play station official magazine

053

THE DIVISION 2

OPM: There’ll be three episodes released
post-launch. How important is it to
support The Division 2 in this way?
David Polfeldt: I am very happy about
what we’re planning. I think it’s important
to know the game should change after
launch. We’re fully anticipating that there
will be things that we need to discover
about the game, depending on how people
play it and what they do and don’t like.
That’s where we’ve set it up more like a
relationship. We have a first idea of what
post-launch should be and we’re planning
for the unexpected or for reactions we
need to have to community feedback. So
it’s a different kind of a plan. It’s not like
we have decided everything yet, it depends
really on the conversations we will have.

OPM: Do games like The Division 2 force
developers to work in new ways?
DP: Most developers have more of a tunnel
vision than they may want to admit. You’re
very, very focused on developing your own
thing. What we like and what we think is
fun, and what we think should be the next
stage of evolution for games.
When you’re in that mode you tend to
not look at what other people are doing. So
you might be playing games but you’re not
thinking about them professionally; you’re
thinking ‘This is my hobby, in my work
I’m exploring this area,’ and they might not
be as connected as people sometimes think
or would like to claim, but on the other
hand it asks a few questions about how we
traditionally treat games, as if the material
that is on the disc isthe game, and today
for us, and for many other games, it’s not;
that is only the first salvo or the first gift
in a longer relationship. It’s the
development, and the
evolution, and the attention
you have to that relationship
that is the game.
In The Division 2 we’re
taking it up a notch. We’re
discovering what happened in
Washington, one of the most protected
cities in the world, if it could happen there
what does that actually say about the
situation we’re now facing. And I think
that’s almost impossible, at least for me, to
not fantasise about another story between
one and two, and then another one, you
can just play with it so much.

OPM: How has The Division changed since
launch, and how do those differences
affect the sequel?
DP: It’s a pretty serious game, and it’s a
pretty serious brand. It takes itself
seriously as well and it poses some

real-life questions also, and I think that’s

something you will always debate even if

you go the other direction, even if it’s

super-jolly and super-light, the publisher

might say ‘This seems a little bit too silly’.

Ours was maybe too pretentious, too

serious. That wasdebatedand I think we

ended up finding the right note, and I

think we had that discussion with Ubisoft

many, many times because it’s a fine

calibration when you hit the note. It’s the

same with music, you know? Is it too

dark? Does everything have to be this

dark? Are all the songs completely black or

is there some variation there? Creating The

Division is like creating an album – it’s

not just one song, you need to have a

dynamic also between the different

flavours – and I think we got that right.

But that was because wedebatedit a lot.

OPM: How will things change in the

future, for games and maybe for PS5?

DP:I think we live in interesting times. I

think there’s a lot going on, particularly on

the technology side, hardware side,

cloud-based games, or streaming as a

distribution channel, also new actors

coming in with a lot of interest, old actors

coming back as well.

What I love about this time is that no

matter how you see it, it will bring games

to a bigger audience. Which means that

the content creators are actually the

winners of this particular revolution, and

I’m thinking mostly of streaming when

I say that as I think theoretically streaming

can bring the games to almost anyone on

Earth who has a connected screen, and

that’s a huge difference for us, but it’s

still content.

What’s fun for a person who owns

hardware is usually the same for a person

who doesn’t have hardware, so as soon as

they get their hands on the content it’s

very likely they’ll enjoy it the same as

people who can access it today.

OPM: It sounds like studios like Massive

Entertainment will have the opportunity

to do more?

DP: For me, I think of this as it changing

the power structure a little bit in the

industry and it’s biased towards content

creators, which I think is great for this

industry because it means people who can

make great games are going to be the most

valuable in this generation, and I think

that’s fantastic.

It’s like the movie industry was in the

’50s and the ’60s where you know we

couldn’t just produce enough movies,

and the people who were making good

movies were the ones who were also

driving the industry forwards, and that’s

kind of a change.

I’ve been in the game industry

for so long and when I started

we were basically begging

someone to pay us to do

something that we loved, so the

power structure was different,

and that’s changing, and I think Ubisoft

is also extremely well positioned with

the IP portfolio, and because Ubisoft has

been so loyal to its own IPs for so long,

and now that is going to pay off. I think

it’s going to be very interesting in the

next ten years. It makes me wish I was

20 again [laughs].

OPM: So who ultimately wins?

DP: If you ask me to predict who will

be the winner of the ‘streaming war’ I

will say I have no idea, except for the

people who make the content, they will

win either way.

“THEORETICALLY STREAMING

CAN BRING THE GAMES TO

ALMOST ANYONE ON EARTH.”

Massive Entertainment’s CEO on

sequels,newtechnology,andthe

future of videogames

DAVID POLFELDT