in the roles of writer and director. Hopefully now that he’s joining Ubisoft Quebec, he’ll be able to use his talents in a similar fashion.
BioWare has always been known for well-written stories and engrossing characters in its games, which led the studio into becoming a household gaming name when it released titles like Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. While BioWare’s performance with its last game was spotty with Mass Effect Andromeda, which got a lot of flak for various technical issues, it still got a good amount of praise for its story.
Mike Laidlaw working for Ubisoft Quebec can be a great boon for that studio, especially since they work on the extremely story-heavy Assassin’s Creed games, which themselves can have a lot of twists and turns in their own storylines. While Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has already come out, Laidlaw being added to the team can definitely help to improve the stories of the next game.
Assassin’s Creed isn’t the only game they’ve created either, as they also have made games like For Honor, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, and the first Tom Clancy Rainbow Six: Vegas game. While these days the studio focuses on Assassin’s Creed, there’s still a lot of content Laidlaw could work on depending on what era the game goes to next.
So, hopefully Mike Laidlaw’s work on the franchise will hopefully turn out to be some of his best.
