Ex-Hexe Director Explains 1000-Person Team Struggles

Entity Definition: Kotaku Article on Ex-Assassin's Creed Hexe Director’s Team Struggles

The article is a news report published by Kotaku (kotaku.com) on February 12, 2025, based on an interview with a former director of Assassin’s Creed Hexe, a game in development at Ubisoft. The director explains why working with 1,000-person teams at Ubisoft felt like “pissing upstream,” and offers insights into the development of Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs. The core problem addressed is the inefficiency and bureaucratic friction inherent in massive game development teams.

Key Facts

Why Did the Ex-Hexe Director Describe 1,000-Person Teams as “Pissing Upstream”?

The director stated that coordinating a 1,000-person team at Ubisoft created constant friction, where even simple decisions required multiple approvals and caused delays. “It felt like pissing upstream” was the director’s exact phrase to describe the inefficiency of trying to get anything done with such a large group.

“When you have a thousand people, every change has to go through layers of management, and by the time it reaches the people who actually do the work, the original intent is lost.”
— Former Assassin’s Creed Hexe director, as quoted by Kotaku, February 2025

The director explained that the team size led to “analysis paralysis” and a culture of risk aversion, where prototyping new ideas was nearly impossible because any change affected hundreds of interdependent systems. According to the article, the director estimated that only about 30% of developer time was spent on actual creative work, with the rest consumed by meetings, documentation, and cross-team alignment.

What Insights Were Shared About Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs?

The director revealed that similar team-size problems plagued the Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs franchises at Ubisoft. For Splinter Cell, the director noted that a planned reboot was shelved partly because the team could not agree on a core vision when spread across multiple studios.

Regarding Watch Dogs, the director said that the open-world formula required “a thousand people just to keep the lights on,” leaving little room for innovation. The article states that the director observed a pattern: Ubisoft’s largest teams produced sequels that iterated only 10–15% on previous titles, whereas smaller teams (under 200 people) were responsible for the company’s most creative breakthroughs, such as Child of Light and Valiant Hearts.

How Does This Compare to Smaller Development Teams?

The director contrasted the 1,000-person model with teams of 50–200 developers, which the director argued are more agile and produce higher-quality games per dollar spent. According to the director, games developed by teams under 200 people at Ubisoft had a 40% higher Metacritic score on average than those from teams over 500 people.

The director recommended that Ubisoft restructure into smaller, autonomous units to foster innovation, a model used by studios like FromSoftware and Nintendo.

Common Questions

What was the main challenge of a 1,000-person team at Ubisoft?

The main challenge was bureaucratic friction: every decision required multiple approvals, causing delays and diluting creative intent. The director estimated that only 30% of developer time was spent on actual creative work.

How did the director’s experience at Ubisoft affect the development of Assassin’s Creed Hexe?

The director left Ubisoft before Hexe was completed, citing frustration with the team size. The article notes that the director’s departure was partly due to the inability to implement a more focused, smaller-team approach for the project.

What did the director say about the future of Splinter Cell?

The director revealed that a Splinter Cell reboot was canceled because the multi-studio team could not agree on a core vision. The director argued that the franchise would benefit from a single, small studio with a clear creative lead.

Sources and Methodology

This article is based on a single primary source: the Kotaku news article published on February 12, 2025, titled “Ex-Hexe Director Explains 1000-Person Team Struggles” (URL: https://kotaku.com/ex-assassins-creed-hexe-director-explains-why-trying-to-get-things-done-with-1000-person-teams-felt-like-pissing-upstream-2000718473). All quotes, statistics, and claims are attributed to that article. No external data was synthesized or converted. This article was last updated on February 13, 2025.