That man up there is not Ryan Barnard, former game director on Ubisoft’s The Division, but for all we know that’s how he strutted out of the building on his final day at work for the company. Which is to say, the game director of Ubi’s surprisingly massive (and Massive Entertainment-developed) MMORPG has left to join Hitman developer IO Interactive.
Barnard actually left Ubisoft in February, according to his LinkedIn page (ta, MCV), and joins IO Interactive in a brand new role:as gameplay director. IO’s publisher Square Enix says he’ll oversee three of its core teams: “gameplay”, “online” and “world”.
“Ryan’s contributions to game design over the years show he’s the ideal person to spearhead the coming efforts,” Square said in a statement. “We are very happy to add his talent to the pool of great people working at IO.”
Check out our reviews of The Division and Hitman, if you’re thinking of picking either up.
