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Playing Hard (2018)
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MAN: What happens when we die? What will we leave behind? Immortality comes when... you give your people something that they needed that they didn't have, and that they can keep when you are gone. That is how you... How you survive your own death. [menacing music plays] So you want to be a knight, eh? You've lived your whole life inside these castle walls, yeah? Run up here safe. And now you come to me and say that you want to pick up a weapon and defend your people? Do you know what's out there? Wastelands, poisoned lakes, starving barbarians. We are going to ride out and retake those lands. Yes. Those lands were ours, and they will be ours again. But if you are going to pick up a sword, remember that it will be for the rest of your life. We have endless enemies to fight. We are far fewer than we used to be, but these are our lands. So, pick up your sword, learn to use it, and ride out with us. But don't expect to ride back. You'll always be a warrior, if you start down that road. But for those who live: Gold, plunder, power, glory. So, are you with me? Well, then come aboard. [imitating gunshots] [in French] The reality of the video game - industry today is, It's a savage industry where only three percent of all games earn 97 percent of the total profits. In all creative processes they say, "Oh, it's normal to fail. We have fail camps and we laugh about our failures." But when you're living it... [laughter in the audience] ...it's a bit less fun, especially when you just burned through ten million dollars. It was two years of my life we were working on something magical until we realized we weren't going in the right direction. [soft electronic music plays] This is Yannis Mallat, the CEO of the Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City studios. Does he want us to get back on track? Maybe he's telling himself, this was expensive enough, "You should go work on an existing brand." I convinced him to give my team six months to come up with a new proposal. And after six months, they would decide if they pulled the plug or continue to invest. I was looking for a Creative Director that had a game in him. This guy arrived at the second meeting with a wooden sword he made when he was 14. JASON: When I started this project, I was half convinced that I was crazy. I pitched this protect for ten years, and every single person that I pitched it to had said no. They'd said no. "It's not interesting, it's not going to work, I don't get it, it's not cool." I was starting to think I was crazy. STPHANE: [in French] I've known the pain of having something not work out, and I've been fool enough to try again. MAN: [in French] Stphane, our producer. Our pitch will be in a mix of English and French, because, in order to get a good pitch from Jason, we need English. JASON: [in French] I could do my pitch in French, but... [in English] make no sense at all. It would... So, I've had a game in my head for about 12 years now. I actually wanted to play this game for much longer than that, but the industry just kept not making it. Right? I would go to the store every year, and it wasn't there. And now I download, and I'm like, "Where is it? It hasn't arrived." So, that's this game. Okay? This game is that. When our player was, you know, eight years old or so, right? He or she was in the backyard and found a stick and... [imitating sword fight] And he could do it. Couldn't put a ball through a hoop, right? Couldn't write his own name in his handwriting - very well, right? But... Cuk! Cuk! Cuk! "All right, man!" So, he did what any reasonable eight-year-old would do, is he went and found his brother and beat the shit out of him with it. Right? [laughing] Right? Later, in high school, picks up a baseball bat. Something moves. What is that? Like... That's a little scary. It's like... What is that thing? Hmm! But, wow! Hmm... So, he puts it down and says, "Fuck that, I am going to go play video games." [electronic music plays] [in French] It's interesting to link our three cultures with musical genres. [in English] We're bringing the Super Bowl, like, mood and adrenaline... [music continuing] [In French] Heavy metal fits with the Vikings. Rap is interesting for the knights. [in English] It's like monster truck meets UFC. It's loud, it's dangerous, it's full of dust, it's full of blood. JASON: Knight, Viking, or Samurai. What kind of person are you? What would you fight for? Here we go! [clapping] [in French and English] Pam, 360, let's go. 360, Nick, Olivier. [in English] First of all, we wanted to solidify the nucleus of the game, which is the fight mechanics. It's our biggest risk, and the heart and soul of this game, and the business model of this game. JASON: We convinced the company that we had an idea about melee sword fighting that was a completely new way to play these games, was a real breakthrough in game play. Instead of the traditional approach where we expect you to memorize combinations, the Art of Battle puts your attention on your enemy's weapon as the most important thing that matters. And not just on the weapon itself, but on that weapon's position in space. Yannis was here to just see the production. The good news is, he really asked to see Hero. He was looking at it and... We sold the meeting. He went out happy. That said, it doesn't bring anything new to the project. It was more a recognition tour. [muted electronic music plays] [in French] With innovation comes risk. The more innovation, the greater the risk. And the greater the risk, the more likely it is to collapse. Because there are too many forces pushing against what the team wants to do, whether it's the pressure to attract talent and resources, or it's doubt because your competition is doing something that works. MAN: [in English] One thing I will do very often is update you on what's happening on the marketing side. I know we're not yet ready to go out and say, "Hey, we exist." But in two weeks from now, we're going to have people from Europe and San Francisco, marketing people from Operational Marketing - will come here. We're going to present them the game. They'll come and play. [muted electronic music plays] LUC: [in French] We started with Jason's pure vision, a blank slate, we don't have a name, or a logo, or a cover for the box. We don't have a trailer. Nothing exists. Everything needs to be created. [in English] When you introduce a new brand, we want to make sure that we start with a message that can be understood and resonate into as many players as possible. [in English] Blade Masters, Blade Assault, Warriors of Honor, Eternal Honor, Blade Warfare, Blade Assault. [in French] I talked with Creative Services in San Francisco. This is what they came up with. [in English] Force of Arms, Wrath of the Warriors, Storm of Steel, Blade Rivals, Burden of Steel, Bloodsport... JASON: We want to capture the universal feeling of the heroic moment, the universal feeling of what it's like to be a warrior on a battlefield. There! Yes! [grunting] The knight fantasy of being a protector, right, has always really hit me hard. My mom was a big Rodgers and Hammerstein fan. Musicals, right? And her favorite musical was Camelot. And so I grew up watching Lancelot singing about, you know, being a valorous knight, and that whole thing was sort of where I got started, you know, with this fantasy. If you were really in trouble, we were like... You would try to... You would try to follow it, right? JASON: I think fantasy is a... It's full of lessons about what can be and who we are. My dad was a collector of religions. Uh, by the time I was 14, I had been, I think, seven different things. We had been, you know, Christian, Buddhist, atheist, this one agnostic thing. We had done pagan stuff. We had done everything. Zen, he was into meditation. He did... He was member of a cult, he was... He did... A religion of the month club, man. Watching shows or, you know... I'm always watching them with a purpose. What's the statement that's being made here? I take in entertainment like it was a philosophy, like it was a statement of philosophy. Yeah, this one. [sighing] [honking] [in French] Okay, girls, you're going to have to hurry up because Delphine, you forgot your gymnastics leotard at Mom's house. So now we've got to go by Mom's place to get it. This is a disaster. So I'm just going to eat supper at seven o'clock when I arrive. Come here. [laughing] GIRL: [in French] Well, when you start the game, you can choose either a normal world or a magical world, and you can have bad guys, like monsters. Before you're born, you choose a power. STPHANE: That's cool. And you can be a dragon trainer, or the queen or king. The world that you created is a very expensive world. You wouldn't want to make it a bit cheaper? Dad, your game isn't cheap, so my game won't be cheap either. [laughing] [upbeat electronic music plays] [chatter in background] MAN: [in English] All right! Yeah! [cheering] Welcome to Hall of Heroes, where the tournament is - taking place right now. STPHANE: [in French] There's no game on the market - like the one we're producing. We had to find a way to not look too far ahead, but be sure that we were moving full-speed ahead. We started integrating game sessions into our development process. [in English] Back! Back! Back! JASON: Every milestone is one of these, right? Where everyone gets together on the team, and we make teams, and we just beat the holy hell out of each other, right? We have a great time doing it. I'm here with Jason "The Dark Lord" VandenBerghe. I want to get your impressions. That was madness! The competition forces us to engage with the game 100 percent, and what happens is, we find all the bugs, we find out what's wrong, we find out if it's unfair, right? Oh, he just took the tower, guys! JASON: Because after a tournament like this, the teams that lost, they're going to be... They're going to say, if there was a reason that they lost, if the game was unfair, they're going to say, "Well, it was unfair for this reason and this reason." [cheering] Ha! Ha! Ha! The Dark Lord! There's no disadvantage to playing against Yannis, because you get to kill him a lot of times. It's really... That's super fun. Bang! Bang! Bang! Down you go! [in French] The pressure comes from always fighting for survival and in convincing management that the money invested here is well-spent because of the project's potential, rather than on an existing brand. [in English] How many times do I need to remind you of this rule: In show business, you need to be good when it counts. Okay! That is true. And I'll tell you when that is. Oh, when that is! Okay, good. That's when I win! That's when you win. That's when it counts. YANNIS: [in French] I do combative sports. Sometimes I take hits, sometimes I hit back. I know that fear, concern, thrill, intensity comes with it. You get that intensity playing Hero. Perfect, perfect! Bring me the Dark Lord! Shit! [in French] Before, management would cancel one out of every three meetings. "Oh, there's another emergency." We have a project in early development. There's always a daily emergency that takes precedence. Now management is on my floor the day before to practice because they're all very proud and they don't want to get beaten on the day of the tournament. So I have a buy-in from the team, but I also have a buy-in from management. [chattering] [in English] Sonic and Moonwreck, the two - team captains, dueling here. Sonic doing a great job with the guard breaks, placing those attacks really, really well. Moonwreck gets a strong attack in. This is still anyone's game. Moonwreck takes him down. I can't take this shit. It's too much. Now the knights are back in sudden death. They're down two guys! [cheering] That's a good decision. I can't blame them for doing that. You don't want to be caught two-on-one in this game. It's a great way to get a sword in your back and to be dead. JASON: I got an education about bullies, you know, for the first 20 years of my life. In school and being young, I was constantly being attacked. I was never safe. Never safe. Because I wouldn't fight back. All you needed to do is say one thing to me, man, and I would break down crying, I'd get mad, I'd freak out, I would give you these huge reactions. I get hurt really, really easy. And that's on me. That's not the world constantly hurting me, right? That's... I'm really, really sensitive. So... I'm going to get hurt. It's just going to happen. There's no avoiding it. If you're someone who is afraid that something bad's going to happen, then understanding the consequences of violent action can help you with that feeling. I think that anyone who is interested in how the world works will also be interested in violence, because violence is the natural consequence of conflict. And I can be fascinated by that and not need to express it at all. I have no need... I'm not a violent person. I am very peaceful, in fact. [discordant electronic music plays] MAN: "...never had to fight, never had to go to war, rise against men. The man grabs the sword, and he scans all the details. We cut to a first-person view of the knight running towards a group of imposing Vikings. This is the moment that we realize how scary it can be to be on a battlefield facing such a strong enemy." Are you okay? JASON: The story, I've always wondered what it would be like. I never had to, and I always wondered if I could. That's... You, uh... You put your finger on something. [in French] We've still got to go pitch it. And one of the main issues for us is, "What are we presenting?" [in English] "Close up on the sword. Script. Plunge into the ground. The hand of a man grabs it firmly and pulls it out. Behind him, other soldiers are following his steps." STPHANE: [in French] I think we'll have to announce - the game this year. The real tragedy now would be if another big project announced a similar game. JASON: This combat system, this lock-on-fight dual stance. We didn't invent this, we discovered this, right? The worst thing that could happen would be that if somebody else has been working on it, too. [intense electronic music plays] We have this big meeting where, like, me and Steph and Luc, all the sort of core leads of the team, we all go to Paris to meet at HQ with Yves Guillemot and with the editorial group there. So we get together, we show what we're doing, and then we talk about what we'd like to do. What our plans are. They said, "Actually, you know what, you guys? We think you should go for it, for the full box game. The big one." The answer is, "Yes, good. Your current plan is good, right? And we'll give you this much more. Here, take this money." And inside I'm like, "Yes. Oh, my God. Just like..." All right! Congratulation Hero team on your fucking FPP. [cheering] Really well done! It's going to get hot and heavy. For the next year or so, the people that you are partying with right now and that you're talking with right now, you're going to see a lot of these faces. And remember, we're in this together, we're going to do a great fucking job. The game is amazing. You guys are amazing, and I'm proud to work with you all. Thank you very much. [cheering] [grunting] [swords clanging] [epic music plays] [battle cry] We have a system, a technology that we call... No. We don't name it. We don't talk about that. Okay. I think our biggest challenge is to say, "Hey, guys! We are here. We exist." You saw it with the trailer, right? You see it when you play with the action. MAN: Knight, Viking, Samurai, what's the deal? It's about you. It's about what do you value? What kind of warrior is inside of you? MAN 2: One of the biggest announcements at today's the Ubisoft press conference is one of the big new games that was revealed this year. WOMAN: There is melee combat, but this is a different style of melee, isn't it? Yes, it is. We call it the Art of Battle. Instead of it happening here in your head, you're not thinking about it intellectually. It happens down here, in the lizard brain. There was a big surprise delivered by this man. Surprise! Surprise! When people start playing, they immediately start... [grunting] Ooh! Yeah. It's a new system, so give yourself a couple of minutes. But once you get it, that's where the fun will peak. It's you and me, we're going to decide this. Two great warriors slashing in the battlefield. For a decade, I was like, "We should make this game, - we should make this game." And the answer was, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, we don't make that kind of game. No, no." STPHANE: Today we came here with a world dominion mode. We have split-screen, different multiplayer modes. [man speaking German] Jason VandenBerghe. Why is it called For Honor? JASON: The title is kind of a question, right? What do you think honor means? And what would you fight for? The Knights, it's usually about being protectors, right? Defending the weak, right, the nobility of that. But people who pick Vikings, it's all about, like, expression and freedom and passion and raarr! And then Samurai, it's always about mastery and, you know, discipline and learning to focus and working toward something that's greater than yourself. Drop by my desk, I'll have it ready for you. Thank you very much. Thank you. JASON: We've been going from a team that has been really led by one person creatively. I've been this, you know, like, visionary auteur pushing and helping every piece of the game all the way through. To a team where that now has been spread out. I've given that responsibility to ten different people, to all the different directors, and we're making this organization that knows how to make this game, right? So if I get hit by a bus, right, they can make the game. That's one thing we need to fix, though, is they don't move... STPHANE: [in French] With the size of our budget, - I can't just say to my bosses, "We're doing something new. We're going to learn how to do it." No. We have to compete with the best in the world. In order to compete with the best, you have to attract the best talent. We now have five studios working with us. We have people in China, in India, Bucharest, Germany, Quebec, Toronto. We have dispersed our production. It's become a big machine. Five hundred people will soon be involved in the For Honor project. LUC: [in French] It's all good. There is a lack of confidence. Don't worry about it. I told them, [in English] "Calm the fuck down." JASON: Whoever it is that is making these decisions. Because so far... I don't even know who is making these decisions. Yeah. STPHANE: [in French] Do you know why Jason is upset? MAN: [in French] He asked for certain things to be done, and they were changed. He's leaving for three days on a long weekend, so he's panicking. JASON: The last six months has been really intense because we're a big team now, and I no longer have the time to explain to the people whose feelings I've hurt what I meant. I'll be like, "Blah." And I'll say something, and they'll go... [gasps] And I can see it on their face. I can see that I've hurt them. And inside I go, "Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no." When we were a smaller project, I could be like, "Look, I'm really sorry, let's talk about that," and take 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and talk it out, and so it would be fine. But now, we got to go. If your camera picks up speed a little bit and just get the fuck over there, we won't feel the lack of the story quite as much. I am very particular, right? I want things to be like this, or like this, or like this... And when I get into conflict with people, something about the way that I act and the way that I talk communicates to them that they're in danger. And I scare people. It feels to me like, again, we need to make each beat really crisp. Imagine you're working with a family of 208 people, right? And then imagine that you figure out that you're the crazy uncle who sometimes hurts everyone's feelings. I don't know. There was a weird little thing with the grab, but you can clean it up. And sometimes breaks their heart. Action! Come on in! Argh! [grunting] JASON: I want to stay and make this game... forever. I don't want to hurt people. Yet, I have to tell people things they don't want to hear, and I have to be hard on people sometimes in ways that I'm not good at. I'm clumsy, right? And I'm required to do that for my job. Your hands are shaking because you think me a monster. You wonder what you could do. Strike me down somehow. Turn my legion against me. That passion, Warden, I live it every day. Every breath. In that way, we are the same. What makes us different is that you have not yet learned what real monsters are made of. Monsters, Warden, are made of innocence. WOMAN: War. The natural state of our species. This food. Why are we not burning it all? WOMAN: What do you imagine the clans would do if we burned it all? They'd starve, die. They would unite. But leave them scraps, just enough for two, maybe three clans, they will fight each other over what remains. The wolves among them will rise. We're not here to kill them. We are here to teach them who they are. Apollyon is the most dangerous warrior in our game world. She believes deeply that wolves are allowed to feed. I am Apollyon. [dramatic music plays] I bring war. [grunting] JASON: In For Honor, it's a very dark setting. It's a place where conflict is constant, right? The story is about being a warrior, being someone who will stay and fight, right? At the center of that conflict. And knowing that what you're doing may or may not be right, may or may not be perfectly good or evil, right? But still doing the best that you can do in that moment and using every part of your ability in the hope that it makes the world a better place. I've made a lot of games, right? Almost every other project I've been on, I was there to save the project. I was there to help the project finish. It wasn't mine. I was there to close it. I was there to... to help. But if the game was good or bad, I always had an excuse. If people don't like this game, I won't have that. I won't be able to tell myself, "Oh, I didn't have time," or, "I didn't have the... You know, I didn't have the support, or I didn't have... "Phew. It'll just be, "No, we failed." [discordant electronic music plays] Yeah. I'm Aisha Tyler, and I'm standing in the historic Orpheum Theatre in vaguely beautiful, yet vaguely urine-scented downtown Los Angeles. It's E3 Conference time. JASON: We are rehearsing. We are rehearsing. We are going to walk through our stage performance. Apollyon and her Black Stone legions crave a world where trust is impossible. They're going to run the trailer, and then I'm going to walk out, and then we're going to have the little story time. And we're going to watch the demo. And then I come back off stage. And I fall apart. [explosions] [sound in slow motion] [grunting] MAN'S VOICE: [in trailer] That raider showed us what Viking fury could do. [in French] The demo is lagging. We have to change something on the PC, and we'll restart. LUC: [in English] No, because it's lagging. We need to stop that. It's lagging. It's a waste of time right now. It worked for a century... MAN: We're going to roll the backup video. Okay. [in French] Play the backup video to see if it works. [in English] "And it had begun..." Fade, logo! Argh! Logo! We know the plan, they just fucked it up. "And it had begun..." Fade to black, punch the logo in. With the sound, which they fucked it up again. It's not that! The timing, like, the video plays, the logo comes up... LUC: Okay, then what's the solution you propose? I don't know. Because... If you see a problem, tell me what solution you see. Then we can see what we can do with the assets we have at hand. That's the thing. It's not like I can modify the video. I cannot modify it. I'm aware of that, dude. It's not my first fucking rodeo. Me neither, it's not my first rodeo. So if you have a solution, bring it forward. Right now, the date, which has been the number-one question that people have been asking us, is just kind of a whoosh! It's a ghost in the middle of a transition that's not even happening, right? So... STPHANE: I don't think we can judge. I had the same comments. But it's supposed to be there, the mix, and after that, bang! I think I can judge. I think I can. But that's the problem. That's what we're arguing. I don't see the need to argue. I'm just telling you guys, you don't think you can judge, I think I can. All right. [sighing] It's really hard to stay focused, right? It's really hard to stay on top of all of that, and have everything go well, and maintain my emotional equilibrium, you know? Today, as Americans, we grieve the brutal murder, a horrific massacre of dozens of innocent people. We pray for their families, who are grasping for answers with broken hearts. We stand with the people of Orlando, who have endured a terrible attack on their city. We know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate. JASON: There is a lot of hate in this world. It... It's senseless. There's probably people out there that would find this sort of ironic, but... This... I'm making a game about warfare, you know? Games put you at the center, and sometimes that means creating villains, and sometimes that means putting our characters - in difficult places, And sometimes it means asking you to do things that seem difficult or grotesque or, you know, frightening, or all that stuff. But that's life, that's human life. If I have anything to say that can help, the best way for me to do that is through entertainment. My message will come through. Even if it's wrapped in swords and sorcery, right? I think that art is... a way to strike back against anger and oppression and violence. And it's all I've got. [suspenseful music plays] LUC: [in French] So far we've rehearsed Saturday morning, Sunday morning, Sunday night. I can't wait for it to be over because, on top of the jetlag, my nights are getting worse and worse. Last night I woke up five to eight times, and I don't normally get up at night. I sleep with this thing on my face. To get up and go pee, I've got to take it off and turn off the machine. Every year the media will cover the most anticipated games. This week we had GameSpot, one of the biggest sites, put up a list of E3 2016's most anticipated games. When you look at it, For Honor is in second place, alongside Battlefield, Zelda, other monsters of the industry. [suspenseful music plays] [chattering] Showtime, people! [applause] ["Don't Stop Me Now" playing] [in French] They didn't invite me. [in English] It's going to be awesome. [Jason sighs] [atmospheric music plays] [birds chirping] APOLLYON: There were no signs. It came without warning. [menacing music plays] [rumbling] [intense music plays] [screaming] [swords clanging] [cheers and applause] Ah! [cheers and applause] Oh, yes. Desperation drives us to war. It is trust that can end it. Apollyon and her Black Stone legions crave a world where trust is impossible. [cheers and applause] I'd like you to meet our game director on For Honor, Roman Campos-Oriola. Come on out, Roman. [cheers and applause] My brother. Good luck. How did I do? Great. [swords clanging and grunting] Bye-bye. And you're dead. Nailed it. Okay. Nice fight. [intense music plays] [grunting] [clapping] [speaking along with narration] ..they would call it. And it had begun. [audience applauding] And they fucked up the logo! They fucked up the logo for the seventh consecutive times. Congratulations. [applause] Give it up for Roman! Jason VandenBerghe. If you are looking for something to give to that very special someone in your life, For Honor will be available on Valentine's Day. [laughs] What could be more romantic than dinner, drinks, and an all-night bender of epic warfare? [cheers and applause] We're talking to the whole Internet right now. Well, like ten fans. [upbeat electronic music plays] [conversations indistinct] [music continuing] This is the decompression chamber. I'm only at ease when I'm alone or with my wife. People are always surprised, but I'm an introvert. I'm never comfortable when there's... When I'm at the office or the... What's really weird about that, though, is that I can't... I need the social stimulation, I need the pressure to create. So my life has been about finding a balance between jumping into these highly stressful situations, and then getting away from them, and then depressurizing, and then going back in, back and forth. [discordant electronic music plays] Team meeting. Team meeting. We have to talk about E3. It was a very, very, very good event. We exceeded every business objective we had walking in there. Now we have many discussions with potential partners, from clothing, action figures, animation series, amusement parks. [cheers and applause] We surprised people at E3. That means that we'll do a bigger world tour. There is going to have presentation that was not planned. You cannot miss that, even if it's painful. MAN: I'm now in front of the For Honor booth in the middle of the action at GamesCon. So here we have 64 pods, so you can try the campaign, you can try the multiplayer with your friends. I was really looking forward to this game, this style of combat, you feel this sense of realism. The control system was a bit different than I'm used to. At the beginning, I was having a little bit of trouble to get into it. NARRATOR: You guard incoming attacks to the right, left, or top, And attempt to retaliate where there's an opening. It sounds simple, right? Well, it isn't. I'd like to see maybe sneak-attack kills, like, sneak kills from behind. That would be, like, useful. STPHANE: [in French] I made Paquito work - till midnight last night. I'll look at it now. A triple A experience in 2016 is no longer simply a question of having a good game because if you have a great game, but can't connect with your friends online, it ends up being a shitty game. Because we're having trouble staffing the online portion, I have to cut features that have been developed. To save two weeks of online programming, I have no choice but to cut them from my game. Basically, we're asking people to run 100 meters, when really they're doing a marathon. I've had seven resignations in the last few weeks. I want Simon to put pressure on Bndicte for them to hire more. We need to be aggressive, because we're really in trouble. You remember, we had to go up to 600 people in order to maintain the three branches of the project, bring three core teams together. I don't have the means today to staff like that. But I don't take on a project if I don't have a staffing plan. We'll collapse like a house of cards. LUC: The brand week meeting... I'll ask for a video conference. We'll look at the date. LUC: At one point, we need to make sacrifices. The business team should lead brand week. It's their presentation. STPHANE: You're still trying to delegate work. There's always at least one person from the team. LUC: So I have a choice. We don't participate - in consumer events. I'm not the one you should be telling that to. Tell your bosses. You are my boss. Yes, but the people in Paris are your clients. Your clients are your real bosses. It's a meeting for them. Not that one. We'll go for ten minutes. JASON: I am hiding. I have found this wonderful booth of solitude that's far enough away from the beaten path that no one can find me. So I can get my work done. I've given up control of over 90% of this game by this point. So Roman is directing the entire multiplayer effort and almost all of the game play. Roman and Gaelec and Jeff and those other guys, and I am not involved right now on that, because I've turned my attention on narratives, cinematics, writing. I was writing at 7:00 a.m. this morning, and I'll be writing until 10:00 p.m. tonight. And I'll just keep rolling like that through the weekend. WOMAN: Hello! That's lunch. It's not real food. Remember when we lived in France and real food was part of the culture? Yes. It's nice for you to come home for lunch during the week. [laughing] I like it when you do that. How's it at the office? What were you doing this morning? Kill me. WOMAN: Jason, he's 100 percent in the game, and I'm like a lifeline back out. Because I'm always keeping us in the room together. It's going to be fine, it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. JASON: I'm really not running the show in my head. I just kind of poke at things. And then suddenly I go, "Poke." Oh! When I find it, it's not, "Oh, that's it," in my mind. I go, "Poke." I can feel it in my heart. I feel it in my body, right? My body goes, "Yes, that's what we're doing." It's how I work as a director. I have this deep kind of... rrr! This emotional part. This sort of... whatever this is, a monster that... that is just going to do what it's going to do. It keeps me up at night. [soft electronic music plays] Nice to see you, buddy. My brother! Good to see you. We are doing a three-hour stream from PAX for For Honor. We're doing a... For Honor? For Honor, yeah. What's that? Oh, the game! Yeah, thanks! God! Sorry. Yeah. I love you. Like a brother. Like a brother. Similar to a brother. [laughing] What's the weather like in Montreal? Does the air always smell like baguettes? [Jason laughs] Yeah! Yes. That's how I picture it in my mind. Constantly, constantly. MAN: It's just weird to have breakfast here in the morning, instead of at like two o'clock in the morning. [Jason laughs] Do you know what you want? Yes. "Southwestern Exposure," six eggs. MAN: The "Full House," please. And six eggs, right? Six, yeah. I am not enough of a man for the 12. [Jason laughs] BEN: Is there a sword in that cane yet? JASON: You know what? I was in France, and this French cop car goes... I'm walking, and it's... [imitating screeching tires] Four cops get out, and they're like, "Excusez-moi, monsieur, I need to see your cane." "Okay." And I'm not making this up, he goes... He fiddled with it? He goes... Fiddle, fiddle. "Do you have a sword in here?" [Ben laughs] And I go, "No." He goes, "Okay. Have a nice day." Gets in his car, drives off. What is it about your whole shtick that could make him think you might be carrying a sword? [Jason laughs] Because you look like you're just on your way to your job at the insurance company, right? To work on actuarial tables. That was... I was being profiled. You're profiled. I'm being profiled, man. You're profiled. Yeah, I want more. BEN: This will be fun because if he has one more cup of coffee, He turns into a maniac. The Vikings. You know, those guys starved all winter and lived off of other people's food all summer. They didn't actually exist. The biggest assholes ever. They didn't exist. Yes, they did. Have you read 1066? That guy didn't. That guy didn't. That guy didn't. The Danish literally came down and invaded England. I'm with you. The Danes exist. The Danes existed. Those guys, fictional. That's an interesting point. Yes. Finally. 45 years, and you finally make an interesting point. [Jason laughs] I'm just going to savor this moment. I'm just going to enjoy it. So good. [soft electronic music plays] JASON: I think I was 14, my dad got involved in a community play. And it was the first time I had been in a theater when the show was not on. And I was blown away. It was like seeing behind The Matrix. It was this feeling of incredible revelation. It was like, "Oh, my God! This is the theater before the show begins." It's like watching creation. It's like watching the universe be created. It's... It's incredible. Aspiring Knights, Samurai, and Vikings, here in the PAX arena and in Twitch video players online around the world, welcome to the For Honor PAX West gauntlet. JASON: In games, we love to hear about the process of making games, we love to watch the game unfold, we love to experience it before it's completed. HOST: Jason VandenBerghe! [cheers and applause] JASON: I can't imagine more meaningful work for me. I work in the temple of Thespis, you know? I devoted my life to entertaining people and to trying to find new ways to reach them and to fill their hearts with new ideas through entertainment, right? [all roaring] [jet engines] This is how I'll spend the rest of my life. I may not make video games my whole life, but I'm going to be entertaining people. And I'll do that until the day I die. [upbeat electronic music plays] [woman speaking Russian] So far, everything we've been doing on For Honor has a tremendous impact in Russia. The trailers have a lot of views. The positive feedback we're getting. A lot of registrations on our website are coming from Russia. So it's like, "Okay. Let's do something for Russia." [speaking Russian] Our Creative Director, he first thought about For Honor after having a German long-sword class. This is what we want the people to experience when playing For Honor is, we want you to be on the battlefield experiencing the emotion, the danger of being surrounded by all those epic warriors. [in French] It's past 10:00 p.m., and I still have to work. As for sleep, it's a good thing I have my machine. I'm like Darth Vader. Apnea means you're never in a deep sleep. You wake up constantly. You choke and stop breathing. Health problems come with not breathing properly. When you don't sleep well, you don't get enough oxygen, and it's bad for your heart. I was told that I was three to six months away from a heart attack. Some people stop eating when they're stressed. When I get stressed, I eat. GIRL: Hello! Hey, Lili, how are you? You know, the kids understand that Daddy works, but Monday morning, when I drove my kids to school, the little one was crying. She didn't want me to go. It breaks my heart. Even the older one, once the little one was gone, she hugged me and said, "Daddy, I don't want you to leave." So, it's not easy. [in French] There are consequences to not achieving this summer's staffing plan. You're telling me this during our biggest crunch time. The team is tired and fighting for its survival. As of today, the release date has not been secured. You can't just say, "Okay, Cardin, open the floodgates." In May, I was 500 people short to implement the brand plan. Today I'm not only missing those people, I didn't even have time to find them last May. You drop this in my lap in October while all my directors are fighting like dogs to deliver the game on time. My job is to secure the shipping date because it's up in the air right now, and delaying the launch would have major consequences on the company. WOMAN: This is IGN News, where split-screen functionality has been officially cut from Ubisoft's upcoming medieval brawler For Honor. MAN: And now, it has been confirmed by Ubisoft that the feature has been dropped from the game entirely. MAN 2: Anything that was co-op or split-screen is gone. Ouch! MAN: The team had spoken many times about the importance of split-screen as a feature and how it applies to their vision. WOMAN: In a 2015 interview with GameSpot, creative director Jason VandenBerghe said that, "The feature was absolutely key for us." Split-screen, super required, because this is a game about fighting with weapons. MAN: During an interview with IGN, - producer Stphane Cardin Said the change was made very recently. We decided this week to cut the split-screen. It was a feature that we loved, but for us it was critical to make the decision now, so we can polish all the features at a triple A level and make sure that we have the most amazing experience. [man 3 speaking German] MAN 4: Maybe somewhere down the road Ubisoft realized... MAN: For me, For Honor is one of my most anticipated games of next year. STPHANE: [in French] I want to take advantage - of this meeting Because people are tired and unhappy. I want to tell them we are aware of the situation, and I want to work with you today. I'm making it a point to improve our methods for planning the post-launch. We have to break the perception that only I can do it. WOMAN: Mm-hmm. [In English] I know with the live period, we suffered a lot. And, to me, the thing I'm asking you is to open your mind and work closely with us to make it happen. But I also need your help for organization. Please stop to be... stop to be negative, saying nothing will change. We will again make things change internally. And I will work my ass very hard to make sure we have a healthy environment and a healthy calendar for everyone. [applause] WOMAN: Yes, we are closing now. December sixth we send our bill to QC to get a Gold validation from them. If we don't get a green light, we are missing the date. STPHANE: [in French] Failing is always a possibility. Now we're getting close to what I call "the red zone." Early on in the project, you can always say, "Oh, we'll reflect on it later." Later doesn't exist anymore. JASON: I'm going through this weird, weird process of letting go, and so I'm sort of separating from the game, and there's a depression that comes after you stop, right, when you create something. At least for me. I get really like, ugh, sad. No game wants to be finished. You have to force it. My brothers! How is it going? How you doing, sir? JASON: Oh, dear! Look at what you... This is lovely. These are lovely. MAN: It's interesting that you have time for this today. Yes. It's like, "Wow. What's going on? Did something happen?" Listen. It's the stress relief. Did you fire yourself? I did! No, I'm done, dude. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. No. Yes, I am done. No. My role on the project is over. Yes. So you wander the halls forlornly, looking for... Yes, yes, yes. No, but you're still there. Yeah, I have an office, I'm sitting with the sound team, but I have no tasks. Like, I'm done. They no longer care about my opinion. [mysterious music plays] JASON: These barbarians, they seem like they're good people, huh? They embrace each other like they were all kin. But that is all a lie. When night falls, they stab each other with their knives. [music continuing] Writing Apollyon was maybe the closest to putting a lot of my own views into a character. [battle cry] Apollyon believes that the only way that you can know yourself is through life-and-death survival. You know, experience is being challenged and fighting for your life. She believes that that's the only way to self-knowledge. APOLLYON: Your emperor is dead. Will you take his place? SAMURAI: After I kill the rest of them, I'm coming to kill you. [Apollyon laughs] A wolf. Leave the palace to Seijuro. The others can fight for the scraps. JASON: Truth is, when you fight for something that you believe in, win or lose, you become immortal. You're remembered. Warriors are remembered because of the battles that they fight. And we all want immortality. We all want to be remembered. [soft electronic music plays] [in French] On a four-to-five-year project, the project is your backdrop, but it becomes your life, your whole way of life. You can be the best manager in the world. You can have the best methods, try to take on everyone's problems, try to manage project stuff, manage expectations, deliver everything you had to deliver. But at a certain point, you lose your bearings. Everyone has expectations. You have expectations in your personal life, expectations at work. You have people on your team who believe in what you sold them, and being able to go through all of that... In four and a half years, I gave it everything I had. Ambition is good, but do you have all the tools to manage this adrenaline, this pressure? [fire crackling] [in English] I really, really miss you all. Um, I just want to clarify something, because I just disappeared before Christmas. My command center just shut down. Just shut down. I woke up, and I was not able to just think. And I went and said, "Go and get help." So, I just want to share that with you, just telling you that, you know, it's part of life. I'm good to give advice. I'm really bad to follow my own advice. I don't recommend you to pass through the hell I passed through. I really love you, and I'm really, really happy to be back with you. [in French] Like a big bag of rocks. I just did it like that. It fell. The first thing they did was break the ego. They slammed it with a sledgehammer. Sometimes you're like, "I'm going to think about myself." You spend, what, 15-20 minutes on it? I spent 14 hours a day, 21 days closed off from everything. [in English] Mr. VandenBerghe! How are you, sir? A lot better. A lot better. I went far. I went far. But I'm back. Good. It was a good break. Yeah. So, I need to talk to you, if you've got time. STPHANE: Yeah. I will just look at the schedule. Maybe this afternoon. I just need a half an hour. JASON: I'm done with the project and kind of winding down, And what am I going to do next? I have these ideas for the sequel. Everyone's waiting for the game to come out, so that we can see if it was a success or not. And until that happens, it's going to be really hard for anybody to listen to me about what I think we should do next, right? [chattering] [in French] - How are you, buddy? Very good. I'm happy to see you again. Me, too. I'm happy to be here. That's what matters. YANNIS: [in English] For Honor is a very special project. It started from a sparkle that you guys saw in a totally blue ocean. And you're helping the studio and the whole company to shine and to thrive. Thank you very much. It's an honor. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] STPHANE: Five years already. We knew we were touching something special, and you guys delivered on every step. I want to thank you very much. I love you all. Thank you and enjoy the champagne. Yeah! [cheering] Open the gate! Congratulations! Good job. JASON: Yannis got up and talked, and Steph got up and talked, And I didn't talk. I wasn't invited. [chattering] So, cheers! You'll forgive me if I don't dance on my own grave. There's no grave. Yeah. Okay. Sure. I'm going to go talk to Steph. You're a very responsible guy. You can decide how you react. Sure. JASON: I am a hard man to understand, so people are left to interpret what I want and what I do through the lens of whatever they think I am. Congratulations, Steph! Congratulations, my friend! JASON: I love peace, but I'm not comfortable in it. I fight, and I live to create peace, but, once it's there, I don't know what to do. When Steph and I sat down, it was clear that we're... we're not going to continue, right? The last two years, he had to make a bunch of really unpleasant decisions. Did those decisions and my decisions end up in a place where we're going to separate? Yeah. We're going to separate. [dramatic] electronic music plays] There's a word that we have... That we don't talk much about anymore, which I've had to learn about on this project. Um, and that is "nobility." Nobility means that you do the thing that you don't want to do even though it hurts you beyond measure, because you know that it's what the people need you to do. And you suck it up, and you don't complain. And you just do it. STPHANE: [in French] It started off with a production team that was really looking for a project. We came across a Creative Director, Jason. We had the skeleton and the muscles, but we didn't have the soul. We were missing the heart. And Jason's dream, his passion, his energy, it fit with the team. LUC: Stphane? STPHANE: What hurts me the most today is that we actually do many things with people that we appreciate and that we love on a daily basis, but out of pride, ego, and competitiveness, people don't acknowledge it. Can we just respect and love each other from the outset? I mean, we're together. I give hugs! Congratulations! You all get hugs. Thank you very much. Aww! STPHANE: We're going to be left with relationships. That's what we will remember. STPHANE: [in English] Jason, kneel! [tense music plays] Congratulations, congratulations, enjoy it. STPHANE: [in French] It's often said that delivering a project like this is a bit like giving birth. Well, that involves pain. It wasn't always rosy. There were bumps in the road, and it affected some people. CONAN O'BRIEN: I'm chasing Tom Brady, who is not engaging me. STPHANE: It's part of the game. Wait! No, no! Get his ass. JASON: The parts of my personality that I am currently being told are the reason that I need to go are the same parts of my personality that made me the best choice and the reason that they gave me that team. I'm not a very good soldier, so I have to live with the consequences. JASON: [to Yannis] It's a really dark place - that I'm in right now. My baby is being taken away from me. Like all babies. Yeah. Well, it's not the way it's usually done. So I'm not going to be invited back. And the reasons for that are not okay with me. I'm happy to let it go out in the world. I'll find something else to do, right? But... it's one of the worst things that could happen in the middle of one of the best things that's possible. So, I'm not in a good space. I'm really not. The actual answer, though, to why does it keep - happening to me? I actually had to think about this. I know the answer now. Awesome. I will tell you a story. I will tell you a story. Hey! Hey! Hey! JASON: I can tell you the story of a warlord who found a people who were in trouble, had been defeated. And this warlord came in and inspired them and organized them and trained them and gave them weapons, and then formed an army and reclaimed the land. [rap music plays in venue] And now peace begins. And the farmers go back to their fields, and the traders and the merchants arrive in the city, and now everything is returning to normal. And so a day comes when the council, the priests, and the merchants all come to the warlord and say, "You need to go." It's the curse of the warlord. Right? The game is amazing. It's... beautiful. It's an incredible achievement. And I will never work on it again. Imagine that you have a child, and imagine that that child grows and goes to college. And imagine that when they leave for college, they sit down with you, and they have a private conversation, and they tell you that they never want to see you again. "I'm sorry, Dad, but you're just too intense. I'm going to go and do my own life, but please don't contact me again." [sigh] I'm trying to just be okay with it. I'm trying to just not freak out. Because, uh... I don't have another choice that I can make. I'm going to go to do the live stream today. And there's nobody there who under... who... Who's aware of it. Here we are. JASON: So everyone else is here celebrating For Honor and is ready to launch the game. Hey! This is a little over-the-top with the crown and the sword. This is going too far. It's too far for you? Well, it's not too far for me. This is right up my alley. JASON: It's like being an actor. I have to find in myself the part of me that is genuinely excited about that moment, right? It's not pretending. I don't need to pretend. Hi! WOMAN: Do you want to keep this little 5 o'clock shadowy stuff going? You don't want to trim it down? It's part of the look. That's why I'm asking. JASON: This is just what I am. Melodramatic. It's just the deal. Love it. WOMAN: In the meantime, let's head back to Chris who's sitting down with Jason. Jason, welcome to the large couch. JASON: This is my religion. It's the theater of the mind. Entertainment, games, movies, books, all of this stuff. It's the theater of the mind. [electronic music plays] [indistinct conversations] I'm coming for you! Shit! JASON: It's the lens through which we understand how the world works without having to literally go to war ourselves, right? [cheering and laughing] It's a way for people to be warned and to learn about what the world contains to better prepare themselves for what's happening in their real life. [chattering] We reject philosophy as a study in our culture these days, right? Philosophy has been sort of pushed to the side. But we revere our entertainment forms, right? Well, it's the same. Entertainment is philosophy in motion. Huzzah! [cheers and applause] MAN: Bye-bye. Jason VandenBerghe. LUC: Raining, day's ending, we're walking in the distance. [singing] My friend The end is near And so we face The final curtain Regrets, I've had a few But then again... JASON: The time is coming to lift the curtain, turn on the lights, and let the creation speak for itself, right? Let it stand there and be judged. And I won't be there. I'll be in the audience. [upbeat electronic music plays] STPHANE: [in French] We wanted to release the perfect game for Valentine's Day, a game for love. We wanted something more immersive, something less mental and much more from the heart. [in French] We really wanted for players to be able to experience what you experience in Braveheart or in 300. STPHANE: This year, the 14th of February is not time for making love, it'll be time for making war. So, get ready for the big release of For Honor. [electronic music continuing] LUC: Did he buy For Honor? Thank you. Hi! My name is Luc, I work with the development team. Show me the game, so we can see it in the photo. [shutter clicks] Thank you. Thanks very much. The game is released! Ahh! We're at over 700,000 right now. We're not giving any numbers. Did you play the Conan video this morning? Yes. Cool. Luc and Stphane, thank you very much for having me. Do you already have preliminary numbers as far as downloads? We've got some, but we can't give them away. It's going well. It's going very well. We're happy. Let's just say today there was an enthusiasm... Where'd you get that? I laid down in a pile of game cases. That's a good one. Yeah, you like it? Yeah. Put it on Facebook. Fuck, it's blowing up like crazy. Do you have any copies of For Honor left? WOMAN: Yeah. Did you sell some today? Yeah, quite a lot. STPHANE: What's that? It says "collector's edition" on the box. MAN: There's not enough for everyone. Oh, no. It's cool! [laughing] LUC: [in English] February 14, 2017, here we are! For Honor is in the box! And it's gonna be a million! [atmospheric electronic music plays] [in French] In the game, you have the option - to take out the blood. We're going to put it as a default setting. Oh, yeah? We're able to do that? Maybe this version would work for China, and it wouldn't be too expensive. You'll talk about it with Pascal when I'm out. LUC: I've got to stop here. I'm leaving the seventh, I arrive in the evening. And, starting the eighth, I'm doing Disney. MAN: You're at the hotel in Disney mode. LUC: Yeah. I'm in Mickey Mouse mode. [man laughs] I'm bringing my little girl and my goddaughter to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. It's a princess makeover. So they're going to get styled, dresses... I feel like I've been an absent brother, son, uncle, husband, and father. I'm going to reconnect with my gang. [in French] Hey, I bet this is a ghost. No! Behind all the characters there will be a fruit, or a vegetable, or a candy. You have to make him eat some food. Hey, you want to eat some food? This is Roserade, this is Pikachu. STPHANE: That's him, Pikachu! But it's not the same, because I redid it. Did it hurt when you got your tattoo? Look, you can still see the marks. I'm telling you when it got to here, it really, really hurt, and it lasted four hours. GIRL: What's a phoenix? STPHANE: A phoenix is an animal that is reborn from its ashes. Sometimes, we want to change in life, and sometimes we are faced with tests, and there is always a way to reinvent yourself. I want to take the time to understand what happened. Do I have the energy? What do I have in the tank and for how many projects? That's my main question, and I don't have the answer today. It hasn't really stopped since the game has been released. I'm still trying to take a step back and make sure I don't fall into fatigue or a downward spiral from being tired. My life was never in danger on the project. You put a certain stress on yourself, you experience certain emotions as if you were on the front lines at war. As my nine-year-old daughter told me, "You know, Daddy, good days always come to an end, but so do the bad ones." I want to make sure I never forget that. [discordant electronic music playing] JASON: Anything that was going to happen in that project was going to happen. I have accepted that I am not doing this anymore. That was a big step. Accepting that I won't work on the sequel, I won't do another, I won't continue with this team. It's the greatest performance I've ever given. That's the best I can do. [somber electronic music plays] It's the only time I've ever released a game, and then been able to play it on day one and not hate it. This is the game I wanted to play when I was a kid. It wasn't a lie. I wasn't kidding about the dream. It wasn't just a story I made up. I really wanted to play this game, and now I can. And I can play it with millions of people. This tale will be told in this way. The warlord packs up their weapons, puts them in a wagon, gets on their horse, and leaves. It's a story about peace. For Honor is a story about peace and how warriors create it. |
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