Ubisoft CEO: Our goal is to provoke thought, not to make political statements

- Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explains why its seemingly political games appear to pull their punches.

A number of recent Ubisoft games, including the likes of FarCry 5 and The Division 2, presented worlds that, even on first glance, seem ripe with politically charged themes. Both games have raised questions about the role political themes can and should play in video games, and Ubisoft leadership has now weighed in on the discussion.

In the case of The Division 2, creative director Terry Spier notably pointed out to Polygon that the game was not meant to be a political statement, and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has elaborated on that stance in an interview with the Guardian. 

Guillemot’s outlook, as expressed in the interview, is that it isn’t a game’s job to dictate specific points of views to players. Rather, the interactive nature of games gives players room to make their own choices and come to their own conclusions and Guillemot says that Ubisoft is much more interested in making spaces for that to happen.  

“Our goal in all the games we create, is to make people think,” he says. “We want to put them in front of questions that they don’t always ask themselves automatically. We want players to listen to different opinions and to have their own opinions. Our goal is to give all the tools to the player in order for them to think about the subjects, to be able to see things from far enough away.”