Video games are a powerful outlet. Because of their visuals, especially in the modern age, they can show many things, and depending on the genre, they can have deep stories that rival many TV shows and movies. Which, in turn, means that they can have hidden or overt messages within them, and many developers have done that. Between messages about the world, or ones about the state of our world via politics, developers have done this in the past. But one you shouldn’t expect it from is Ubisoft with The Division 2.
The sequel to their hit MMO/RPG title is going to be bigger in every way, but Ubisoft feels it’s best to leave the “political messaging” out of it and stick with what the game is…a fantasy.”
“It’s a balance because we cannot be openly political in our games,” said COO Alf Condelius during a conference. “So for example in The Division, it’s a dystopian future and there’s a lot of interpretations that it’s something that we see the current society moving towards, but it’s not – it’s a fantasy.”
Ironically, he notes that because of the looks and feel of The Division as a series, that it’s easy to get political in the interpretations, and that apparently, many fans do that. But for Ubisoft, it’s not their goal, and with The Division 2 coming next year, they have to do what’s best for business, and being political isn’t best for business.
“It’s also bad for business, unfortunately, if you want the honest truth…. but it is interesting and it is a discussion that we have, and it’s an ongoing discussion we have with our users, of course, because people want to put an interpretation into the universe that we create and they want to see their own reality in the fantasies that we give them, and the stories that the games are.”
Would you want the game to be more political? Do you think it would be better that way? Let me know in the comments below.
