I'm sitting down to talk with Pierre Fortin, the brand and pipeline technology director at Ubisoft Quebec, to discuss Assassin's Creed Shadows. Yet, it's hard to do simply that. Part of the Anvil team, the in-house engine that powers the series and has seen plenty of overhauls, Fortin works in the context of the games that came before – but also with a constant mind towards what comes next, predicting where the team will need to scale before trends actually materialize.
"My role is to basically advise other directors," Fortin tells me. "Early on in conception, we look at the future in front of us in terms of tech. We advise on what we think we should be doing, how we should be leveraging new technologies. Then, I work closely with the engine teams to make sure that that vision that we have – at the direction level – gets implemented into features and makes it into the hands of the players."
