Adrian Lacey: I still don’t know how the guys do it [laughs]! It still amazes me. I think one of the big things that we looked at when dealing with the AI was that it reacts to the overall situation. It reacts to the overall way that you and your team react. And it’s not just player-centric. It’s not like “Oh shit, this guy’s coming at me, he’s made noise.” It assesses its surroundings, takes position somewhere else and switches cover every now and then. It’s focused, but it doesn’t get distracted by a dog barking in the street or something. It’s not that smart yet... but it’s very much focused on how the player plays, and adapts to the way you play. It wants to stay alive, and that’s the interesting thing with the AI, because it’s also thinking about how to kill you. And that’s what’s taken the longest amount of time with this.
SPOnG: I’ve dabbled with the Gunsmith mode with Kinect. I have to say, it seems to need a bit of work. Do you think that Kinect still has some way to go in terms of fidelity? Obviously you’re not using it in terms of proper controller replacement.
Adrian Lacey: Effectively, yeah. Kinect is still in the first stages, so as developers we’re still learning how to explore this. You’ve gone from traditional controllers, to iPads and iPhones in the space of four or five years. For us, we’re learning how these things work, so we’ve gone from the dream of Minority Report to actually being able to do it in your living room. So there’s a learning curve for us on the development side. What we’re trying to show with Gunsmith - and it’s the first step of putting something that’s effectively a toy - something that’s fun - for fans to mess around with and have a good interactive experience. If you’re a weapons fan, and you like the idea of changing up gun modules, it’s kind of cool.
We’ve also ensured that we don’t forget that something like Gunsmith is a mere step. The controller is still very important to the core experience, which is why you do everything else in the game with it. Some people just like it. We have to give something that’s special for us and specific for everyone’s needs. That’s the way controls and input devices change over time. If you look at kids, they’ll pick up Kinect twice as easily as someone like me. I always look at my mum with DVDs - when they came out, she was trying to put them in the VHS machine. She’s got a mobile phone, but every time she uses it, she turns it off. Then she turns it back on when she wants to make a call.
SPOnG: You guys have a good track record of predicting the future. Are you saying that at some point in the future things like Kinect will replace controllers?
Adrian Lacey: I think it’s definitely a step forward. I mean, you can do full-body tracking with it for starters... really, it’s only going to get better. It’s not going to go away. It’s like mobile phones - they’re not going to go away, controllers aren’t going to go away either. I think things are going to get more finite, even into the facial recognitions, reactions, emotions and being able to read players’ movements and expressions. I think all these things are going to come together, but we’re still finding out what works and what doesn’t. It’s just going to be a matter of time.
Will Kinect ever replace a tactile controller? Well... that’s like asking whether an inflatable doll replaces a woman. I don’t know. It’s kind of theoretical, but it’s a tricky one. Perhaps its uses hinge on one particular gameplay mechanic. Maybe its uses are all about hitting and dodging things with your body. Maybe it’s uses in gameplay can be as subtle as a gesture made with a controller in hand to enhance the traditional experience. Maybe it’ll get so sophisticated that it will replace all traditional methods. We’ll have to wait and see.
SPOnG: Ubisoft has tried all kinds of different methods to approach the PC market. You’ve got a PC version of Future Soldier coming out, but there’s also a free-to-play version of the game being worked on. Do you see Ghost Recon Online as the business model for the PC in the future? Will core games still be made for the platform?
Adrian Lacey: Yeah, core games will always come out on PC. I believe that this is that big blockbuster experience, I think that’s something that players want. There’ll always be a place for that in the PC market. For the free-to-play model that we’re exploring, that’s just a different type of market, targeting a different type of player. I think we still need to give them something that’s specific and tailor-made for them. I personally am more about the free-to-play, jump-in-and-out play right now - maybe it’s my age - but I think there’s room for both. And that’s how we’ve approached it.
Adrian Lacey: It’s very tricky because... PC fans are important to us. If we’re talking about Ghost Recon, that’s where it made its home in the first place. It was very important for us to announce the PC version of Future Soldier. We know that the old fans and hardcore fans have been with us for a very long time - the series is eleven years old - and it was important for us to offer them Future Soldier in addition to Ghost Recon Online. I think it’s just different approaches, at the end of the day. It’s not that we want to do one or the other, I think that markets have changed, hardware has changed, philosophies have changed about ease of development for various platforms... it’s a big question, the PC. We want to do it, but we also have to consider that a focus on consoles is what we’re doing today.
SPOnG: It’s surprising how it’s transformed over the years because ten years ago PC would be the first platform to get any of these kinds of games.
Adrian Lacey: It’s kind of like Apps though. People baulk at Apps, they wonder why we bother. Well, there are things you can do with Apps that you can’t do on other platforms, right? And I think it’s interesting that in today’s world, people are being engaged in loads of different ways, into any franchise. For us in particular, it’s a way where we can engage newcomers or people who don’t know Ghost Recon. You can find something that fits you.
Adrian Lacey: Ah, that’s Ghost Recon Online. Completely different game to Future Soldier, but it is the same as the version we’re working on for the PC. I don’t work on that version, though. I know that it’s an extension of the Ghost Recon universe, but I don’t have any details on GRO. I honestly haven’t seen GRO on Wii U since E3, in fact. I’m about as informed on that as you are. You probably know more than I do [laughs]!
SPOnG: Thank you very much for your time.
Adrian Lacey: Cheers!